This is a copy of a forum post I made today about Chiggy
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There is a new horse at the yard. An appendix quarter horse. 9 years old and very friendly. Real name Chicago but known to his friends as Chiggy. The owner bought him a few years ago and has been riding him in english style but when she what Ritchie and I do with our horses expressed an interest in learning more.
Over the last month or so we have had many chats about the style and this culminated in a little lesson/demonstration with her and Chiggy a few nights ago.
It took 2 hours which set me wondering why traditional lessons last 45 minutes and NH ones 2 hours. It was obvious when I thought about it. NH works at the pace of the horse whereas traditional works at the pace of a busy human. NH allows much more dwell time than traditional and if it going to be a ridden lesson there is prepare to ride to be completed first. It saddens me how many folks drag the horse out of the stable, throw a saddle on and mount up. Suddenly 50kg to 100kg of weight is taken by muscles and tendons that have been given no chance to get circulation in them. You wouldn't ask a human athlete to do this and to do it to a horse in my mind it downright cruel.
We covered the first 6 games in that session but with emphasis on how the games relate to ridden work. I feel that this is important when introducing a newcomer to the style. I've heard on forums so many ask what the 7 games are about and not get a good answer. I wrote a post on another forum about the 7 games which got positive response, maybe I should put it on here. It would be great to develop a definitive article on them between us all and put it in the sticky section to point newcomers at. I digress !
After that first session the owner was delighted with the way Chiggy stood close to her without invading her space. He had been in the habit of rubbing his head on her and had caught her face with his on a few occasions. I wasn't even aware this was an issue until after the session. This just shows the power of NH to cure all sorts of problems as a side product of the usual training. I also started to suspect that Chiggy knew most of this stuff already. Either that or I have turned into Pat overnight ;) I had never made such rapid progress with a horse before. I mentioned how smart he was to the owner who said "really, everyone at the last yard said what a stupid dim horse he was". Not a bit of it.
The owner has now gone on holiday for two weeks and said I can play with him in the meantime. What a privilege.
First session was last night. We rapidly went through the what I had done in the first session. I now felt I was playing with a level 2 horse and expected and got that sort of attitude and response. We tried him over the tarp and after a 2 second sniff he walked calmly over it. We had a little battle over hind quarter disengagement using the driving game, but as it would have been a few years since he was last asked to do this I think he thought the hind quarters were his property again. Once they were in place we worked on "follow a feel" using the indirect to direct rein falling leaf pattern. A few tantrums but after 10 minutes he was doing the quietly and calmly at walk with both hind legs and front legs crossing over well.
We then tried "place the feet". Very very few horses I have tried this with have been this good ! The feet were soft and compliant in my hand and stayed nicely on the toe for a few seconds after I let go before being gently replaced where he wanted them. I know the owner had done a little work on this but she said it hadn't been a problem from the outset. I was by now so suspicious that this horse had been trained in NH before that I rang Josh to ask him if they had ever trained Chiggy. He has all the hallmarks of a product of JRFS. Still awaiting his reply.
This is not a stupid horse. This could be a superstar horse given a little time. Unfortunately I am too heavy to ride him I think. But given the chance for a quick ride I would jump at it.
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There is a new horse at the yard. An appendix quarter horse. 9 years old and very friendly. Real name Chicago but known to his friends as Chiggy. The owner bought him a few years ago and has been riding him in english style but when she what Ritchie and I do with our horses expressed an interest in learning more.
Over the last month or so we have had many chats about the style and this culminated in a little lesson/demonstration with her and Chiggy a few nights ago.
It took 2 hours which set me wondering why traditional lessons last 45 minutes and NH ones 2 hours. It was obvious when I thought about it. NH works at the pace of the horse whereas traditional works at the pace of a busy human. NH allows much more dwell time than traditional and if it going to be a ridden lesson there is prepare to ride to be completed first. It saddens me how many folks drag the horse out of the stable, throw a saddle on and mount up. Suddenly 50kg to 100kg of weight is taken by muscles and tendons that have been given no chance to get circulation in them. You wouldn't ask a human athlete to do this and to do it to a horse in my mind it downright cruel.
We covered the first 6 games in that session but with emphasis on how the games relate to ridden work. I feel that this is important when introducing a newcomer to the style. I've heard on forums so many ask what the 7 games are about and not get a good answer. I wrote a post on another forum about the 7 games which got positive response, maybe I should put it on here. It would be great to develop a definitive article on them between us all and put it in the sticky section to point newcomers at. I digress !
After that first session the owner was delighted with the way Chiggy stood close to her without invading her space. He had been in the habit of rubbing his head on her and had caught her face with his on a few occasions. I wasn't even aware this was an issue until after the session. This just shows the power of NH to cure all sorts of problems as a side product of the usual training. I also started to suspect that Chiggy knew most of this stuff already. Either that or I have turned into Pat overnight ;) I had never made such rapid progress with a horse before. I mentioned how smart he was to the owner who said "really, everyone at the last yard said what a stupid dim horse he was". Not a bit of it.
The owner has now gone on holiday for two weeks and said I can play with him in the meantime. What a privilege.
First session was last night. We rapidly went through the what I had done in the first session. I now felt I was playing with a level 2 horse and expected and got that sort of attitude and response. We tried him over the tarp and after a 2 second sniff he walked calmly over it. We had a little battle over hind quarter disengagement using the driving game, but as it would have been a few years since he was last asked to do this I think he thought the hind quarters were his property again. Once they were in place we worked on "follow a feel" using the indirect to direct rein falling leaf pattern. A few tantrums but after 10 minutes he was doing the quietly and calmly at walk with both hind legs and front legs crossing over well.
We then tried "place the feet". Very very few horses I have tried this with have been this good ! The feet were soft and compliant in my hand and stayed nicely on the toe for a few seconds after I let go before being gently replaced where he wanted them. I know the owner had done a little work on this but she said it hadn't been a problem from the outset. I was by now so suspicious that this horse had been trained in NH before that I rang Josh to ask him if they had ever trained Chiggy. He has all the hallmarks of a product of JRFS. Still awaiting his reply.
This is not a stupid horse. This could be a superstar horse given a little time. Unfortunately I am too heavy to ride him I think. But given the chance for a quick ride I would jump at it.
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