This is a copy of a forum post I made. It describes last nights ride nicely
Second bridleless ride last night. This time with my wife, Ritchie, watching. I did not set out to ride bridleless, in fact I had been practising riding with spurs again. But after a while I felt she was ready so took my spurs off, I'm not brave enough to ride with spurs bridleless yet, and after a couple of reasonable follow the rails I again felt the urge to take the halter off.
Basically a repeat of the last ride. Some follow the rail, some clover leaf and a few circles with a single carrot stick to help.
Transitions were much better this time, just relaxation in my seat having the desired effect. We did have a few druthers towards the gate but rather than really fight them I just maintained zero brace, allowed her to turn towards the gate but then kept the circle going back to where I wanted to be... on the rail.
What was really interesting was the observations form Ritchie. She noticed how much more relaxed Filly was with the halter off. She really let her head drop down and blew out. She never drops her head when ridden with a halter, even if the reins have not been touched.
This ties in with past observations as to how worried she is by anything on her head. During her colt start at James he took the Parelli hackemore off for her second ride and replced it with a simple halter and clip on rope reins. He said then that anything on her head inhibits her forwards thinking even the knot that ties the meccate reins to the halter. When we got her back from James we had all that trouble with head tossing at trot which was extreme. This was overcome by avoiding touching the reins and give her lots of reassurance.
The cause of all this is not hard to work out. Before I owned her, but whilst I was allowed to play with her the woman who ran the yard insisted that she was turned out in a chiffney. Snag was that the yard staff were not well trained in its' use and more than once I heard of one of them yanking on it. Even when not using a chiffney she was kept on a tight lead rope and her head yanked around if she did not walk properly for them. Of course this just lead to more extreme behaviour on her part and more swearing and yanking. I can hardly blame her for being worried about anything on her head.
She was then backed, in the race horse meaning of the term, with a bit in her mouth. Shame they did not remove the two wolf teeth and five baby teeth that needed to come out first but that would have cost money and why spend money until you know if she can run ? It must have hurt to be ridden in a bit like this.
We have come a long way since then of course but obviously have some way to go to get relaxation whilst being ridden with anything on her head. It's been a year of proper riding so far to get as far as we have and I wonder how to get her feeling relaxed with something on her head. Just time and patience maybe ? But in the meantime I feel bad that she is uncomfortable when I ride her. Bridleless riding is not the whole answer as she has to be ridden with a bridle of some sort most of the time.
Does anyone have experience with this sort of problem and have any good suggestions as to how to make her happy ? Or maybe just encouragement that time will heal the problem if I ride carefully and considerately in the halter.
I find that I am less and less motivated to achieve any goal other than a true partnership with Filly, in the bridle horse tradition, based on respect and above all mutual fun. This issue is currently the one really holding me back
Short video of ride
Second bridleless ride last night. This time with my wife, Ritchie, watching. I did not set out to ride bridleless, in fact I had been practising riding with spurs again. But after a while I felt she was ready so took my spurs off, I'm not brave enough to ride with spurs bridleless yet, and after a couple of reasonable follow the rails I again felt the urge to take the halter off.
Basically a repeat of the last ride. Some follow the rail, some clover leaf and a few circles with a single carrot stick to help.
Transitions were much better this time, just relaxation in my seat having the desired effect. We did have a few druthers towards the gate but rather than really fight them I just maintained zero brace, allowed her to turn towards the gate but then kept the circle going back to where I wanted to be... on the rail.
What was really interesting was the observations form Ritchie. She noticed how much more relaxed Filly was with the halter off. She really let her head drop down and blew out. She never drops her head when ridden with a halter, even if the reins have not been touched.
This ties in with past observations as to how worried she is by anything on her head. During her colt start at James he took the Parelli hackemore off for her second ride and replced it with a simple halter and clip on rope reins. He said then that anything on her head inhibits her forwards thinking even the knot that ties the meccate reins to the halter. When we got her back from James we had all that trouble with head tossing at trot which was extreme. This was overcome by avoiding touching the reins and give her lots of reassurance.
The cause of all this is not hard to work out. Before I owned her, but whilst I was allowed to play with her the woman who ran the yard insisted that she was turned out in a chiffney. Snag was that the yard staff were not well trained in its' use and more than once I heard of one of them yanking on it. Even when not using a chiffney she was kept on a tight lead rope and her head yanked around if she did not walk properly for them. Of course this just lead to more extreme behaviour on her part and more swearing and yanking. I can hardly blame her for being worried about anything on her head.
She was then backed, in the race horse meaning of the term, with a bit in her mouth. Shame they did not remove the two wolf teeth and five baby teeth that needed to come out first but that would have cost money and why spend money until you know if she can run ? It must have hurt to be ridden in a bit like this.
We have come a long way since then of course but obviously have some way to go to get relaxation whilst being ridden with anything on her head. It's been a year of proper riding so far to get as far as we have and I wonder how to get her feeling relaxed with something on her head. Just time and patience maybe ? But in the meantime I feel bad that she is uncomfortable when I ride her. Bridleless riding is not the whole answer as she has to be ridden with a bridle of some sort most of the time.
Does anyone have experience with this sort of problem and have any good suggestions as to how to make her happy ? Or maybe just encouragement that time will heal the problem if I ride carefully and considerately in the halter.
I find that I am less and less motivated to achieve any goal other than a true partnership with Filly, in the bridle horse tradition, based on respect and above all mutual fun. This issue is currently the one really holding me back
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