After all the walking it was time to hack Filly out properly. My wife Ritchie came with me with her horse Bonitao online.
I did all the normal "prepare to ride" in the outdoor school. "Zone 3 driving" to get her confidence being out in front and establish good transitions, "falling leaf" pattern to establish hind quarter yields and follow a feel and, of course, "rope around".
A quick ride in the school to check all the above whilst ridden and we were ready to go.
Filly has never liked the first few steps of the yard, which was a good thing today. It allowed my to establish my leadership and practise the strong focus I would need on the ride.
The walk up through the village was "challenging". As luck would have it we met with a lawn mower that started as we rode past, immediately followed by a mini-digger putting in a new driveway. You get the picture. Compared to that crossing the main road and walking along it for a while was easy.
Once over the road it was up a long lane to the woods for our usual route we had done online. In general it went very well. I kept her mind busy by doing leg yields across the road and the occasional sideways. She crossed the railway level crossing with hardly a glance. We had one interesting moment in the woods where she backed up with more impulsion than I have ever seen her use before for around 20 yards. A strong focus and gently asking for forwards and order was restored.
She felt a little lame going down hill, but I have learned that some of that is emotional stress, not physical. However when it came to going down some steps, and as she had been relaxed for a while I decided to get off and walk home with her. Partly to reward the relaxed behaviour and partly as I was worried about her carrying me down steps.
Not one to miss an opportunity we played YoYo down the steps. Basically this meant that she had to stop on each step and not just run down them.
I learnt how much training can be fitted in on "simple" hack and had really good fun to boot.
As for Ritchie and Bonitao. Filly made it very plain that she wanted to be in front so they had to keep up with a thoroughbred race horse on a mission. Even at walk she is quite fast. It will be interesting to see if our LBI/RBI Bonitao is as keen to go out on our next excursion :twisted:
I did all the normal "prepare to ride" in the outdoor school. "Zone 3 driving" to get her confidence being out in front and establish good transitions, "falling leaf" pattern to establish hind quarter yields and follow a feel and, of course, "rope around".
A quick ride in the school to check all the above whilst ridden and we were ready to go.
Filly has never liked the first few steps of the yard, which was a good thing today. It allowed my to establish my leadership and practise the strong focus I would need on the ride.
The walk up through the village was "challenging". As luck would have it we met with a lawn mower that started as we rode past, immediately followed by a mini-digger putting in a new driveway. You get the picture. Compared to that crossing the main road and walking along it for a while was easy.
Once over the road it was up a long lane to the woods for our usual route we had done online. In general it went very well. I kept her mind busy by doing leg yields across the road and the occasional sideways. She crossed the railway level crossing with hardly a glance. We had one interesting moment in the woods where she backed up with more impulsion than I have ever seen her use before for around 20 yards. A strong focus and gently asking for forwards and order was restored.
She felt a little lame going down hill, but I have learned that some of that is emotional stress, not physical. However when it came to going down some steps, and as she had been relaxed for a while I decided to get off and walk home with her. Partly to reward the relaxed behaviour and partly as I was worried about her carrying me down steps.
Not one to miss an opportunity we played YoYo down the steps. Basically this meant that she had to stop on each step and not just run down them.
I learnt how much training can be fitted in on "simple" hack and had really good fun to boot.
As for Ritchie and Bonitao. Filly made it very plain that she wanted to be in front so they had to keep up with a thoroughbred race horse on a mission. Even at walk she is quite fast. It will be interesting to see if our LBI/RBI Bonitao is as keen to go out on our next excursion :twisted:
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