I wanted to continue Sally's (3 year old reining futurity filly) little training log because on some rides I learn some really cool stuff and I want to try and jot it down before I forget.
First of all I am growing more hopeful about her after Saturday's reining club practice- Victoria Peterson likes the way she looks loping around so I asked if she would ride her for me and the end result to Vic was that Sally looks better than she feels.
The mare lopes around cute but comes out of frame when asked for speed and drops the inside shoulder on left circles. Also at speed she flops out of lead especially to the left.
Anyway after Saturday I felt pretty good about her because she did everything pretty good in spite of a less than fancy circle to the left and I felt like she is getting more solid- especially since I really drove her up in the bridle with my feet in her belly and her face back behind the bridle and her head between her legs- I know its not political correct to those who fancy themselves as natural horsemen but the fact is the mare cannot hardly gallop a lick without being pushed into frame and galloped that way and really I have to work hard at keeping her head down at the lead departure which is also one of her weak suites. When she is correct I pitch her a little slack but when that shoulder starts to drop I pick her up and drive it back over. Ive also started using more inside leg. I think it keeps her mind on the inside and helps her bend around my leg, and relax.
So today I worked pretty hard at the lope, bot ways, I threw in some counter cantering, at the circle and serpentines which I plan to do more of. I changed leads both ways and decided she needs work on he good side- the right because she doesnt change as good that way so I did some hip control at counter canter and two tracking and tried to get her sucke back to the right and thinking to the right.
When I felt she had done good and I was about to put her up
I did some circles so I could start off whit her head way down in the lead departure an and see how she would do going to the fence from the left circle. That was a good drill for her because her tendency when going from left circle straight and building speed is to change leads to the right and veer a little to the right. But I kept it slow so she would understand to go straight and maybe she would program herself to keep straight if I was just repetitious and didn't ask her for too much speed and train on her too much.
At the very end of the ride- or what I thought would be the very end I pitched her away and let her run some circles to the left and she was as trashy as ever. She started dropping that inside shoulder and near the north end of the arena she wanted to leak out and quit guiding. Of course then, when you guide her inside she flops out of lead because she is thinking right in a left circle. It was a little messy and I got her thinking to the inside again- I used my inside leg a lot to get her to bend around my leg and it worked ok but the big problem is she is thinking right so I really need to take her left sharp and repetitious ala' Dell Hendricks or neck rein her in and then direct rein her in, until she's driving through herself and turning around, ala' me.
One thing that happened when I pitched her away and sped her up was she really wanted to drop her shoulder to the inside. I tried just steering her out a little and she stayed somewhat straight but her shoulder was in which I dont like. I kept the speed up and then she flopped out of lead and I kept her in the fast circle and soon swapped in front and was running fast in the wrong lead. Instead of panicking and getting after her I just kept her in it and when really fast. I finally got her back in the correct lead with out fighting with her or scaring her and when she got in the correct lead I let her slow down and pretty much rewarded her by stopping after she relaxed and loped slow.
I was about to quit and was letting her catch her air in the middle. I thought about putting her up but then I thought if she wanted to be at the south end of the arena so much, near Sparky, a pony who lives in a pen on the other side of the fence. So I let her catch some air and decided to put her to work near the Sparky end of the arena.
I decided to just jog some circles near the fence – I didn't want to be too hard on her. Well, she started hunting the turn around so I thought I would go ahead and let her hunt the turn around and do the drill Tom Foran uses on his new video.
I had on sharp spurs which really helps Sally because she is so lazy and thick skinned. She responds really well to the sharp spurs and I dont have to work as hard. I trotted her in a circle bumping her with leg and spur and when she wanted to turn (spin) I let her, noticing that when she went by the fence I lost her attention because she must have been looking towards sparky. Anyway she figured out pretty soon that being bumped in the circle was worse than spinning so she was really hunting the spin and when she spun I removed the leg and let her turn. It worked really good. So I went to the other side and she was sluggish and that shoulder that drops to the left in a left circle stuck out to the left in a right circle. When she went into the turn I took my legs off but she was still sluggish in the turn. So I kept fishing for her to start hunting the turn around. I rewarded her by releasing pressure when she started to spin but she stayed sluggish. But when I addressed that shoulder sticking to the outside while trotting and shoved on the rib with the spur and put her in a straighter arc she really aligned herself and hustled and started hunting the turn around. I let her spin a few times and finally she really turned the crank and turned harder than she has or as hard at least but I wasnt really asking. She was doing it on her own because I made her hustle in the circle with a spur she respected and I didn't have to spur hard. Thats the best that that drill, or any drill has ever worked for me. She was huffing and puffing but she spun hard, HARD to the right on her own and I didn't touch her with the spur in the turn around. Then we left that end of the arena and walked to the middle and I let her air up. I tied her up and let her rest under the shade of the juniper tree that I haven't cut down on the north end
Monday, June 22, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Fencing Sally
Another thing sally was doing when I added speed fencing her in the left lead was to swap to the right lead and veer right- the guiding drill where I got her following her nose to the left and veering her to the left really helped this- its odd that her shoulder is stuck out to the left but when I ask for speed she want to travel to the right- weirdly It help to fix her be letting her keep her shoulder to the left and veer left into the fence. By doing that she stayed in the proper lead and learned to no squirt to the right when being fenced. But in the end the thin that woked best was yarding her to the left when she went right and making her follow her nose into a left turn around a few times.
maine Things Sally has taught me
Sally- 3 year old reining futurity mare- Nice disposition and can stop and turn around a little and change leads but she has a little trouble with lead departures and really wants to drop her shoulder to the left in her left circles- she has been that way since I started her as a two year old.
But her biggest problem by far is that when you speed her up in her circles to the left she flops out of lead.
The best way to deal with this has been to counter canter small right cirles in the left lead- specially if she wants to flop out of lead and go to a certain place in the arena I take her to that place and counter canter or at least trot some counter arc circles. This has helped a bunch- mainly because it doesnt involve staying in the circle and correcting on her- that scares her because I've made to big of issue out of it and exacerbated the problem.
In her turn arounds to the left she also kind of wants to drop her shoulder a tad and leak out forward. It helped a bunch when I made it crystal clear that she needed to keep her nose to the inside- bumped her nose to the inside when I neck reined her and didnt quit untill she kept it to the inside when I neck reined her.
Also what really helped a bunch in her turn around and her circles was when I got her guiding better by making sure she would follow her nose when trotting or loping into a small circle and driving her into a turn around. When she followed her nose with a direct rein and booting her with the outside leg back behind the cinch- when she followed her nose and started spinning with some hustle I would let her come out- Thats the best litmus test for making sure the horse is driving all the way through itself- I learned it from Tony Garcial- he used to have me lope a circle and make the horse drive through itself into a smaller circle intill it was turning around and then lope out after a turn or two- its a great test to see if you horse is guiding and turning.
Also he taught me to trot or lope little circles, stop and roll back back into the little circle- little circle as in as small as it can possibly lope. You really end up working hard and hauling on the reins and yarding them around quite a bit untill they get off the rein and between your legs- but then when you stop and let them settle a bit- they are really ready to turn around.
Linda did these two drills on Sparky and it made a huge difference in his turn around- When I did it on Sally it made a huge difference in her turn and also her guiding.
What really helped her in her turn was when I stuffed my dull spur into her side and dug it in as far as I could and made her turn entirely off of my spur- the deeper I dug the better she turned. This totally changed her turn. Instead of leaking out she sucked back and stepped that inside foot right under the stirrup where it belongs- If she tried to slow I just stuffed it in further untill she got off of it. I took it of intermittantly when I could but surprisingly the more I stuck it it the better she turned- there was no need at all to try to bridle her up and keep her from leaking forward.- Also she kept her head down and even looked into the inside properly- which is the exact opposite of what you might think she would do. Now I need to refine it so I dont need to cue her so hard when I do it because I want to save the really strong spur cue for turning her off of my leg in the show pen.
Also in her circles I went back to bending her around my inside leg so and neck reining her down to a small little slow circle that ends with me kicking the hind end out of gear when I neck rein er and use my inside leg to kick her out of gear.
Also demanding that she keep her head down when she lope off and also really keeping my legs stuffed into her sides and driving her forward and into the bridle and demanding she lope correctly. She was great to the right this way- better to the left but I have to work on it a lto harder and pick up that stubborn inside shoulder- I worked on counter cantering with the shoulder up as opposed to driving the hip in also I bridled her up and picked up the inside- I think I'll put her in the draw reins
She does best when I let her air up in between loping sessions and keep her from getting scared. Even though she is really lazy she seems to do best when she has a lot of time to warm up- and rest between loping sessions and lope, lope lope. She is a lot of work and though she is lazy and gentle it seems to require lots of riding mixed with resting to get her brain engaged. When she is allowed to catch her air for five minutes she really does some nice stuff. Good to know before taking her to the horse show.
In her turn arounds
But her biggest problem by far is that when you speed her up in her circles to the left she flops out of lead.
The best way to deal with this has been to counter canter small right cirles in the left lead- specially if she wants to flop out of lead and go to a certain place in the arena I take her to that place and counter canter or at least trot some counter arc circles. This has helped a bunch- mainly because it doesnt involve staying in the circle and correcting on her- that scares her because I've made to big of issue out of it and exacerbated the problem.
In her turn arounds to the left she also kind of wants to drop her shoulder a tad and leak out forward. It helped a bunch when I made it crystal clear that she needed to keep her nose to the inside- bumped her nose to the inside when I neck reined her and didnt quit untill she kept it to the inside when I neck reined her.
Also what really helped a bunch in her turn around and her circles was when I got her guiding better by making sure she would follow her nose when trotting or loping into a small circle and driving her into a turn around. When she followed her nose with a direct rein and booting her with the outside leg back behind the cinch- when she followed her nose and started spinning with some hustle I would let her come out- Thats the best litmus test for making sure the horse is driving all the way through itself- I learned it from Tony Garcial- he used to have me lope a circle and make the horse drive through itself into a smaller circle intill it was turning around and then lope out after a turn or two- its a great test to see if you horse is guiding and turning.
Also he taught me to trot or lope little circles, stop and roll back back into the little circle- little circle as in as small as it can possibly lope. You really end up working hard and hauling on the reins and yarding them around quite a bit untill they get off the rein and between your legs- but then when you stop and let them settle a bit- they are really ready to turn around.
Linda did these two drills on Sparky and it made a huge difference in his turn around- When I did it on Sally it made a huge difference in her turn and also her guiding.
What really helped her in her turn was when I stuffed my dull spur into her side and dug it in as far as I could and made her turn entirely off of my spur- the deeper I dug the better she turned. This totally changed her turn. Instead of leaking out she sucked back and stepped that inside foot right under the stirrup where it belongs- If she tried to slow I just stuffed it in further untill she got off of it. I took it of intermittantly when I could but surprisingly the more I stuck it it the better she turned- there was no need at all to try to bridle her up and keep her from leaking forward.- Also she kept her head down and even looked into the inside properly- which is the exact opposite of what you might think she would do. Now I need to refine it so I dont need to cue her so hard when I do it because I want to save the really strong spur cue for turning her off of my leg in the show pen.
Also in her circles I went back to bending her around my inside leg so and neck reining her down to a small little slow circle that ends with me kicking the hind end out of gear when I neck rein er and use my inside leg to kick her out of gear.
Also demanding that she keep her head down when she lope off and also really keeping my legs stuffed into her sides and driving her forward and into the bridle and demanding she lope correctly. She was great to the right this way- better to the left but I have to work on it a lto harder and pick up that stubborn inside shoulder- I worked on counter cantering with the shoulder up as opposed to driving the hip in also I bridled her up and picked up the inside- I think I'll put her in the draw reins
She does best when I let her air up in between loping sessions and keep her from getting scared. Even though she is really lazy she seems to do best when she has a lot of time to warm up- and rest between loping sessions and lope, lope lope. She is a lot of work and though she is lazy and gentle it seems to require lots of riding mixed with resting to get her brain engaged. When she is allowed to catch her air for five minutes she really does some nice stuff. Good to know before taking her to the horse show.
In her turn arounds
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