What Linda has learned lately

Linda is doing a great job on Whiz and getting him more broke daily- he is looking pretty finished although she is still ironing out the small details- I asked her to write down what she has learned lately because the horse is looking so good- I thought I would share it, you know, for posterity.

What I learned on Whiz this week:

1) I have to be right on it when it comes to asking him to stop even if we are just loping during warm ups or while working on other things. No matter what, when I ask him to stop he has to be soft in the face. If he pulls in me even a little or sticks his chin out, I have to have good timing and take hold of his face if he is pulling on me at all. I don't have to jerk or be hard, just firm pulling (or bumping) til he give me his face. That is enough reminder for him to stay soft. Usually the next time I stop him, he stays on his hind end and doesn't slam into the ground on all 4's like he tends to do sometimes. OR, I can fence him a time or two, not necessarily fast, and just soften him at the ends. That works too. The big key here is the timing. If I can catch him right when he starts to pull on the bit, it works better then if I try to do it after the fact.

2) always be ready to correct his guiding. He needs tuned up every day on this.

3) When I counter canter, really ask for that hip. If I use inside leg on him, his hip needs to really swing to the outside, not just a little, a lot, like I saw Craig do on that video.

4) When practicing rollbacks, do a 360 or at least more then a 180. (like Shawn did on the video)

5) Make him move his hip pronto. If he doesn't move his feet try a little pop on his butt with the reins. Not enough to scare him, just a little will do the trick.

6) biggest change Whiz made this week was in his fast loping. I asked for a faster lope which usually means he can get stiff in the legs and even stiff in the face a little. I did the drill where I asked for a faster lope and held onto the horn and the back of the saddle to give me some leverage and then just pushed into him with my spurs. At first, he raised his head and sped up, I just kept my spurs in him till he remembered to put his head down. After he started thinking about putting his head down when I pressed with my spurs I let him stop. We rested awhile and then I tried it again. this time, when I pressed with my spurs, he dropped his head immediately and kept it there even when going pretty fast for him. There was a big change in his loping after that.

7) As far as lead change practice goes, ask for the change, if he raises up or drops the shoulder (which he does especially from right to left) stop him and correct him by moving the shoulder way over to the right. If he gets stiff in the face when I am asking him, stop and soften, don't keep going. Practice setting him up for the change and don't change. just practice the set up til he gets really comfortable with that.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP WITH WHIZ!!

October 19th a productive day

A nice mare was sent to me recently. For almost a couple of months I have been messing with her now. She has been through a couple trainers and one of those guys had some lead change issues with her. She is good leaded- but if you counter canter her, or, at first, tried to move her hip she would panic. This bled through to all of her training- so, if she got in a pickle, she would rear. Not over backwards. She would just stop and hop, hop, hop. Or rear and lunge forward and try to run off. So if you prepared to ask for a lead change - or any kind of change she would stick her head in the air trot a few steps and swap to the other lead. Nice. I have pushed, pulled, bent, kicked, and done all my usual softening efforts, including bitting her up, driving her, putting the string ie. shambone style. She was the kind that if you stop and try to roll back, she could just not do it and if you tried to make it happen that front end was so bracey she would default into rearing mode which didnt mean she would necessarily rear but she was thinking about it. Appearantly to get out of anything she didnt want to do she would rear and she was good at it.

Sadly, what finally got through to her was doing the things I was doing but I had to get harsh with my hands. When I bumped her face down, I BUMPED it down hard- its the only thing she understands.

So when your training a horse- here is what not to do. If your horse is having lead change issues- do not spur it and jerk on its face while you are galloping forward- stop the horse, soften the resistance- move the hip, shoulder, soften the face, sidepass and then start all over again. Dont fight with them going forward at a gallop- its easy to get baited into - I did that Tuesday with Wades 4 year old who is pretty broke but he pulls on my hands changing leads to the right. It just makes him scared and apprehensive to do very much going forward. His changes got worse, when they had been improving.

So on Wednesday, that productive day, after bitting him up straight on for a while I cooled it on the forward galloping when he anticipated or got stiff or chargy or buzzed, and stopped, softened his face- or pulled him off to the side, moved his shoulder, moved his hip, softened his chin and started over- any time he pulled on me, before, after, during a lead change I would stop and remind him and back him off and soften that chin at a standstill or evern walk driving him forward and softening that chin- made a huge difference in his lead changes and attitude.

Another sidenote is get your horse broke to death before trying to do a lot of formal lead changes on him- if he's not to natural leaded- flying change wize, teach him to guide, do good lead departures, sidepass, two track, turn on the forhand, roll back, back in circles, be collected and MOVE HIS FEET! with no resistance. Then you might start messing with the flying lead change.

Another thing that worked on both of these horses when they wanted to stiffen their chin in the turn around was to used direct rein and OUTSIDE leg pressure until they yielded their chin to the bit and became soft. As opposed to using the outside rein so much. So your teaching them to give the inside chin with the outside leg- takes some effort but gets them even more broke.