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.

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.

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.

circles- take 10,000- Or using the thinking side of the Brain. Not the horses, MINE.

So Ive been struggling with Whiz and his circles - all of my horses want to drop their shoulder to the left- for a few days Ive been fighting with him wanting to look to the right, drift to the right or drop his shoulder to the left and go left= I couldnt turn the corner or guide him over in a circle with his nose going first without a tug of war. I got to thinking... geese, if I cant figure out why all my horses drop their shoulders to the left I'm gonna go stinking crazy. But it finally donned on my today while picking rocks in the arena that the problem is that I confront the problem head on while in the circles and make an issue out of it.

So instead of just starting out at the lope in the left problem circle- well, actually I did start out in that troublesome left circle. After a short, short warm up. I loped off and the second I noticed him dropping in I stopped and turned around a little- either way- some direct rein and outside leg to start and just got him thinking about turning or rolling back - either way didnt seem to matter- and I didnt make a big deal out of it- like confrontational I'm gonna pull you into the ground hard and pound on you to the outside in a turn around untill you keep the shoulder up. I turned both ways and instead of locking on the circle and drilling and drilling I loped a litte here. loped a little their, turned a little rolled back once- dinked around and just kept his circle frame in mind and low and behold he kept his shoulder up and was too busy thinking about other things besides wanting to drop the shoulder.

When I quit confronting issues head on and put on my thinking cap- and do it my own way things work much better for me and my horses. I was done in 15 minutes, two year old barely cracked a sweat. And I'll sleep better tonight even though I'm way less tired this evening.

Mike Helson and the turn around

I rode a couple horses that belong to a friend of ours named Raxanne Peterson who lives in Washington- We rode at Mike Helsons place. One of the horses I rode was struggling to turn around and I played with her a little and got her to get a little cadence going. I had her turning pretty cute but not too fast and Mike suggested I pull her face more - become part of the equation - meaning to help her tip her nose- not to bump the face over (which I was doing to keep her off the bit)and keep her pretty bent and go to her shoulder. This really helped to speed her up- and she stayed bent and turned better and harder. She did get a little hoppy to one side but overall it was an improvement. Roxanne said the filly was taken much bigger steps in the turn around. So thanks to Mike Helson and Roxanne.

whizy- breaking through again

Whizzy is a stiff little knocker. So I've always got to work on keeping him soft- not into pitching him away too much because he gets stiff again so quick- its a constant- non ending repetitious pulling and giving back a little and pulling again- not letting him - or any of 'em pop out of form at all before putting them back where they belong and releasing and then not letting them get out of frame before putting them right back- its a never ending battle.

But the biggest breakthrough for him has been bitting him up and making him learn he can run without throwing his head up and getting scared- I bitted him up and ran him forward with the whip until he quit throwing his head up and figured out he could accelerate without flipping his head up in fear of the whip or in fear of the change of speed- made him run through that thresh-hold of fear and uncertainty untill he learned to keep giving to that bit no matter what.

When I rode him afterward he was very soft- stayed bridled up better and off the bit. I could run him down straight - in the bridle from lead departure to the end of the rundown and he would stay straight and soft and stop harder. - not perfect but better. It was cool to see how hard he could stop while bitted up. He can really use himself when he wants to. So from now on he will get bitted up as often as it will help him- No more nor less.

Shawn Flarida Clinic

Really liked watching Shawn work with people. Interesting that when he worked on the turn around he would have the rider stop when the horse improved after only a turn sometimes.- didnt stress that they go 'round and 'round and around.\

Also lifted up and over in the turn to keep them in the bridle.

lifted up on the reins when working on a horse to stop to lift the shoulders and drive the hind under.