As my last post indicated I have needed to go to phase 4 for a session or two to get Filly to listen to me. Phase 4 has been either a tap with the stick on her shoulder as I asked for the shoulder to move over, or more usually swinging the end of the mecate rope so that it tap her shoulder.
It occurred to me riding with two reins and trying to swing the rope at the same time was clumsy. When riding in a bosal you cannot just drop the reins if you intend to trot. The bosal will then bounce on their nose and cause them to stick their nose in the air to carry the bosal themselves and stop it bouncing. I do not want to encourage Filly to trot around with her nose in the air as it is exactly the opposite of what I need to get good collection in the future. So with that in mind I switched from riding in the bosal to riding in the rope halter with just the lead rope attached as a single rope, not as reins.
With this arrangement I can now use one hand to ask for the direct rein ( phase 3 of move your shoulder over) and the other hand to swing the rope (phase 4).
This idea of using equipment that is appropriate for the lesson we are working on is important to me. Unlike others I tend to remove tack off the horse if I find a problem rather than add stronger tack. By getting back to the purity of not having really strong equipment I feel that I can build greater lightness into the horse. Putting stronger tack on will just make the horse even heavier and may well mean I cannot go back to light tack once the lesson is learnt.
I also like to use the same "tack" as I do on ground work. Filly knows to move away from a swinging rope as that is how we do much of the online and even liberty work. I think of throwing energy out of the end of the rope as I swing it towards whichever bit of her I need to move away. So my using this when in the saddle is totally natural for her and she doesn't get upset or offended by it.
So the sequence is as before.
All of this timed with her feet of course ;) . Quite a difficult coordination task for me and if I was better at it then I'm sure we would have a nice light forehand turn by now.
However we have made progress. We are now getting some pretty nice turns. I've found that if I time the pressure of my seat with her movement it comes even better, but I'm not good at this yet. I still have to use phase 4 occasionally to remind her that I really do mean it and she really does have to step over. But a light phase 4 is usually enough to get the responsiveness back.
The one problem we do have is that having asked her to circle to the right she gets stuck on this pattern and it takes some time and often a higher phase to get her to turn left. I'm sure she thinks she is being a good girl by continuing in the direction I have set her in. Her "maintain direction" part of her responsibilities is almost too good ! So when asking for a change to the other circle I make sure that I have a lot of school ahead of me so that I can apply phase 1 for a loooong time before going to a higher phase. I also use an inside leg briefly to get her to bend onto the new circle then ask with the outside leg to maintain it.
Like I said we have a long way to go but I think we have started along the right road now and I look forward to her outside leg isolations being as light as her inside leg ones.
It occurred to me riding with two reins and trying to swing the rope at the same time was clumsy. When riding in a bosal you cannot just drop the reins if you intend to trot. The bosal will then bounce on their nose and cause them to stick their nose in the air to carry the bosal themselves and stop it bouncing. I do not want to encourage Filly to trot around with her nose in the air as it is exactly the opposite of what I need to get good collection in the future. So with that in mind I switched from riding in the bosal to riding in the rope halter with just the lead rope attached as a single rope, not as reins.
With this arrangement I can now use one hand to ask for the direct rein ( phase 3 of move your shoulder over) and the other hand to swing the rope (phase 4).
This idea of using equipment that is appropriate for the lesson we are working on is important to me. Unlike others I tend to remove tack off the horse if I find a problem rather than add stronger tack. By getting back to the purity of not having really strong equipment I feel that I can build greater lightness into the horse. Putting stronger tack on will just make the horse even heavier and may well mean I cannot go back to light tack once the lesson is learnt.
I also like to use the same "tack" as I do on ground work. Filly knows to move away from a swinging rope as that is how we do much of the online and even liberty work. I think of throwing energy out of the end of the rope as I swing it towards whichever bit of her I need to move away. So my using this when in the saddle is totally natural for her and she doesn't get upset or offended by it.
So the sequence is as before.
- Phase one : eyes and belly button in the direction I want the shoulder to move
- Phase two : leg and phase 2 1/2 heel
- Phase three : direct rein
- Phase four : swing the end of the lead rope at her shoulder.
All of this timed with her feet of course ;) . Quite a difficult coordination task for me and if I was better at it then I'm sure we would have a nice light forehand turn by now.
However we have made progress. We are now getting some pretty nice turns. I've found that if I time the pressure of my seat with her movement it comes even better, but I'm not good at this yet. I still have to use phase 4 occasionally to remind her that I really do mean it and she really does have to step over. But a light phase 4 is usually enough to get the responsiveness back.
The one problem we do have is that having asked her to circle to the right she gets stuck on this pattern and it takes some time and often a higher phase to get her to turn left. I'm sure she thinks she is being a good girl by continuing in the direction I have set her in. Her "maintain direction" part of her responsibilities is almost too good ! So when asking for a change to the other circle I make sure that I have a lot of school ahead of me so that I can apply phase 1 for a loooong time before going to a higher phase. I also use an inside leg briefly to get her to bend onto the new circle then ask with the outside leg to maintain it.
Like I said we have a long way to go but I think we have started along the right road now and I look forward to her outside leg isolations being as light as her inside leg ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment