Recently there was a post over on the Sprinkler Bandit as to things you look for and when it might be best to sell your horse and find another one. She had listed several valid points to consider and while I agree with many of them, there is one other thing that comes into play. Timing.
Sometimes we have the right horse for us, just not at the right time. I have one of those now. My WB mare is for sale as many people know. Between the divorce, moving and everything else, I just don't have the time to put into her or really the money to be spending on her either. What really sucks in all of this, is that while riding her and putting the time and effort into training her so she has a decent shot at a good home, I am finding I am not only remembering a lot of what I knew about training, but also learning a lot too.
While my friend had given me some pointers and I had a few DUH! and A-HA! moments, there are also times I have to think about things and come up with ways to make it work. How to ask more clearly, when to accept what I get and when to push for more. The other night I had another one of those A-HA! moments. Aruba kept dropping her inside shoulder, leaning into the turns as we went around the round pen on the rail. I thought back to all of the ways I knew how to 'fix' it. I brought my inside shoulder back, sat up straight, looked UP, put my inside leg on her to move the shoulders over to the outside (which made it worse by the way), pushed different body parts different directions and while at the walk it all helped more or less... As soon as we picked up the trot it all. fell. apart. Again and again, and again.
I had worked her on straight lines before and decided what the hell. Why NOT try it again? If I was riding her straight at a fixed point across the pen, there was less chance that I would be leaning or riding in any way that would signal her to let things fall apart. Well what do you know??? I would find a post on the other side, aim for it and ride her straight at it, stopping when we reached it. The first couple of lines I will admit, got a little wobbly. Aruba wasn't sure what I was doing, what I was asking for or if I even knew what I wanted?
Part of this exercise was also to quiet me. Quiet my hands, quiet my legs, quiet my seat and just sit on my horse, letting her do the work. I was riding straight forward, so no reason to half halt or signal for a turn. Hands nice and wide, give her room to work and let her go. Quiet my legs- no moving body parts in or out on the circle, just keep it all moving forward between them. Quiet my seat- no posting, just sit the trot and drive her up into my hands to guide her where I wanted to go.
After several straight lines, some shorter and a only couple panels across the pen, some longer and all the way across the pen, Aruba got it and really started to work like she should. No leaning into the turns, no ignoring my legs, no dropping shoulders or hips, soft, forward and awesome. We were both being quiet. She was quiet in the bridle and I was doing my best to sit quietly on her, staying out of her way and letting it all happen like it should. I would pick a post, push her into a trot and aim straight for it, stopping her at the rail, letting her relax for a few seconds while I praised her, turn and find another post, trot to it, stop, praise and repeat. Turns were made in both directions so there was no anticipating where we would go next.
When we had several straight lines, both of us quiet and it was all working, I let her walk on the rail and then asked for a trot. I would sit the trot and she would sart off slowly enouh and as we worked our way aound the pen I felt that sweet spot in her stride when she was balanced and forward in her movement. When her movement started lifting me out of the saddle and forward with her, only then is when I sarted to post. If she started to lean and things slid back into falling apart all wrong, I eased her back down and would sit the trot until it felt right again and picked up posting. Going one direction we did great. When we reversed to go the other direction, things went to shit again. No big deal, we just went back to doing some straight lines and that fixed it. Going around on the rail again, sitting the trot until she had it right, then posting... things just clicked for us.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Reminders & progress
Not too long ago I had taken the two mares down to Cindy's place to use her arena. We got to talking about our horses and training like horse people do and what we both had a laugh over, was having someone work with us or our horses and thinking, I already know this. I've done this before. Where have I heard this and how many times??? And someone she knows had told her, Do you know how much I've spent on lessons, to have someone else tell me how to do something I already know how to do?
When Cindy had taken video of me riding Aruba a while back, I had sent links to one of my friends up north. One of her suggestions for getting my horse to stride out, engage her back end and step up under herself, sounded awfully familiar. I had read it in one of my many books and when I emailed her about this, she not only knew which book I had and mentioned, but knew the author. Not knew OF her, but actually KNEW her. Yeah.
So fast forward not to me getting several rides in on my mare, trying the things my friend has laid out for me to do, seeing some successes happening already and being stoked about it. But there's always a setback or three... While Aruba has developed a Lovely, very forward walk, she gets a bit rambunctious and wants to break into a trot all on her own. Her stops are improving but she would pull the Stop & Pop, the instant she stops, she pops her head up like a giraffe. She might stop, but she tried to creep forward and took any movement from me to mean, go ahead and walk forward.
So how do I stop the creeping? Ask her to stop again. Create that invisible line as if it were a wall and she can't go past it until I say go. if we had to back up a step of two? Well then back her up. The stop & pop? Well we're still working on that, but it is greatly improved. While she still gets excited about working and tries to break into a trot on her own, half halts, asking for bend, moving the shoulders or her butt over one direction or the other can sometimes slow her back down or I just ask her to stop. If she tries to creep a few steps, we back up a few stops and stop again. We have been doing a whole Lot of up & down transitions. Walking, trotting, stopping, waiting, a step or several backing up and of course all of this is at random and mixed up. I have to say that my mare is developing a really nice looking butt! Remember, the muscles that work will be where they sweat.
In all of our work though, besides the progress, there was still a few things needing to be fixed. This late can be a bit bullish and pushy at times. I found myself holding onto the reins in what sometimes felt like a tug-o-war. Now we can never out muscle our horses and if this continued, she would begin ignoring the bit and my hands, so obviously it needed to change. My friend reminded me to let her go and then ask her to come back to the contact. Let her go and pick her up again. Besides remembering to keep my hands wide, up a little and everything else.... While she may start out this way, as we worked thru things, later on she would relax and give in to the work and soften up.
Last night when I rode, I decided to try something different. I got on and we waited until she relaxed before moving off. When we moved off, I let her go a few steps and then asked for the stop. There we stood. Then I asked for a turn on the haunches or for her to move her shoulders over a few steps. Stop and wait. Side pass a few steps the other direction, stop and wait. Move her butt over or turn on the forehand, stop & wait. Walk forward a few steps, stop & wait. We moved around the pen, little by little, stopping & waiting in between each move as I asked for her to move her shoulders both directions, her butt both directions, side pass both directions and walk off relaxed.
While she did really well moving her shoulders over and turning on her haunches, and the side passing, turning on the fore or moving just her butt over was a bit of issue. More so to the right than the left. She tried to move off, move into my leg, not away from it, backed up and acted as if she had no clue what I wanted. I asked her to stop, let her settle down and asked again. It took a few tries and then I got about 3 steps. Take what you can get and go from there. There's always more time to work on it later and ask for more. Look at it like building blocks.
As we worked at the walk, now I asked her to move over one direction or the other as we went around on the rail. Some counter bend, bening to the inside, on the rail, of the rail, use your corners, throw in some straight lines and mix it all up. When we moved into our trot work, she didn't try being bullish at all. What I got instead was soft contact the entire time and a comfortable, easy to sit trot. She did really well. Well enough that I actually had to push her a little to show her, she has a few gears at each gait. Not just fast like she wanted to, not just slow as if she was about to litter out, but somewhere in the middle is a nice, relaxed, working trot. Slowly, we're getting there. It takes time, but we're getting there.
When Cindy had taken video of me riding Aruba a while back, I had sent links to one of my friends up north. One of her suggestions for getting my horse to stride out, engage her back end and step up under herself, sounded awfully familiar. I had read it in one of my many books and when I emailed her about this, she not only knew which book I had and mentioned, but knew the author. Not knew OF her, but actually KNEW her. Yeah.
So fast forward not to me getting several rides in on my mare, trying the things my friend has laid out for me to do, seeing some successes happening already and being stoked about it. But there's always a setback or three... While Aruba has developed a Lovely, very forward walk, she gets a bit rambunctious and wants to break into a trot all on her own. Her stops are improving but she would pull the Stop & Pop, the instant she stops, she pops her head up like a giraffe. She might stop, but she tried to creep forward and took any movement from me to mean, go ahead and walk forward.
So how do I stop the creeping? Ask her to stop again. Create that invisible line as if it were a wall and she can't go past it until I say go. if we had to back up a step of two? Well then back her up. The stop & pop? Well we're still working on that, but it is greatly improved. While she still gets excited about working and tries to break into a trot on her own, half halts, asking for bend, moving the shoulders or her butt over one direction or the other can sometimes slow her back down or I just ask her to stop. If she tries to creep a few steps, we back up a few stops and stop again. We have been doing a whole Lot of up & down transitions. Walking, trotting, stopping, waiting, a step or several backing up and of course all of this is at random and mixed up. I have to say that my mare is developing a really nice looking butt! Remember, the muscles that work will be where they sweat.
In all of our work though, besides the progress, there was still a few things needing to be fixed. This late can be a bit bullish and pushy at times. I found myself holding onto the reins in what sometimes felt like a tug-o-war. Now we can never out muscle our horses and if this continued, she would begin ignoring the bit and my hands, so obviously it needed to change. My friend reminded me to let her go and then ask her to come back to the contact. Let her go and pick her up again. Besides remembering to keep my hands wide, up a little and everything else.... While she may start out this way, as we worked thru things, later on she would relax and give in to the work and soften up.
Last night when I rode, I decided to try something different. I got on and we waited until she relaxed before moving off. When we moved off, I let her go a few steps and then asked for the stop. There we stood. Then I asked for a turn on the haunches or for her to move her shoulders over a few steps. Stop and wait. Side pass a few steps the other direction, stop and wait. Move her butt over or turn on the forehand, stop & wait. Walk forward a few steps, stop & wait. We moved around the pen, little by little, stopping & waiting in between each move as I asked for her to move her shoulders both directions, her butt both directions, side pass both directions and walk off relaxed.
While she did really well moving her shoulders over and turning on her haunches, and the side passing, turning on the fore or moving just her butt over was a bit of issue. More so to the right than the left. She tried to move off, move into my leg, not away from it, backed up and acted as if she had no clue what I wanted. I asked her to stop, let her settle down and asked again. It took a few tries and then I got about 3 steps. Take what you can get and go from there. There's always more time to work on it later and ask for more. Look at it like building blocks.
As we worked at the walk, now I asked her to move over one direction or the other as we went around on the rail. Some counter bend, bening to the inside, on the rail, of the rail, use your corners, throw in some straight lines and mix it all up. When we moved into our trot work, she didn't try being bullish at all. What I got instead was soft contact the entire time and a comfortable, easy to sit trot. She did really well. Well enough that I actually had to push her a little to show her, she has a few gears at each gait. Not just fast like she wanted to, not just slow as if she was about to litter out, but somewhere in the middle is a nice, relaxed, working trot. Slowly, we're getting there. It takes time, but we're getting there.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Exciting things
I haven't posted here in a while and I have been super busy, BUT.... I have been working my mares and the TB mare is showing some serious promise as a driving horse. YAAAYYYYY!!!! Because you all know how much I enjoy driving... lol
Another reason I wanted to get this mare going with driving, besides being able to show her off in more ways than one, I want another horse to bring along, so I'm not a one horse wonder where driving is considered. I love it and if something should ever happen to Kat, it would suck to be sidelined or out of it altogether. Sure I will have to bite the bullet and buy more stuff, but as always, I can take my time, find what I want and hopefully snatch it up for a fair price.
When I took the two horses to Cindy's to use her arena, this mare was not all that fun to ride. The first time she was looking around at everything and sooo behind the bit or way out in front of it, that I had little to no contact. She wasn't exactly responding very well either. I kept it short and hopped off when I could. No sense in getting hurt or starting any bad habits. The second time I decided to long line her and man did I find holes in her progress. She worked well enough and looked damn good out there trotting, but when it came time to settle down and walk while cooling her out- she was having no part of it. Zip, Nadda, None.
The mare jigged and pranced and scooted around like she was amped and ready to blow. She was lit up and just would not settle down for nothing. So we made plenty of circles, stopped and started, serpentines, change of direction and just about everything I could throw at her to help her figure it out that if she just settled down and walked, a) life was much easier and b) she would get to quit.
I can say that this mare has reminded me of a few things in the short time I have been working her and while I needed to work on developing her walk, she also needed to do a lot of slow, boring work involving plenty of stopping and standing around. Driving horses need to know that "Whoa" means stop everything. Sometimes it means "Stop. NOW!" Speaking to my friend who is also bringing along a new horse, we agreed on one thing- The power of the plow.
When she started her mare, her trainer/mentor gave her a harness, sans the breast collar & traces. When he felt the mare was reasonably ready, he gave her the 'missing parts' of the harness. When she finally got the borrowed cart to start her horse, the first day hooked, they drove a few laps in the arena and then went off down the street, over to the trainers and he was a bit speechless. When he found out that she had been using her horse to pull a sled of sorts and work the footing in her 'arena', he was a bit dumbfounded. She had been enjoying having such lovely footing to work in and training her horse at the same time. Nothing wrong with that.
Since my mare had been making progress, I decided to make another set of 'shaft trainers' and see how it would go. When I started Kat, I had made some fake shafts to get him used to the feel of having something stiff and rigid along his sides, feeling the weight, having something bumping on him and making noise. Better this, than a cart and having the horse destroy it, if it all went south in a hurry like it always does. So for around $25 I bought a spool of rope, two snaps, some plastic pvc pipe and a fun noodle for the pool. I now have fake shafts for training.
The first night I put the shafts on my mare, she had been working and although she slowed down to a walk, she maintained a very forward walk. When I stopped her and brought the shafts in the pen, she wasn't too sure about it. I led her around with one hand, dragging the shafts with the other and let her hear the noise it would make. She was fine so I stopped her, slid the pipes thru the tugs and snapped them to the breast collar. She may have been forward before, but now she wasn't sure if she should even move at all. I gave her a few moments to think about it and asked her to move off. She walked very sedately around the round pen, doing her best not to bump into the shafts or let them bump into her. My horse that was all about GO? Now only had one speed. S.L.O.W!!!
I picked up my lines and stayed off to the side of the shafts and drove her around the pen a few times, making some turns, smaller circles, stopping and she handled it all beautifully. I have since put the shafts on her several times and every time, she just does so well and handles it all in stride with no issues. While she has her physical limitations, I don't use them as an excuse to go easy on her. If she can handle the work, we do the work. If I need to back up a few steps and fix something, we do. If it's all good, we move on to new things. So far so good. If she never moves up past training level, that's ok. Prelim? Fine too, but I'm not going to push her and expect a lot or even any speed from her right now. She may have been a racehorse before, but it's going to be a different type of course this time around. I have no doubt that she will be able to handle it.
Another reason I wanted to get this mare going with driving, besides being able to show her off in more ways than one, I want another horse to bring along, so I'm not a one horse wonder where driving is considered. I love it and if something should ever happen to Kat, it would suck to be sidelined or out of it altogether. Sure I will have to bite the bullet and buy more stuff, but as always, I can take my time, find what I want and hopefully snatch it up for a fair price.
When I took the two horses to Cindy's to use her arena, this mare was not all that fun to ride. The first time she was looking around at everything and sooo behind the bit or way out in front of it, that I had little to no contact. She wasn't exactly responding very well either. I kept it short and hopped off when I could. No sense in getting hurt or starting any bad habits. The second time I decided to long line her and man did I find holes in her progress. She worked well enough and looked damn good out there trotting, but when it came time to settle down and walk while cooling her out- she was having no part of it. Zip, Nadda, None.
The mare jigged and pranced and scooted around like she was amped and ready to blow. She was lit up and just would not settle down for nothing. So we made plenty of circles, stopped and started, serpentines, change of direction and just about everything I could throw at her to help her figure it out that if she just settled down and walked, a) life was much easier and b) she would get to quit.
I can say that this mare has reminded me of a few things in the short time I have been working her and while I needed to work on developing her walk, she also needed to do a lot of slow, boring work involving plenty of stopping and standing around. Driving horses need to know that "Whoa" means stop everything. Sometimes it means "Stop. NOW!" Speaking to my friend who is also bringing along a new horse, we agreed on one thing- The power of the plow.
When she started her mare, her trainer/mentor gave her a harness, sans the breast collar & traces. When he felt the mare was reasonably ready, he gave her the 'missing parts' of the harness. When she finally got the borrowed cart to start her horse, the first day hooked, they drove a few laps in the arena and then went off down the street, over to the trainers and he was a bit speechless. When he found out that she had been using her horse to pull a sled of sorts and work the footing in her 'arena', he was a bit dumbfounded. She had been enjoying having such lovely footing to work in and training her horse at the same time. Nothing wrong with that.
Since my mare had been making progress, I decided to make another set of 'shaft trainers' and see how it would go. When I started Kat, I had made some fake shafts to get him used to the feel of having something stiff and rigid along his sides, feeling the weight, having something bumping on him and making noise. Better this, than a cart and having the horse destroy it, if it all went south in a hurry like it always does. So for around $25 I bought a spool of rope, two snaps, some plastic pvc pipe and a fun noodle for the pool. I now have fake shafts for training.
The first night I put the shafts on my mare, she had been working and although she slowed down to a walk, she maintained a very forward walk. When I stopped her and brought the shafts in the pen, she wasn't too sure about it. I led her around with one hand, dragging the shafts with the other and let her hear the noise it would make. She was fine so I stopped her, slid the pipes thru the tugs and snapped them to the breast collar. She may have been forward before, but now she wasn't sure if she should even move at all. I gave her a few moments to think about it and asked her to move off. She walked very sedately around the round pen, doing her best not to bump into the shafts or let them bump into her. My horse that was all about GO? Now only had one speed. S.L.O.W!!!
I picked up my lines and stayed off to the side of the shafts and drove her around the pen a few times, making some turns, smaller circles, stopping and she handled it all beautifully. I have since put the shafts on her several times and every time, she just does so well and handles it all in stride with no issues. While she has her physical limitations, I don't use them as an excuse to go easy on her. If she can handle the work, we do the work. If I need to back up a few steps and fix something, we do. If it's all good, we move on to new things. So far so good. If she never moves up past training level, that's ok. Prelim? Fine too, but I'm not going to push her and expect a lot or even any speed from her right now. She may have been a racehorse before, but it's going to be a different type of course this time around. I have no doubt that she will be able to handle it.
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