Second week back
(Really I’m on week four now, so this will be a quick catch up.
The second week back we were still focusing on walking for the most part, but trying to through in some more challenging stuff, and a few changes.)
I started out by lunging, walk, trot, and even a little canter to see that he was sound and happy and still capable of listening to me. But then were went back to walk mode.
Started working on line driving again.
We did lots more work with the tack on, and our walks down the road with the old mare were closer to an hour.
Introduced the bareback pad! I figure some people start their colts bareback, and while I had no intention of doing that, I do want him to accept being ridden bareback while he’s still young. So I figure while I’m throwing new stuff at him again I should just add this in and he’ll just take it with all the rest!
Week three back
Monday: Got on for about five minutes after working on long lines, called it good.
Wednesday: Trot work while ponying him from the old mare with the bareback pad on him, then I threw a bridle on and took him to the side of the round pen and started working on laying across his back and sliding off several times before finally throwing a leg over. He totally couldn’t have cared less!
Thursday: Rode a bit more around pasture over logs
Saturday: Ponied him from the old mare, got on bareback in round pen, ventured out into the pasture. Yeah for my new bareback horse.
Sunday: I ponied out on the back roads, swapped horses at the turn around point, and rode him most of the way back while ponying the old mare. We’ve ponied the old mare in the pasture a few times to make sure he was ok with it. It makes for a nice easy way to get on him out on the trail but still have the security blanket of another horse there. Plus by having the responsibility of the return trip he’s all warmed up and settled in. He tends to be a little excitable heading out, and slows down on the way home like he’s sad that its over. My old mare on the other hand has the bad habit of trying to rush home, so having to walk at his pace instead of plow on ahead is good for her as well. We ended up swapping again for the last stretch of road before the house because there is a chance we might actually pass cars on that part, and I’m more confident in maneuvering the two if I’m on the old mare. Bear did pretty good. We had some major llama drama (always the llamas…), but otherwise a big step forward to be on him again out and about in the world.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
First week back
Well, I’m back! I’ve been back for a while, about three weeks. However huge life changes never seem to come at convenient times and I’ve been crazy busy. We won’t go into all these said life changes, but here are the important ones to Bear, and a recap of what we were up to the first week that I got back (first week of August).
I moved! Not far, just else where. The exciting thing is that I will be able to have Bear here with me. We’ll have a barn to use (although I’m afraid he might not think much of stall life!) and an arena and we are just one mile from some of the best trails in the area! So the move will be even more exciting when I actually get Bear here, but for now he’s eating up the summer grass with the old mare, and loving life.
My schedule is weird right now, and it seems like I’m being pulled in all directions. This is part of why I haven’t moved him up here. I need a regular life in order to commit to coming home to feed twice a day, plus find time to clean and exercise the crazy boy. I realize how spoiled I’ve been. The other part is that I’ve been brining him back into working mode very slowly and strategically. It makes way more sense to start over with the familiar and expand from there then it does to move him to a new location where he is going to be nervous, lock him up in a stall for most of the day, and then expect him to act like a well behaved horse after a full 3 months off! So I avoided the urge to hop on him the very first day and take him to a show a week later… and its all paid off.
This is what we’ve been doing (mostly the same as what we did last fall, but just in brief overview format).
First day, I went out and cleaned him up and loved on him, and remembered why I love working with this horse so much: he is genuinely more interested in hanging out with me than doing just about anything else! Haltered him up, and hopped on the old mare to pony him around the pasture. Probably about 20 minutes of walking. Reminding him its not ok to chew on: the saddle, my leg, the old mare, the old mare’s tail, my reins, his reins, the lead rope, or pretty much ANYTHING else! Silly boy has to put everything in his mouth. The plus side is that he hardly ever spooks at things because he makes a bee-line for them to check it out with his lips or teeth! He constantly steals stuff from the grooming kit if I turn my back. Naughty, but he makes me laugh.
Second day, started out by setting up some new logs in the pasture. Newly cut branches mean new trail obstacles for me! Bear of course wants to help, and follows me all around to see what I’m doing, and inevitably puts himself in the exact spot I’ve decided I want the log. Such a pest. It gets even cuter when he starts mirroring me! I was pushing a log forward with my foot, but having a hard time because it was uneven and didn’t roll right. So after two or three attempts of pushing this log, getting enough momentum to roll it all the way over, Bear suddenly picks up his foot and puts it right on top of the log next to my foot, like he's saying “Is this what we’re doing today mom?” Such a silly boy. We continued with the plan of ponying him off the mare, but going over tons of logs and poles patterned across the pasture, probably worked about a half an hour.
Third day, tacked up both horses, and ponied him around the pasture for a quick warm up to see how he was listening, then took them out on the back roads. Just down the road a little ways and back, really only a half hour, but it was good to get them both off the property for the first time in ages.
That pretty much does it for week one. Walking. Why? Couple reasons:
He got his feet done that week, so I didn’t want to do much work before they were done because they should have been done before I left, so by the time I got back his toes were long. Then we waited a couple days after he was trimmed before heading out again, but still at a walk.
Also, I’m trying to make his retraining and reconditioning process really easy and positive. So we are doing interesting things that he already knows, so he is set up for success. He loves when I come out to play with him, and I want to keep it that way.
The biggest reason is that I’m being very careful of his physical condition. He’s young, with young tendons, joints, and such. Lots and LOTS of walking for long periods of time is going to strengthen all those things. If I just concentrate on developing his muscles first, he’s going to hurt himself. He had that stifle issue back in January, and the one word of warning was that these injuries can reoccur when a horse is out of condition. So for the first couple of weeks we’ve taken he’s reconditioning process in a slow, methodical and almost rehab-like manner. Better safe than sorry with a young horse, especially one you want to have sound still at 20! I figured it took me 4-5 months to get on his back when I was first training him, so its not going to happen in a few days after three months off.
He’s been very good, just silly. He’s filled out a ton this summer, and doesn’t look like the gangly youngster anymore! He looks like a real horse. He lost his next set of baby teeth, right on schedule at three and a half years! So happy "half" birthday Bear, he acts like such a mature adult that sometimes its hard to remember that he’s just a baby still. (Although week two brought such obnoxious baby behavior that I thought we were dealing with a two year old again! Nothing serious, but he did uncinch the old mare and chew up the end of the latigo while I had my back turned. He picked up the huge gallon jug of liniment that I was using to bath the old mare, and carried it away by the lid, which of course popped of after three of four good shakes, thus pouring half the bottle out before I ran over the deal with the situation. NOTE: child proof lid, does not mean horse proof! He has untied himself, taken my gloves out of my back pocket, carried away my grooming tools, and had his own reins/lead rope in his mouth more times than I can count! Cute little personality quirks quickly turned into a disaster of a horse the second week, so we’ve set about nipping this in the butt and now have higher expectations. This behavior would never be allowed if it were the old mare, or a horse I was retraining. If I picture a sale horse behaving like this in front of potential buyers, I'd picture said buyers running away from the monster as fast as they politely could! He certainly had manners when I bought him! Somehow he’s wrapped me around his little hoof. Is it because he’s my first baby, and I'm babying him? Or is it because I think of him as my forever horse, so I think I can decide what to put up with? Either way, it’s stopping right now. He oozes with personality, and he’ll have plenty of personality left over even when he starts acting like a gentleman again.
So here’s the official restart of the blog: continuing the goal to train a happy, healthy, well-behaved horse!
I moved! Not far, just else where. The exciting thing is that I will be able to have Bear here with me. We’ll have a barn to use (although I’m afraid he might not think much of stall life!) and an arena and we are just one mile from some of the best trails in the area! So the move will be even more exciting when I actually get Bear here, but for now he’s eating up the summer grass with the old mare, and loving life.
My schedule is weird right now, and it seems like I’m being pulled in all directions. This is part of why I haven’t moved him up here. I need a regular life in order to commit to coming home to feed twice a day, plus find time to clean and exercise the crazy boy. I realize how spoiled I’ve been. The other part is that I’ve been brining him back into working mode very slowly and strategically. It makes way more sense to start over with the familiar and expand from there then it does to move him to a new location where he is going to be nervous, lock him up in a stall for most of the day, and then expect him to act like a well behaved horse after a full 3 months off! So I avoided the urge to hop on him the very first day and take him to a show a week later… and its all paid off.
This is what we’ve been doing (mostly the same as what we did last fall, but just in brief overview format).
First day, I went out and cleaned him up and loved on him, and remembered why I love working with this horse so much: he is genuinely more interested in hanging out with me than doing just about anything else! Haltered him up, and hopped on the old mare to pony him around the pasture. Probably about 20 minutes of walking. Reminding him its not ok to chew on: the saddle, my leg, the old mare, the old mare’s tail, my reins, his reins, the lead rope, or pretty much ANYTHING else! Silly boy has to put everything in his mouth. The plus side is that he hardly ever spooks at things because he makes a bee-line for them to check it out with his lips or teeth! He constantly steals stuff from the grooming kit if I turn my back. Naughty, but he makes me laugh.
Second day, started out by setting up some new logs in the pasture. Newly cut branches mean new trail obstacles for me! Bear of course wants to help, and follows me all around to see what I’m doing, and inevitably puts himself in the exact spot I’ve decided I want the log. Such a pest. It gets even cuter when he starts mirroring me! I was pushing a log forward with my foot, but having a hard time because it was uneven and didn’t roll right. So after two or three attempts of pushing this log, getting enough momentum to roll it all the way over, Bear suddenly picks up his foot and puts it right on top of the log next to my foot, like he's saying “Is this what we’re doing today mom?” Such a silly boy. We continued with the plan of ponying him off the mare, but going over tons of logs and poles patterned across the pasture, probably worked about a half an hour.
Third day, tacked up both horses, and ponied him around the pasture for a quick warm up to see how he was listening, then took them out on the back roads. Just down the road a little ways and back, really only a half hour, but it was good to get them both off the property for the first time in ages.
That pretty much does it for week one. Walking. Why? Couple reasons:
He got his feet done that week, so I didn’t want to do much work before they were done because they should have been done before I left, so by the time I got back his toes were long. Then we waited a couple days after he was trimmed before heading out again, but still at a walk.
Also, I’m trying to make his retraining and reconditioning process really easy and positive. So we are doing interesting things that he already knows, so he is set up for success. He loves when I come out to play with him, and I want to keep it that way.
The biggest reason is that I’m being very careful of his physical condition. He’s young, with young tendons, joints, and such. Lots and LOTS of walking for long periods of time is going to strengthen all those things. If I just concentrate on developing his muscles first, he’s going to hurt himself. He had that stifle issue back in January, and the one word of warning was that these injuries can reoccur when a horse is out of condition. So for the first couple of weeks we’ve taken he’s reconditioning process in a slow, methodical and almost rehab-like manner. Better safe than sorry with a young horse, especially one you want to have sound still at 20! I figured it took me 4-5 months to get on his back when I was first training him, so its not going to happen in a few days after three months off.
He’s been very good, just silly. He’s filled out a ton this summer, and doesn’t look like the gangly youngster anymore! He looks like a real horse. He lost his next set of baby teeth, right on schedule at three and a half years! So happy "half" birthday Bear, he acts like such a mature adult that sometimes its hard to remember that he’s just a baby still. (Although week two brought such obnoxious baby behavior that I thought we were dealing with a two year old again! Nothing serious, but he did uncinch the old mare and chew up the end of the latigo while I had my back turned. He picked up the huge gallon jug of liniment that I was using to bath the old mare, and carried it away by the lid, which of course popped of after three of four good shakes, thus pouring half the bottle out before I ran over the deal with the situation. NOTE: child proof lid, does not mean horse proof! He has untied himself, taken my gloves out of my back pocket, carried away my grooming tools, and had his own reins/lead rope in his mouth more times than I can count! Cute little personality quirks quickly turned into a disaster of a horse the second week, so we’ve set about nipping this in the butt and now have higher expectations. This behavior would never be allowed if it were the old mare, or a horse I was retraining. If I picture a sale horse behaving like this in front of potential buyers, I'd picture said buyers running away from the monster as fast as they politely could! He certainly had manners when I bought him! Somehow he’s wrapped me around his little hoof. Is it because he’s my first baby, and I'm babying him? Or is it because I think of him as my forever horse, so I think I can decide what to put up with? Either way, it’s stopping right now. He oozes with personality, and he’ll have plenty of personality left over even when he starts acting like a gentleman again.
So here’s the official restart of the blog: continuing the goal to train a happy, healthy, well-behaved horse!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
A new first...
I haven't been riding lately. I'm terrible, but I'm so busy. That's not usually an excuse, but I will be gone for 6 weeks this summer anyway, so I'm just not in the goal setting mood when I have only four weeks left until I'm gone! So he's just getting time off out in the pasture.
Today, however, we actually went out and did something! I trailered him out to the trails by the lake. So it was an entirely new place, and I took him with out the old mare, so two firsts. The trails were quite a bit more challenging than what we've done before, and I'm supposed to be hiking to condition for Mt Shasta, so I walked him! It worked out wonderfully! He has never been forced to walk behind me like this. The trail narrow enough that I couldn't have him next to me like he's used to, so he got lead endurance style, trailing along behind. Only problem is him watching how close he's getting! So after a few sudden stops to check if he was paying attention and a couple swats to his chest to back off, he got the idea. He only stepped on the back of my shoe once! By the end of the hike he even slowed down and fell in behind me when the trail started to narrow! Good smart horse!!!
We walked down to the lake and he stuck one foot in and his nose. I didn't ask for more since he was being brave and the footing wasn't great. Most of the lower trail was right along the lake. The boats were rocketing by with screaming kids on intertubes, and Bear would just casually stop to see what the fun was all about.
He had to cross a log that was HUGE. It would have made a great jump, but not at the end of a lead rope and certainly not on a cliff trail. He was great, I drove him over it in front of me in case he jumped, but he just stepped really high, one foot at a time, with no hesitation. I was so proud.
We had one horse pass us when we were heading back, she was heading out and ended up catching up and passing again on the way back. He was curious, but otherwise just fine with the other horse leaving him behind. I just feel so SO lucky to have such a steady personality on this horse. Its so easy!
So we got some great exposure and training in. We both got a workout, and it was just a fun day!
Today, however, we actually went out and did something! I trailered him out to the trails by the lake. So it was an entirely new place, and I took him with out the old mare, so two firsts. The trails were quite a bit more challenging than what we've done before, and I'm supposed to be hiking to condition for Mt Shasta, so I walked him! It worked out wonderfully! He has never been forced to walk behind me like this. The trail narrow enough that I couldn't have him next to me like he's used to, so he got lead endurance style, trailing along behind. Only problem is him watching how close he's getting! So after a few sudden stops to check if he was paying attention and a couple swats to his chest to back off, he got the idea. He only stepped on the back of my shoe once! By the end of the hike he even slowed down and fell in behind me when the trail started to narrow! Good smart horse!!!
We walked down to the lake and he stuck one foot in and his nose. I didn't ask for more since he was being brave and the footing wasn't great. Most of the lower trail was right along the lake. The boats were rocketing by with screaming kids on intertubes, and Bear would just casually stop to see what the fun was all about.
He had to cross a log that was HUGE. It would have made a great jump, but not at the end of a lead rope and certainly not on a cliff trail. He was great, I drove him over it in front of me in case he jumped, but he just stepped really high, one foot at a time, with no hesitation. I was so proud.
We had one horse pass us when we were heading back, she was heading out and ended up catching up and passing again on the way back. He was curious, but otherwise just fine with the other horse leaving him behind. I just feel so SO lucky to have such a steady personality on this horse. Its so easy!
So we got some great exposure and training in. We both got a workout, and it was just a fun day!
Friday, May 8, 2009
The practical final!
So over the last two semesters I've been taking Bear to a weekly class. I like it because I have a covered arena to work in and someone to scoop me up off the ground should Bear finally realize he's bigger and stronger than me! But it is a class non the less, and last week we didn't ride because we took the written final, and this Tuesday (while I was on a plane coming back from Portland) we had the practical final. Its a real class so it has real tests, but within reason since everyone is taking it for personal enrichment! So since I missed our test night with Horse Training II, I had to go to Thursday's Horse Training III class, and yes, he had me do THEIR final instead! And I KICKED BUTT! Or at least I would have if I hadn't convinced myself it was too hard... I hadn't been on him for over two weeks, and we haven't done that much work at the canter, so I had convinced myself that we couldn't do these canter circles! I totally underestimated both of us... here's the pattern.
So we started at the very bottom at the cone (where I forgot to write start). The directions were: trot (to the left) two large circles, then two small circles, then pick up the canter for two large and two small circles, stop reverse, and repeat to the right. We'll stop here for comment on what actually happened! When I got in, the instructor sort of said that I didn't have to do the canter part if I didn't want to. Which set up doubt in my mind suddenly. We've been cantering circles some, and we've certainly been steering around things (like evil horses that try to attack us if we come within 20 ft of them!). BUT we've also had the dropping the shoulder and falling to the inside problem that I had just started to address at that dressage lesson. Since we've not had a chance to do the same exercizes at the canter, I didn't think he'd stay balanced enough to do the small circles. So when I was suddenly given an option to take the easy way out, I wanted to do just that. I said we'd try the canter circles as long as they didn't count against us if we didn't nail them! So going to the left we trotted two perfect large circles, and two perfect small! I was so impressed! I just kept thinking sit up and keep him going on a nice relaxed, balanced trot, not so forward that we start falling on the front! It totally worked. We picked up the canter pretty much at the cone, (wow!) and it was even the correct lead (double wow!) and he did fairly well until we came around to the side where the serpentine cones were set up. (Even when I drew this I realized the circle was hitting the cones!) We ended up on the outside of the second cone the first time, and running it over the second time! Which of course caused us to break to the trot, and get all flustered and unbalanced, and since I had just been told that I could take the easy way out I did. I trotted on more small circle and stopped at the start and called the left side done! I took a deep breath and did the it all again to the right, except this time I did it right! No running over trail obstacles, no breaking gait, just a perfect balance trot and canter for both large AND small circles! I was on cloud nine! He was so good! It was such a victory, I just wished I had been more dertimined to make it happen both directions.
So we started at the very bottom at the cone (where I forgot to write start). The directions were: trot (to the left) two large circles, then two small circles, then pick up the canter for two large and two small circles, stop reverse, and repeat to the right. We'll stop here for comment on what actually happened! When I got in, the instructor sort of said that I didn't have to do the canter part if I didn't want to. Which set up doubt in my mind suddenly. We've been cantering circles some, and we've certainly been steering around things (like evil horses that try to attack us if we come within 20 ft of them!). BUT we've also had the dropping the shoulder and falling to the inside problem that I had just started to address at that dressage lesson. Since we've not had a chance to do the same exercizes at the canter, I didn't think he'd stay balanced enough to do the small circles. So when I was suddenly given an option to take the easy way out, I wanted to do just that. I said we'd try the canter circles as long as they didn't count against us if we didn't nail them! So going to the left we trotted two perfect large circles, and two perfect small! I was so impressed! I just kept thinking sit up and keep him going on a nice relaxed, balanced trot, not so forward that we start falling on the front! It totally worked. We picked up the canter pretty much at the cone, (wow!) and it was even the correct lead (double wow!) and he did fairly well until we came around to the side where the serpentine cones were set up. (Even when I drew this I realized the circle was hitting the cones!) We ended up on the outside of the second cone the first time, and running it over the second time! Which of course caused us to break to the trot, and get all flustered and unbalanced, and since I had just been told that I could take the easy way out I did. I trotted on more small circle and stopped at the start and called the left side done! I took a deep breath and did the it all again to the right, except this time I did it right! No running over trail obstacles, no breaking gait, just a perfect balance trot and canter for both large AND small circles! I was on cloud nine! He was so good! It was such a victory, I just wished I had been more dertimined to make it happen both directions. From there it was easier; here's the pattern again for reference:
After the circles it was a jog serpentine through the cones, back through the L, a 360 degree pivot on the haunches both directions inside the box, over the bridge, and right hand push through the gate. I was really impressed with his cones, he just went right through them at a nice slow sitting trot. Then he's great on backing up! Super light and willing to please. We took a bit to figure out where to put his hind-end while getting around the corner of the L, but overall it was great. The box was tough because it was so tight. So while he did have a few times where he really moved his shoulders cross over his front feet there were a lot of repositioning his hind end so we could stay in the box. The bridge was fine, and we even collected for the slightest pause on top to show he was listening to me to either stop or keep going. Our go at the gate was probably our best one yet! He's so relaxed about these things! I just love it.
He's such a fun horse to work with, and I just need to start trusting that he is capable of more! Both this and the show I thought would be challenges for him, but he's taking it all in stride! I can't believe what a great horse he's turned into. This final was a great test for me to really see where he's at! He's beyond where I thought I'd have him in just 4 months under saddle. In fact he's beyond most retrain projects that I've shown in the past! They've all had anxiety issues about one thing or another! We're at a great place in training, and he doesn't need to know anything else until he's a bit older!
For now I'm looking forward to lots of trail rides and conditioning for a while. I'm totally broke, so shows and lessons will have to wait until we both can really benefit from them. He could used some consistant lunging with side-reins to help him develop the right muscles in his neck. Other than that, unless I can think of someone I could trust to ride him while I'm gone, he'll have 6 weeks off during the height of the summer, and we'll be figuring out our next step in the fall. But he's only 3 and already acting like a well broke horse. I can't really ask for anything else.
Monday, April 20, 2009
First Horse Show!
We went to our first show on Saturday and Bear was a super star! He was fine when we got out of the trailer, but the longer he stood there with three people rushing around trying to do horse show things the more he fed off that energy and got VERY antsy! Once I had him tacked up and over to the warm up ring to lunge, he was back to his usual self and was behaving despite being pretty hot. He relaxed a ton after lunging, and I had no worries about getting on. He was great. It never fails that there are a hundred unsupervised kids running there horses all over the place and trying the jumps in the warm-up only to have their horse bolt off sideways into traffic. Bear saw it all and was very patient with everyone!
Bear with his head sky-high checking out the horse show worldOur second class was a walk-trot horsemanship pattern class. I was really proud of him with that one! My main goal was to keep him collected enough to not go all over the place on the circles, and trotted fairly round circles, and maintained a nice slow even trot. I was so excited with the first circle I took for granted that he would stop at the cone since that was supposed to be the easy part for us! I asked too soon and we stopped short, and then he didn't want to settle down into the halt and just kept dancing! So I finally gave up and just moved him into his pivot which started bad because of the dancing, but ended alright. Second circle not as good as the first but not shabby. Then the second halt was better, but not straight and I was so excited about showing off his backing skills that we backed WAY more than four steps! Oh well. All the mistakes were mine, and over all I was really pleased with his effort. And I have a video!
Our third (and exhausting final) class was equitation. Watching the couple classes ahead of mine gave me an idea that I was up for a challenge! I had just been talking to a friend earlier that day saying I felt out of shape because I hadn't risked doing work without stirrups on him yet, and of course that ended up being what the judge was asking for! The same friend happened to be at the gate when I went in and commented on my being very brave to do the class! It proved to be absolutely exhausting! Bear was pretty darn good, but kept trying to stop at the gate, so I guess he thought it was a good time to quit too! We were asked for a sitting trot, then sitting trot without irons, then back into a posting trot without irons, then pick up your irons at the trot, then two point, and finally an extension of the trot in two point. He wasn't a huge fan of the irons bumping his sides, so in our pictures of the no irons work his expression progressed from happy to slightly irritated. We were all grumbling and crabby by the end! I'm pretty good with eq classes at the schooling show level, but doing it on such a young horse was definitely more of a challenge! We ended up 5th out of 8 which is not bad at all!
Off to a good start
No irons! 
Just trying to stay up in two point when my legs were SO tired.
SO tired, and making a face about it! Although Bear seems fine.Overall I was pleased with the day. He stood around for hours between classes, and he was very brave and sensible about it all. There was no running down ponies, no freakouts when horses came right up on his butt or cut him off, he was quiet in the line ups, overall SO good. I'm a proud mama!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The quest to find the right instructor...
So the quest began last night. I figured the easiest way to compare the various trainers will be to jot down my reactions and thoughts after each one, and then go back to reflect once I've seen a couple places.
Trainer #1: Lesson at 5:30pm on Wednesday 4/15
Proximity: 20 minute drive, easy to get to, nice pull through parking.
Facility: Clean and tidy place with happy and quiet horses. Bear was super relaxed there, hardly even looked around, so there's a nice overall calm at the place. Covered arena, big out door arena, nice round pen for warm up, field with cavaletti and small jumps when we get to that point.
Trainer: was punctual, polite, and positive! She took the time to watch me warm up on the lunge even before the lesson started, and offered comment. She complimented both my horse and the training I had done! Bonus points!!! She works from the German Training scale, which gives a better reason for doing things than "Because that's just what I do..." But she also has the experience both in training and competing to really validate what she's saying. I loved that she put everything into age appropriate context. I don't like it when trainers expect all horses to reach perfection regardless of age, development, or fitness level. She acknowledged both his weaknesses due to age and conformation (shortish neck with muscling underneath) and what we could do to improve that, rather than what it would prevent him from doing. So far so good!
Lesson: Amazing! We had a complete revelation! Basically I was able to get exactly what I had been wanting out of Bear by going about it in a completely different way. My biggest pet peeve with him right now has been him diving into the circle with his shoulder. So I've been going about trying to keep the bend to the inside and keeping him pushed out to the outside, but I've been working really hard with little result. Its bad at the trot and worse at the canter and it seemed like the more I tried to push him out, the more he ended up coming in. Of course I hadn't mentioned this. I merely said that we were at a point in his training that he was going forward on a loose-ish rein, stopping, and turning, but that it seemed like the past couple weeks when I had started trying to ask for him to be on the bit more, things were getting worse, not better.
She had us warm up a bit and just do whatever we normally do, to get an idea what to tackle. The trainer hit the nail on the head after watching us trot a couple haphazard serpentines around the arena: he's off balance and falling to the inside! (I'm not helping it by letting myself lean forward either! Which explains why he's better in the western saddle.) So what I'm was thinking was him not understanding or responding to what I'm asking: bending and moving to the outside, turns out to really be his young heavy-on-the-forehand body causing him to veer in. She said that before you can work on balancing him side to side and bending, you have to first balance him front to back. We talked a lot about what's appropriate rate and rhythm for his age and considering his long long legs. She had me work on walk-trot transitions until he was engaging his haunches more, and we had a more balanced and steady trot. Anytime he started rushing forward or get strung out we'd come back to the walk and start again. Sounds simple doesn't it? It was! It was REALLY simple! Yet it fixed the problem! Any time he wasn't responding to the directional cues she told me to either collect him or bring him to a walk. He can't effectively follow directions if he's just trying his best to stay balanced, so rebalance him first in order to turn, circle or whatever, then continue on. It helped immensely. I'm not good at thinking of doing both at the same time, and he's not clearly not either, so by simplifying it we were both happy campers. So instead of a strung out and quick trot, by the end we had a really balanced trot with good consistant rhythm, and he was actually stretching down to keep contact with the bit! Amazing! We didn't get to the canter, but I've got plenty to chew on for awhile.
The other thing she was able to pick out was my inside leg coming forward. I like trainers that can pick out when equitation is hindering or causing problems, and not just ones that have a stylistic equitation approach. So there is something for me to work on, because it seriously made Bear turn the wrong way when it was out of place, and helped him move on like a happy horse when it was in the right place. I'm thinking he's quiet enough for some no stirrups work, but maybe to be safe I'll start with a few sessions on the old mare!
Overall impression: I would be more than happy to schedule a lesson a week all the way up to summer! I swore I'd look at a couple places before making a decision, and I'm sticking to that. I was happy with the progress we made, and it was a very positive experience! I feel like she will be conservative in what she asks of such a young horse, which is wonderful because I would rather have a trainer that is too cautious and babies them a little than one that pushes past what I would have thought was too much and makes me regret it!
Bring on the next barn! Until then, I'll have some fun to report on from the horse show on Saturday! Should be exciting!
Bring on the next barn! Until then, I'll have some fun to report on from the horse show on Saturday! Should be exciting!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Same horse every time
I just can't believe my luck sometimes. I was out of town for spring break, and spent much of the week before preparing to be gone. So last night at class was the first time I had as much as seen Bear in two weeks! Aside from a swollen cut on his leg, he was exactly the same horse that I left two weeks ago. He wasn't wild or crazy, he hadn't regressed. He was just good old relaxed and happy Bear. (And who knows when the cut happened! Its old enough that its all scabbed over, and thank goodness it isn't hurting him. But its definitely one of those things that doesn't get noticed if I'm not around! Grr...)
Two weeks ago we started lunging with side reins again (which I had given up while he was rehabbing from the injury), and he's already doing better breaking at the poll under saddle. Then we worked on the usual walk, trot, canter. He's been really leaning to the inside and leading with the inside shoulder so I took advantage of there being two less horses and a little more room and rode just about everything but the rail! We did straight lines and pivots, lots of little circles, serpentines, and anytime he wanted to go the center we mad lots of circles there. So by the time we got to the canter he was almost relieved to canter around the rail on a loose rein. Any time he came into the center he had to work on circles!
Our fun challenge for the evening was working a gate! Its the type you find in any trail class, you know the kind horses look at and say "Hey Stupid! Can't you see we can just go AROUND the gate?" But that's not the point, now is it? Bear has been ponied through many real gates so he has no fear of them, but he hasn't ever been the one responsible for actually opening it. We took things really slowly. Step by step. First we did a little warm up of one step turn on forehand, one step turn on haunches, and so on until we had sort of done a shimmy side pass along a pole. Then I turned that into a more legitimate side pass. Then we just came up along the gate and stood there. I want him to know the best place to be is right by the gate. He can always have a break if he's right up next to the gate. The fun thing with Bear is that he's not afraid of a darn thing, but he does like to play with new objects a bit too much. He got scolded for trying to open the gate himself, and trying to shake the whole thing over! We took the gate very slowly, so that each step was what I was asking for, and pausing in between so that he didn't even think of rushing. We did it twice and called it a night!
He's such a fun horse, and I already forget that he's so young. He's going to be such a great horse to do cross country with because he's so bold and eager to try new things! Even the terrifying horse eating llamas can't ruffle his feathers anymore. He's on his way to being an amazing all around horse, we just need to start committing more time to actual training!
Two weeks ago we started lunging with side reins again (which I had given up while he was rehabbing from the injury), and he's already doing better breaking at the poll under saddle. Then we worked on the usual walk, trot, canter. He's been really leaning to the inside and leading with the inside shoulder so I took advantage of there being two less horses and a little more room and rode just about everything but the rail! We did straight lines and pivots, lots of little circles, serpentines, and anytime he wanted to go the center we mad lots of circles there. So by the time we got to the canter he was almost relieved to canter around the rail on a loose rein. Any time he came into the center he had to work on circles!
Our fun challenge for the evening was working a gate! Its the type you find in any trail class, you know the kind horses look at and say "Hey Stupid! Can't you see we can just go AROUND the gate?" But that's not the point, now is it? Bear has been ponied through many real gates so he has no fear of them, but he hasn't ever been the one responsible for actually opening it. We took things really slowly. Step by step. First we did a little warm up of one step turn on forehand, one step turn on haunches, and so on until we had sort of done a shimmy side pass along a pole. Then I turned that into a more legitimate side pass. Then we just came up along the gate and stood there. I want him to know the best place to be is right by the gate. He can always have a break if he's right up next to the gate. The fun thing with Bear is that he's not afraid of a darn thing, but he does like to play with new objects a bit too much. He got scolded for trying to open the gate himself, and trying to shake the whole thing over! We took the gate very slowly, so that each step was what I was asking for, and pausing in between so that he didn't even think of rushing. We did it twice and called it a night!
He's such a fun horse, and I already forget that he's so young. He's going to be such a great horse to do cross country with because he's so bold and eager to try new things! Even the terrifying horse eating llamas can't ruffle his feathers anymore. He's on his way to being an amazing all around horse, we just need to start committing more time to actual training!
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