Since my last post we have been making good progress. Sean came over to give us a lesson fresh from working in Pat Parellis' barn in Colorado. Filly has been out hacking again, and we inadvertently did our first jump !
First Seans lesson
This was on a cool morning, and Filly was a little upset that she had not been turned out. She got really upset when she saw her field mate passing the menage on the way to the field. Left brain extrovert Sean said, and at this time he was right. She was extroverted in the extreme, bouncing around on the end of my 12 foot line. I did not even have a chance to pick up a carrot stick so just used the end of the rope instead. "Good technique" Sean said, "but get her mind more engaged with obstacles".
Once she was settled the normal prepare to ride ensued which went very well, so with my nerves back under firm control I mounted up.
The major issue was still the head tossing when trotting, which today was extreme. To the point she could not even look where she was going and kept running into things, like cones, the fence !!
Sean suggested that I help her throw her head around, not fight it. Make a game of it and then play it more than she wanted to. So there I was trotting around with my arms flailing all over the place as I encouraged her in the head tossing. God knows what the other folks on the yard thought. Probably nothing as they have long ago dismissed us as a bit strange.
After a time this started to work and the head tossing lessened. The trick now was to time exactly when she stopped head tossing and relaxed and then reward her with a long rest. Getting the timing right was exacting work, but kept me really focussed on my riding.
By the end we had settled on a combination of tactics to overcome this issue. The join in tactic, the ignore it tactic and the extreme random turns tactic to get her to think to her feet. This was my homework for the next few rides.
Sean also rode her for a while, working on the head problem and also getting her softer in the halter. At the end he reckoned that Filly is among the top 3 most challenging horses he has ever had to deal with, which given his experience is saying something. He also said he though Filly and I were well suited. Not sure how to take that !
Yesterday we had a lovely ride in the ménage. Much quieter than when Sean was there. I set up more obstacles and a small trotting pole to keep Filly thinking about her feet and not her head. This worked well, except the first time over this low pole, about 6 inches high, she jumped which was a surprise as she had trotted happily over it online in prepare to ride. I also added in a little clicker training. So when she was trotting calmly I just cluck with my tongue to reward the good behaviour and she immediately stops and gets a treat. This is going to surprise any normal rider who would probably expect clucking to mean go on. Oh well !
Today was one of the best rides to date. Long periods of trotting with no head tossing at all. Lots of really responsive inside leg isolations once I had got her forwards at trot. And then a short hack out along the local roads. It was very very foggy and about -1c. But with Bonitao for company she kept her worries under control and we had a fairly uneventful hack. She was worried when a man with a walking stick loomed out of the mist, but that was soon cured by getting him to feed her some treats. Then she seemed upset when he left ! One thing about Filly is she learns very fast. Once something is proved not to be dangerous she either ignores it or tries to eat it. Just what you want in a hacking horse really.
First Seans lesson
This was on a cool morning, and Filly was a little upset that she had not been turned out. She got really upset when she saw her field mate passing the menage on the way to the field. Left brain extrovert Sean said, and at this time he was right. She was extroverted in the extreme, bouncing around on the end of my 12 foot line. I did not even have a chance to pick up a carrot stick so just used the end of the rope instead. "Good technique" Sean said, "but get her mind more engaged with obstacles".
Once she was settled the normal prepare to ride ensued which went very well, so with my nerves back under firm control I mounted up.
The major issue was still the head tossing when trotting, which today was extreme. To the point she could not even look where she was going and kept running into things, like cones, the fence !!
Sean suggested that I help her throw her head around, not fight it. Make a game of it and then play it more than she wanted to. So there I was trotting around with my arms flailing all over the place as I encouraged her in the head tossing. God knows what the other folks on the yard thought. Probably nothing as they have long ago dismissed us as a bit strange.
After a time this started to work and the head tossing lessened. The trick now was to time exactly when she stopped head tossing and relaxed and then reward her with a long rest. Getting the timing right was exacting work, but kept me really focussed on my riding.
By the end we had settled on a combination of tactics to overcome this issue. The join in tactic, the ignore it tactic and the extreme random turns tactic to get her to think to her feet. This was my homework for the next few rides.
Sean also rode her for a while, working on the head problem and also getting her softer in the halter. At the end he reckoned that Filly is among the top 3 most challenging horses he has ever had to deal with, which given his experience is saying something. He also said he though Filly and I were well suited. Not sure how to take that !
Yesterday we had a lovely ride in the ménage. Much quieter than when Sean was there. I set up more obstacles and a small trotting pole to keep Filly thinking about her feet and not her head. This worked well, except the first time over this low pole, about 6 inches high, she jumped which was a surprise as she had trotted happily over it online in prepare to ride. I also added in a little clicker training. So when she was trotting calmly I just cluck with my tongue to reward the good behaviour and she immediately stops and gets a treat. This is going to surprise any normal rider who would probably expect clucking to mean go on. Oh well !
Today was one of the best rides to date. Long periods of trotting with no head tossing at all. Lots of really responsive inside leg isolations once I had got her forwards at trot. And then a short hack out along the local roads. It was very very foggy and about -1c. But with Bonitao for company she kept her worries under control and we had a fairly uneventful hack. She was worried when a man with a walking stick loomed out of the mist, but that was soon cured by getting him to feed her some treats. Then she seemed upset when he left ! One thing about Filly is she learns very fast. Once something is proved not to be dangerous she either ignores it or tries to eat it. Just what you want in a hacking horse really.
1 comment:
thats very interesting 'helping them to head toss'. just to remember all theses good tips and use them appropriatly.
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