Friday, December 24, 2010
Hackamore
Really am starting to like riding in the hackamore- I have one mare that responds especially well= it doesnt scare her but she respects it, The Bozal helps her keep her shoulders up.
Fencing
I try to fence my horses almost every time I ride them now because it teaches them to run straight. It also teaches them to run. When they are far enough along I speed them up. It does lots of good things. When you can speed them up its like blowing the carbon out of them. When you stop them at speed it makes them pay attention and want to go slow. So it takes more effort to get them to speed up, which makes them even want to stop more. If you have one that stops hard but isnt free in the front end, like the Jac Daniels Neat three year old I'm riding, fencing, all the way to the fence will get them thinking about running and the more you do it and they get used to it the more relaxed they will become and that frees up the front end to.
Another thing that helps is something Doug Phipps used to do when I rode with him twenty years ago or so. When I run down and ask for a stop and the horse jams his front feet in the ground I just instantaneously trot forward to the fence or sometimes lope off again. I try to get him so when I pull on the reins he slows down and keeps going forward, - doesnt slam into the ground. That there, combined with the fencing will really help to keep them mobile up front when you do say the word Whoa!
Another thing that helps is something Doug Phipps used to do when I rode with him twenty years ago or so. When I run down and ask for a stop and the horse jams his front feet in the ground I just instantaneously trot forward to the fence or sometimes lope off again. I try to get him so when I pull on the reins he slows down and keeps going forward, - doesnt slam into the ground. That there, combined with the fencing will really help to keep them mobile up front when you do say the word Whoa!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Being a technician
When I get frustrated because I'm not riding the caliber of horse I would like to be riding I think about being a good horseman. You have to have a special, athletic, good minded horse to do well in reining competition. So when I'm not riding one that fits this description I need to remind myself that I can still be a good horse technician and work on doing the very best with what I have. So when I do get that good one I'll be prepared. Also, its rewarding to know you've been the best horseman you can be and got as much out of a particular horse as possible, even if your the only one who knows it. There is pride in that and it will not go unrewarded.
A good way to discover if your riding a decent horse is to watch a video of it or watch someone else ride it. Its a good way to bring you back down to earth if you find yourself thinking your horse is better than he is.
A good way to discover if your riding a decent horse is to watch a video of it or watch someone else ride it. Its a good way to bring you back down to earth if you find yourself thinking your horse is better than he is.
Tie downs
They work good- If a horse is fighting the bit and raising their head up I'll just tie it down. They seem to deal with it better than if you fight with them to keep it down- it works- The bottom line for me isn't to have perfect hands, although I pride myself in having knowledgeable hands, the bottom line is to end up with a broke, broke horse. If I have to use a tie down to do it, so be it. The horse stays happy and thats how you get them broke, not by upsetting them day in and day out. Brett Stone won the 92 futurity on Boomernick. I think he trained him in a tie down often.
Bits
I love rotating bits. I like to get them really really broke in the snaffle, ie, smooth snaffle, gag snaffle, gag snaffle in draw reins, small twisted wire- a young horse will bridle up pretty nicely in a small twisted wire snaffle, in one hand if you get him really broke to the snaffle.
After they get pretty broke in the snaffle, moving to the shank snaffle they feel surprisingly broke, when they get good in that, if you've done your homework they will feel fabulous, (Humble - 3) in the correction bit- then if you use a correction to bump that nose or chin in, they take you very seriously.
I like to keep rotating bits draw reins etc and not keep them too long in any one shank bit if I can help it. Like to rotate around in the snaffles to keep them fresh.
After they get pretty broke in the snaffle, moving to the shank snaffle they feel surprisingly broke, when they get good in that, if you've done your homework they will feel fabulous, (Humble - 3) in the correction bit- then if you use a correction to bump that nose or chin in, they take you very seriously.
I like to keep rotating bits draw reins etc and not keep them too long in any one shank bit if I can help it. Like to rotate around in the snaffles to keep them fresh.
Looking the right way in the spin
If they get to tipping the nose out in the spin it helps just to hold the nose in and not punish to much if they want to look out.
Occasionally popping the inside rein will tip the nose correctly but it will make the jaw stiff.
If you just keep getting them broke, eventually shoving that outside spur in the side and waiting for them to turn works- they figure out, sometimes with a little help from you that its easier to look where they are going and will look away from that spur.
Like Mike Helson says, "become part of the equation" (help them in the turn, dont punish them)
Occasionally popping the inside rein will tip the nose correctly but it will make the jaw stiff.
If you just keep getting them broke, eventually shoving that outside spur in the side and waiting for them to turn works- they figure out, sometimes with a little help from you that its easier to look where they are going and will look away from that spur.
Like Mike Helson says, "become part of the equation" (help them in the turn, dont punish them)
Guiding in Circles
Sometimes they learn to keep their nose tipped in if you do it when they're bridled up- by bumping that nose in and showing them firmly.
Sometimes just pitching them away and bumping that chin up and over when it tips the wrong way will help them learn to not look to the outside while circling- Helped 3 year old Humble a lot, leaning to circle one handed. Sometimes it even helps if a horse is sticking that shoulder out to the outside- to bump that outside rein up on the chin to straighten them up. The downside is you lose some softness- So it might not be the best thing to do in every circumstance.
Sometimes just pitching them away and bumping that chin up and over when it tips the wrong way will help them learn to not look to the outside while circling- Helped 3 year old Humble a lot, leaning to circle one handed. Sometimes it even helps if a horse is sticking that shoulder out to the outside- to bump that outside rein up on the chin to straighten them up. The downside is you lose some softness- So it might not be the best thing to do in every circumstance.
Lead changes
The number one rule when teaching lead changes is still the same. Dont Panic.
If they miss a lead change just relax and stop. Make sure they are moving off your legs before asking again.
If they are green and dont change at all when you ask just quit asking for a stride or two or three or four or so and then go to asking again for a stride or a few. If they still dont change just repeat the entire process, its no big deal. Dont get after him and scare him. If he still doesnt change just stop and work on getting him to move sideways, or laterally as they say, off of your legs. Maybe do some twenty fives before asking him again. He might not be ready yet.
If they miss a lead change just relax and stop. Make sure they are moving off your legs before asking again.
If they are green and dont change at all when you ask just quit asking for a stride or two or three or four or so and then go to asking again for a stride or a few. If they still dont change just repeat the entire process, its no big deal. Dont get after him and scare him. If he still doesnt change just stop and work on getting him to move sideways, or laterally as they say, off of your legs. Maybe do some twenty fives before asking him again. He might not be ready yet.
Relaxing in the circles
If the horse wants to continually speed up in circles, teach them to relax by breaking down to the trot, then walk, then stop and back or walk a quiet circle. Humble, our five year old derby horse, we hope, quit being so nervous in his circles when he learned to neck rein into a smaller circle, then break down into a jog, then a lope, with light contact, until he learned to do it on his own- then when I'd neck rein him in and he wanted to slow down, all I have to do is ad a little leg or a chirp and he keeps going. This is much better than having to pull on them all the time.
Pulling them in the ground helps sometimes but if you do it too abruptly you can scare or sting them and they get wound up again. So stopping them by removing your legs or saying whoa, or quietly breaking them down to the trot, then walk, stop, back up- whatever, just dont scare them.
Also, taking a little time and refreshing them in backing off when you remove the slack from the reins, ie rock back, remove your legs from their slides and slap the shoulders without scaring them will remind them to go slower in their circles.
Pulling them in the ground helps sometimes but if you do it too abruptly you can scare or sting them and they get wound up again. So stopping them by removing your legs or saying whoa, or quietly breaking them down to the trot, then walk, stop, back up- whatever, just dont scare them.
Also, taking a little time and refreshing them in backing off when you remove the slack from the reins, ie rock back, remove your legs from their slides and slap the shoulders without scaring them will remind them to go slower in their circles.
Backing off
Getting my horses backed off by backing them by slapping them in the shoulders with my feet when I take the slack out of my reins helps a horse stop and learn to slow down in rundowns and circles. Works best if you do it in straight lines first.
When they get good at backing when the slack is removed from the reins I do it at a walk, then a trot, and then a lope then at speed. You keep your legs on the horse, walk him forward remove your legs and if they dont back you slap them in the shoulders- but you can only do it moving forward when the horse gets really good from the standstill.
Once you do it at a lope, starting with his butt to the fence like your gonna fence him. Young horses learn to stop better this way. Lope off, after about fifteen or twenty feet remove your legs and back to the fence. Work at getting them to back to the fence just by slapping them in the shoulders, not by picking up the reins - at least shoot for that. If you ask a young horse to gallop three quarters of the way down the arena they kind of forget how to stop and stop on their front ends sometimes. But if you stop and back up before you get a quarter or half way down the arena and back to the fence they learn to stop on their back end. When they stop and back on their own, immediately when you remove your legs from around their belly they will really learn to stop on their back end.
If they get chargy in their circles, quit, go to the end of the area, or do it where you are, remove your legs and back up a few times at the walk, jog and lope, then go back to circles and they'll sometimes chill out.
When they get good at backing when the slack is removed from the reins I do it at a walk, then a trot, and then a lope then at speed. You keep your legs on the horse, walk him forward remove your legs and if they dont back you slap them in the shoulders- but you can only do it moving forward when the horse gets really good from the standstill.
Once you do it at a lope, starting with his butt to the fence like your gonna fence him. Young horses learn to stop better this way. Lope off, after about fifteen or twenty feet remove your legs and back to the fence. Work at getting them to back to the fence just by slapping them in the shoulders, not by picking up the reins - at least shoot for that. If you ask a young horse to gallop three quarters of the way down the arena they kind of forget how to stop and stop on their front ends sometimes. But if you stop and back up before you get a quarter or half way down the arena and back to the fence they learn to stop on their back end. When they stop and back on their own, immediately when you remove your legs from around their belly they will really learn to stop on their back end.
If they get chargy in their circles, quit, go to the end of the area, or do it where you are, remove your legs and back up a few times at the walk, jog and lope, then go back to circles and they'll sometimes chill out.
Twenty fives
Have not blogged in a while, but one thing thats helped a bunch when training horses and teaching others to train is twenty-fives. The bottom line is to ask a horse twenty five times - give him twenty five chances to be corrected or perform a low level exercise before moving on. Some examples would be: A chargy or fast horse- do twenty five relaxed rollbacks instead of punishing him. If twenty five doesn't work, do fifty.
For lead changes lope the horse the length of the arena twenty five times asking him to move his hip over on the straight aways, each way. If you did this for twenty five days lead changes would probably be easier. Besides whats the rush.
Twenty five is the minimum number. If twenty five doesn't work, do fifty, if that isnt enough do 100- I'm not talking about high pressure stuff- I'm saying repeat over and over and if the horse isnt getting it repeat some more- don't get in a big fight with the horse and punish him. Also, I'm not talking about doing strenuous stuff thats gonna run him out of air and over stress his hocks or injure him.
There is nothing special about twenty five of anything. It just makes you slow down when you get compulsive and want to rush. It works. Its as much for the rider as it is the horse.
For lead changes lope the horse the length of the arena twenty five times asking him to move his hip over on the straight aways, each way. If you did this for twenty five days lead changes would probably be easier. Besides whats the rush.
Twenty five is the minimum number. If twenty five doesn't work, do fifty, if that isnt enough do 100- I'm not talking about high pressure stuff- I'm saying repeat over and over and if the horse isnt getting it repeat some more- don't get in a big fight with the horse and punish him. Also, I'm not talking about doing strenuous stuff thats gonna run him out of air and over stress his hocks or injure him.
There is nothing special about twenty five of anything. It just makes you slow down when you get compulsive and want to rush. It works. Its as much for the rider as it is the horse.
Heuristic Horse Training
Word for today. Heuristic :
1.Serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.
2.Encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error.
3.Of, pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.
4.Denoting a rule of thumb for solving a problem without the exhaustive application of an algorithm
When I help people serious about training their horses- This is what I try to instill in them because while you can have a formula, all horses are different and to train horses you have to think and troubleshoot. You also have to feel and know what you want which comes from experience.
1.Serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.
2.Encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error.
3.Of, pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.
4.Denoting a rule of thumb for solving a problem without the exhaustive application of an algorithm
When I help people serious about training their horses- This is what I try to instill in them because while you can have a formula, all horses are different and to train horses you have to think and troubleshoot. You also have to feel and know what you want which comes from experience.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Lead changes and stuff
It sure is easier for me to change one with my hands than my legs- oh, I can change one with my legs but usually I have to poke him too hard and he gets scared. or he misses. I'm going to try using my hands more in conjunction with my feet and see how that works.
Dell Hendricks said something that sticks in my mind- If I have to ask 100 times and he doesnt change I'm just gonna let the fence stop me and try again. Gotta remember that.
When Sally Montana was 3 she used to flop out of lead behind and I got so frustrated trying to keep her from doing that that when she did I'd just take a holt of her and kick with my spur until she took the correct lead again and yeah, at first she thriew her head up in the air a lot especially at first and I never got her to where she wouldnt flop out of lead on a circle to the left if I asked for any speed. But in the end I will have to say that she got really good at changing leads to the left- because when she flopped out I'd bang on her till she flopped back in.
So that kind of goes against the golden rules of flying lead change training
1) Don't Panic
2) dont scare them
3) Or hurt them
they are all of equal importance
another thing I'm figuring out is that you cant be amiguous an any of your training especially so as your horses get futher along in training. You have to take a holt of them and show them exactly what you want- sometimes you really do have to help them a lot so they know what you want- giving them enough rope to hang themselves with doesnt always work- you have to make it clear to them sometimes by not letting them screw up- or they will- so if his head gets out of position in the turn around you may have to put their head where you want it and hold it there for a second or two so he knows exactly what you want before you release it or soften your hands a little- be part of the equation is what Mike Helson told me- it makes sense, or if he raises his head and stiffens his jaw and neck in a roll back- help him stay soft in the roll back and show him what you want- dont let him screw up and then punish him-
Yes in the turn around if he gets out of whack you can put him in a circle and show him the proper position to be in before returning to the turn around and yes you do have to leave them alone so you can see what happens and what they do on a loose rein- but dont let them develop bad habits- release them for a second or two and see what you got or show them what you want then release to see if their picking it up- youve got to go back and forth untill the correct position becomes habit.
Dell Hendricks said something that sticks in my mind- If I have to ask 100 times and he doesnt change I'm just gonna let the fence stop me and try again. Gotta remember that.
When Sally Montana was 3 she used to flop out of lead behind and I got so frustrated trying to keep her from doing that that when she did I'd just take a holt of her and kick with my spur until she took the correct lead again and yeah, at first she thriew her head up in the air a lot especially at first and I never got her to where she wouldnt flop out of lead on a circle to the left if I asked for any speed. But in the end I will have to say that she got really good at changing leads to the left- because when she flopped out I'd bang on her till she flopped back in.
So that kind of goes against the golden rules of flying lead change training
1) Don't Panic
2) dont scare them
3) Or hurt them
they are all of equal importance
another thing I'm figuring out is that you cant be amiguous an any of your training especially so as your horses get futher along in training. You have to take a holt of them and show them exactly what you want- sometimes you really do have to help them a lot so they know what you want- giving them enough rope to hang themselves with doesnt always work- you have to make it clear to them sometimes by not letting them screw up- or they will- so if his head gets out of position in the turn around you may have to put their head where you want it and hold it there for a second or two so he knows exactly what you want before you release it or soften your hands a little- be part of the equation is what Mike Helson told me- it makes sense, or if he raises his head and stiffens his jaw and neck in a roll back- help him stay soft in the roll back and show him what you want- dont let him screw up and then punish him-
Yes in the turn around if he gets out of whack you can put him in a circle and show him the proper position to be in before returning to the turn around and yes you do have to leave them alone so you can see what happens and what they do on a loose rein- but dont let them develop bad habits- release them for a second or two and see what you got or show them what you want then release to see if their picking it up- youve got to go back and forth untill the correct position becomes habit.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
John Irish Illistration
I was giving a lessen to a friend who was struggling to get her horse to 'give" into the bridle- get soft and straight with the shoulders in the middle and lifted up. When they do give they drop their head when you release. But my friend couldnt get this to work for her so I showed her how John Irish does it. He bumps, convincingly with his spurs- in the belly, only he rides with a short stirrip. so he bumps more in the sides, the ribs. And he will pull the reins in one hand towards his belly button untill the horse gives, bumping the chin is the exclemation mark! So I demonstrated this method on the mare I was riding. I was very CLEAR to the mare. Bumped hard with the spurs, bumped hard with the hands. Sorry. Thats just the way it was. So my student would understand that you can be firm without being mad. I made myself clear to both the student and the mare I was riding. The mare understood - the light went on- and she loped correctly and stopped hard. So I made my point. To all three of us.
Sit on my Pockets
I'm trying to ride with a shorter stirrup. Its hard for me to keep my but from bouncing up and down. So when I wrap my legs around the horse I tried pulling myself down into the saddle so my butt wouldnt pop on the saddle. So I wouldnt have to rely on to much of a rediculous pelvic thrusting to keep my pockets down. So when I wrap my legs around the horse I pull my butt into the saddle. With my but I push with the horse. With my legs I kick and pull up. Not really a kick but a wave- calves in contact and sometimes spurs, pulling up and back wich brings my butt down and when it comes down I push it forward so I'm not flopping, my legs arnt clinging but wrapping and waving and with all of this I'm driving the horse forward in a rythmic motion. Supposedly anyway. So I did this on my rundowns and it felt like I was driving the horse forward and his head was staying down and I wasnt flopping around up there. I think it helped. I think it was correct. I hope its better horsemanship and helps the horse and helps me be a better rider, trainer, driver and horseman.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Lope a little ways and stop
I'm having good luck these days loping a circle or part of a circle, breaking down to a trot, circling down, quietly kicking the hind end out of gear, and doing it over and over. Soon the horse learns to want to go slow, stop and rest. works better than loping them down all the time to get them tired. Really is working good on Fashisle in getting him to hunt the middle wanting to slow down from a large fast.
Hes weird- if something scares him he gets curious and wants to go to it. I had thought he quit guiding and on the new track he did but it was more that scary thing he was attracted to at the new place- finally, doing the neck rein drill in the circle until he responded- many many many times- he relaxed and got better.
Chilled him out just to lope in the hackamore, guiding with the neck rein back through the middle untill he succomed and chilled and relaxed and started guiding again.
Hes weird- if something scares him he gets curious and wants to go to it. I had thought he quit guiding and on the new track he did but it was more that scary thing he was attracted to at the new place- finally, doing the neck rein drill in the circle until he responded- many many many times- he relaxed and got better.
Chilled him out just to lope in the hackamore, guiding with the neck rein back through the middle untill he succomed and chilled and relaxed and started guiding again.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Kicking the Hind end around with dispatch, hustle and demanding maximum effort
I think the cinch is hurting Whizzy a little, maybe thats why he's loosing his guide to the right- it WAS great- I've schooled him on that more than anything-but it went to pot about a week ago and was worse today, after being better, some, intermittently throughout the last week of hard training. I can only conclude that something is hurting him- changed saddles and pads mid ride and let him rest and he felt better-
one thing I learned while taking his hind end out of gear at ultra high speed- the fastest I ever demanded he turn on the forehand- learned that I have not really been demanding he do it with dispatch- settling for a step or two for a long time now. But today a rolled my spur up his flank hard and fast and several times, wang, wang, wang, in a row with a couple sharp bumps from the spur and he flew off that leg and ran that back end around the front end-
I've practiced kicking the hind end out often but not really demanded much- and now I realize there is a big difference and I need to quit babying him and get him as good and responsive and competent at the turn on the forehand as I command at the spin. So I'll be working on that after I give Whizzy a breather for a week or so to get over whats been pinching him or whatever. I think its the neoprene girth.
After turning him on the forehand with much more authority and making him really get after it and get off my leg I asked for a lead change- off of the same leg (right) and he beat me to the punch- so I know thats gonna help a tun with my lead changes. Another hole in my program exposed- Every-time I have hell and struggle through and issue- when I face it head on and stick with it and experiment and working through it I always end up learning something new and being glad I confronted the issue.
one thing I learned while taking his hind end out of gear at ultra high speed- the fastest I ever demanded he turn on the forehand- learned that I have not really been demanding he do it with dispatch- settling for a step or two for a long time now. But today a rolled my spur up his flank hard and fast and several times, wang, wang, wang, in a row with a couple sharp bumps from the spur and he flew off that leg and ran that back end around the front end-
I've practiced kicking the hind end out often but not really demanded much- and now I realize there is a big difference and I need to quit babying him and get him as good and responsive and competent at the turn on the forehand as I command at the spin. So I'll be working on that after I give Whizzy a breather for a week or so to get over whats been pinching him or whatever. I think its the neoprene girth.
After turning him on the forehand with much more authority and making him really get after it and get off my leg I asked for a lead change- off of the same leg (right) and he beat me to the punch- so I know thats gonna help a tun with my lead changes. Another hole in my program exposed- Every-time I have hell and struggle through and issue- when I face it head on and stick with it and experiment and working through it I always end up learning something new and being glad I confronted the issue.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Drills
I erased my original draft. So I'm gonna do the abbreviated version. Drill, drill, drill. Fence the horse. Do the neck rein circle drill until the horse gets better, then fence again and repeat the neck rein circle walking drill. Over and over, same thing- fence, circle drill, fence circle drill repeat. Hopefully this will help with galloping circles but I need to experiment.
When whizzy wanted to look left, go east while galloping a circle to the right, so I turned him to the inside, sometimes kicking the hind end out of gear, but I ended up resting on the west end and he began liking the west end. Also he began wanting to slow down and stop on his own. Where as tuning on him had made him worse. I only galloped one circle at a time on him, sometimes two but mostly one. I really had to pedal him to make him go which I like, so I'm gonna start doing this in the middle, lope a circle , kick the hind end out let him rest, repeat, repeat, repeat. Until he gets programmed- sounds bad but it works better than just loping the crap out of them, tuning on them etc.
Also Im gonn try it more for shoulder dropping to the inside, lope a circle, spin to the outside and repeat it over and over and over untill the horse anticipates it and starts drifting the shoulder out in anticipation.
When whizzy wanted to look left, go east while galloping a circle to the right, so I turned him to the inside, sometimes kicking the hind end out of gear, but I ended up resting on the west end and he began liking the west end. Also he began wanting to slow down and stop on his own. Where as tuning on him had made him worse. I only galloped one circle at a time on him, sometimes two but mostly one. I really had to pedal him to make him go which I like, so I'm gonna start doing this in the middle, lope a circle , kick the hind end out let him rest, repeat, repeat, repeat. Until he gets programmed- sounds bad but it works better than just loping the crap out of them, tuning on them etc.
Also Im gonn try it more for shoulder dropping to the inside, lope a circle, spin to the outside and repeat it over and over and over untill the horse anticipates it and starts drifting the shoulder out in anticipation.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Softness and using spurs to help
I'm guilty of doing too e much bumping and now I'm beginning to realize its getting in the way of making my horses soft. Tony Garcia was big on getting them soft and I really learned about it from him but I got away from it in favor of to much bumping andI training and forcing.
I watched a Clinton Anderson show on tv in which he talked about softness and gave an illustration about peoples concern with getting heads "past vertical" (run for your lives he said) And how Ian Francis explained that a horse cant get on his front end from being to soft in the face if he is being driven by his hind end by using the riders legs. The show was rescue horse Givaway part 12. I recommend it.
Also he talks about using the feet to help the horse to get soft ie. direct rein and inside spur to get the horse off the bit while just standing and softening. I kind of used to do this a bit after working with Tony but got away from it Because Craig Johnson brought it to my attention how criticle it is they look away from the spur especially in the spin.
But I tinkered with my horses Friday, just at the walk and standing, softening laterally, using my spur a tad, just to bump a little , keeping my hand soft, bending, counter bending, backing in circles, moving hips, kicking the hind end out of gear. Mainly softening the sides and bending, keeping my hands still instead of bumping and giving the horse time to relax. I did some vertical flexing also and just kept it quiet for a long time. It was a little sloppy and I didnt lope the two year old. But after I spent so much time softening the 3 year old quietly and keeping my hands SOFT and STILL He loped off quietly with his head down, neck soft and when he wanted to lift up it was easy to put it back down because he was relaxed. It was way less work and confrontation than what I had been doing and I'm gonna go back to doing way more of this. It will really help to do it daily when I dont want to put a hard ride on the horses and it will be really good for the two year olds to get them soft and broke to sell as furutity prospects.
I watched a Clinton Anderson show on tv in which he talked about softness and gave an illustration about peoples concern with getting heads "past vertical" (run for your lives he said) And how Ian Francis explained that a horse cant get on his front end from being to soft in the face if he is being driven by his hind end by using the riders legs. The show was rescue horse Givaway part 12. I recommend it.
Also he talks about using the feet to help the horse to get soft ie. direct rein and inside spur to get the horse off the bit while just standing and softening. I kind of used to do this a bit after working with Tony but got away from it Because Craig Johnson brought it to my attention how criticle it is they look away from the spur especially in the spin.
But I tinkered with my horses Friday, just at the walk and standing, softening laterally, using my spur a tad, just to bump a little , keeping my hand soft, bending, counter bending, backing in circles, moving hips, kicking the hind end out of gear. Mainly softening the sides and bending, keeping my hands still instead of bumping and giving the horse time to relax. I did some vertical flexing also and just kept it quiet for a long time. It was a little sloppy and I didnt lope the two year old. But after I spent so much time softening the 3 year old quietly and keeping my hands SOFT and STILL He loped off quietly with his head down, neck soft and when he wanted to lift up it was easy to put it back down because he was relaxed. It was way less work and confrontation than what I had been doing and I'm gonna go back to doing way more of this. It will really help to do it daily when I dont want to put a hard ride on the horses and it will be really good for the two year olds to get them soft and broke to sell as furutity prospects.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Whizzy
Finally I dealt with Wizzys head popping up looking around running stiff by galloping him a lot and wrestling his head down and keeping him off the bit at a lope, meaning he was soft in the face and the whithers- It took lots of riding, and I took a good long while but after wrestling him down, softening my hands and repeating whenever he lifted up or got out of position, and throwing in some rest stops here and there and loping circles to the right and left that he began loping much better- head down, back up and moving deep as opposed to hollowd out and flat. He had to be tired enough to relax some.
Horse trainers like to say they ride twenty minutes and put them up and that is the case sometimes but more often than not if I take my time and ride a little longer and harder. Of course they need some time standing and breathing but I also like to give them breaks from gallopiing by spending recoup time dinking with walking circles, slow turns, working on the finer points like neck reining a circle, kicking the hind end out of gear, stopping and backing at the walk when theyre tired and relaxed. That way they get to air up a little and get trained on when they are attentive and relaxed.
Horse trainers like to say they ride twenty minutes and put them up and that is the case sometimes but more often than not if I take my time and ride a little longer and harder. Of course they need some time standing and breathing but I also like to give them breaks from gallopiing by spending recoup time dinking with walking circles, slow turns, working on the finer points like neck reining a circle, kicking the hind end out of gear, stopping and backing at the walk when theyre tired and relaxed. That way they get to air up a little and get trained on when they are attentive and relaxed.
stiff in the roll back
Doing a few rollbacks on Whizzy yesterday and he was stiff to the right ie I'd neck rein him to the right after stopping or backing and he would bend left and eventually roll back but leading with his shoulder to the right which is incorrect. I softened his jaw by pulling the left rein to my sternum and bumping with the right foot at the belly when backing to lift him up in the belly and give with his jaw. I also made sure when I pulled his head to the right with the direct rein that he gave his nose first then head and neck and his feet came along immidiately which I accomplished by bumping him in the shoulder- he can deal with being bumped in the shoulder if his neck is bent the other way and his head tipped- in other words he is pretty bent towards the direction he is going.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
circles continued
Besides just loping short peices of circles then stoppin and turning around a little to the outside or rolling back which has all helped a bunch I also starte doing a lot more of taking the hind end out of gear ie when the horse cant neck rein in a nice arced circle to the left kick the hip out to the right- head to the left- cue with the neck rein then pull with the left direct rein until the nose is soft and the left hind steps over the right hind and out of gear- also it works when loping to come down to a walk - kick the hind end out of gear a few times- then you can work on using the inside leg to keep the rip up in the circles- also it gives the horse something to think about besides schooling to keep the shoulder up loping circles- one more tool to keep them off balance mentaly so they wont lean in. Works good.
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