A long day for Filly today which will have really tested her mentally. She came through it well.
Sean came to give us a lesson. We started with the usual prepare to ride, but as I had noted yesterday that she was not so willing to go in a circle on the right rein we put emphasis on getting her more flexed on the right circle prior to riding. This was done by putting her on a right circle online and then just asking with a stick and flag for her to sidepass just a step or two out on the circle, then back to the circle again. This sidepass just gets her to flex her body so that she is straight on the circle. Over time this should help her with all her right rein work, be it walk, trot, canter and even lead changes. As Pat says "the better they go backwards and sideways the better they will do everything else".
Then to get her forwards better we worked on snappy halt to walk, trot or canter transitions online. This involved asking her gently to get going, but if after a few seconds she had not headed out with energy I ran towards her hind end and slapped the ground hard three times with the string. All three times on the same spot, not chasing her. After just a few attempts she was flying into her transitions without the high energy running from me.
Once riding we worked a bit on forwards at walk, which after the preparation was pretty good. We then spent a fair amount of time on indirect rein. This is where we ask the hind leg to cross under the body, but the front legs to stay still.
The usual progression of eyes, belly button, legs, rein were followed. If she still was not crossing under after all this, then gentle rhythmic tapping with a stick just behind my boot until we got a nice step. This involved several tight circles to begin with until we got that soft step we were after. Sean even helped to start with by applying pressure with a stick behind my boot heel.
From there we moved onto direct rein (yielding the fore quarters). For this we want the front legs to cross over, but the hind legs to stay still. This was initially approached in a similar way but we moved onto a different pattern after a while.
The new pattern was to get her to back up really well next to the rail, then ask for a 180 degree turn along the rail turning towards the center of the school and stop. The backup was to keep her weight over the hind legs so that the front legs were light and could step over. The stop was to isolate the front legs so that the direct rein would be more strongly associated with them.
Sean helped this by using my 5m pole with a flag on the end. With this he could add a little driving pressure in front of her to really engage the backup. Once this was softened then the eyes, belly button, leg, rein sequence was followed to ask for the direct rein. Sean "helped" with the pole and flag to drive the front end around.
Filly really didn't like the flag ! It improved my seat and balance no end. She was not frightened of it, in fact she tried to attack it once. But it did do the trick. After around 10 or 15 minutes of this we got some really nice backups and direct reins. Could it have been done without the flag ? Probably, but it would have taken way longer and would actually been more stressful for her as I would have needed to be more vigorous with the legs and reins for a longer time.
As soon as we stopped she relaxed totally with lots of yawning as she came off adrenalin and much licking and chewing as you digested what had just happened. Being in a western saddle I felt pretty secure throughout, and english saddle might have been a different story.
I like to allow better horsemen than me to ride Filly when possible. Not so that they can teach her better than I can, but so that they can get a feel for her, how she has improved and what I need to concentrate on in the near future. Therefore I got Sean to ride her for ten minutes or so. The feedback was pretty positive. He said that she felt like a different horse compared to last time. The main points to work on were those that lesson had concentrated on anyway. Getting her softer to the direct and indirect rein. Also to work more on her sideways.
Another very good lesson, which was fun for me, provocative and, from her expression, fun for Filly.
Sean came to give us a lesson. We started with the usual prepare to ride, but as I had noted yesterday that she was not so willing to go in a circle on the right rein we put emphasis on getting her more flexed on the right circle prior to riding. This was done by putting her on a right circle online and then just asking with a stick and flag for her to sidepass just a step or two out on the circle, then back to the circle again. This sidepass just gets her to flex her body so that she is straight on the circle. Over time this should help her with all her right rein work, be it walk, trot, canter and even lead changes. As Pat says "the better they go backwards and sideways the better they will do everything else".
Then to get her forwards better we worked on snappy halt to walk, trot or canter transitions online. This involved asking her gently to get going, but if after a few seconds she had not headed out with energy I ran towards her hind end and slapped the ground hard three times with the string. All three times on the same spot, not chasing her. After just a few attempts she was flying into her transitions without the high energy running from me.
Once riding we worked a bit on forwards at walk, which after the preparation was pretty good. We then spent a fair amount of time on indirect rein. This is where we ask the hind leg to cross under the body, but the front legs to stay still.
The usual progression of eyes, belly button, legs, rein were followed. If she still was not crossing under after all this, then gentle rhythmic tapping with a stick just behind my boot until we got a nice step. This involved several tight circles to begin with until we got that soft step we were after. Sean even helped to start with by applying pressure with a stick behind my boot heel.
From there we moved onto direct rein (yielding the fore quarters). For this we want the front legs to cross over, but the hind legs to stay still. This was initially approached in a similar way but we moved onto a different pattern after a while.
The new pattern was to get her to back up really well next to the rail, then ask for a 180 degree turn along the rail turning towards the center of the school and stop. The backup was to keep her weight over the hind legs so that the front legs were light and could step over. The stop was to isolate the front legs so that the direct rein would be more strongly associated with them.
Sean helped this by using my 5m pole with a flag on the end. With this he could add a little driving pressure in front of her to really engage the backup. Once this was softened then the eyes, belly button, leg, rein sequence was followed to ask for the direct rein. Sean "helped" with the pole and flag to drive the front end around.
Filly really didn't like the flag ! It improved my seat and balance no end. She was not frightened of it, in fact she tried to attack it once. But it did do the trick. After around 10 or 15 minutes of this we got some really nice backups and direct reins. Could it have been done without the flag ? Probably, but it would have taken way longer and would actually been more stressful for her as I would have needed to be more vigorous with the legs and reins for a longer time.
As soon as we stopped she relaxed totally with lots of yawning as she came off adrenalin and much licking and chewing as you digested what had just happened. Being in a western saddle I felt pretty secure throughout, and english saddle might have been a different story.
I like to allow better horsemen than me to ride Filly when possible. Not so that they can teach her better than I can, but so that they can get a feel for her, how she has improved and what I need to concentrate on in the near future. Therefore I got Sean to ride her for ten minutes or so. The feedback was pretty positive. He said that she felt like a different horse compared to last time. The main points to work on were those that lesson had concentrated on anyway. Getting her softer to the direct and indirect rein. Also to work more on her sideways.
Another very good lesson, which was fun for me, provocative and, from her expression, fun for Filly.
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