Any of you who know me well probably know that I spend an exuberant amount of time doing pedigree and bloodline research. I am going to start putting some of what I learn up on this blog so it is recorded so I can remember it. (I have a terrible memory!) 90% of the research I do is for reining horses, if they bore you than just don't read it!
First up, the one and only(oh, and GORGEOUS!!) Shining Spark!!
I don' know how many times I have watched this video. Probably close to a hundred no joke!!! I never leave it without feeling inspired and wanting to be better! This is my goal in training horses, to be able to not only train, but communicate with them in this way.
R.I.P Roxy!! You were amazing! (this next video is amazing too!)
Today is absolutely beautiful outside and one of the corrals has finally dried up enough I could work Idaho. I haven't been able to very much since my last post because of the weather.
We started with lots and lots of lunging. When I go to catch a horse I can usually predict pretty well what I will be working on depending on how they act when I am putting the halter on. Today was deffinitely a day where we needed to do a lot of physical work vs. emotional work.
I lunged her more than I ever have at one time without a break. She needed it though. After a little while she was light and responsive and I could tell she was just ready for something new. I tied the lead rope around her neck in a loop and jumped right on.
Yep, who trains horses bareback? Maybe it's because it's a bad idea...yeah probably...I was just too lazy to take her all the way back to the tack room and put it on.
WOW!!!! She is sooooo much better to ride now that I stopped and took the extra time to do just groundwork for several months. Mostly she is just so so so so so much more supple. (did I mention she is so much more supple!?!?)By doing groundwork she has learned how to pivot on either her front or her hindquarters. Furthermore, she knows my cues for pivoting and knows what cue = what side I want her to move over.
Before doing groundwork, and just riding her she could not turn around in 1 stride like I like my horses to( by pivoting on the inside leg while the fore quarters bring their body around). It literally took her 10-15 strides to change directions. She just couldn't wrap her brain around being able to turn her body at those angles. And I couldn't teach her how from the saddle...so that is where groundwork comes in. I taught her how to do that from the ground and now she knows how, I just have to reteach her the cues(I can't use the same cues from on top of her!) and she is set. She can do it in two steps now...is that HUGE improvement or what!
She knows how to move her shoulder over when I ask her to with my foot. And she knows how to move her hindquarters over when I ask her to with my foot also(disengaging from the saddle). She knows the difference between them, that is the important part. She knows she basics of sidepassing but I have never actually asked her to do it, and I won't until she is ready for it...and I have a saddle under me!
We mostly worked on stopping today. I've got her to where she will usually stop pretty softly without me even taking all the slack out of the reins. She will back up just as softly most of the time too. I ask her to stop by saying 'whoa' in a deep voice, I then relax my legs and sit back as far as is appropriate and if she doesn't stop by then(she is already starting to some of the time) I will gently pull some of the slack out of the reins(or in today's case the leadrope). If she doesn't stop by then I will gently and slowly continue to pull back. That sounds bad 'pulling back on the reins' but it really doesn't happen like that, it's really hard to explain.
This video is great and can help explain what I am failing to. I don't agree with absolutely everything he says but I do agree with a lot of it.
Gotta run, but there's some food for the thought for ya.
PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK!!! How could I improve my methods? How does what you train your horses differ from how I train?
P.S. I <3 this mare to death...whoever buys her is one lucky person!
Today we started off with some basic lunging. For some reason Idaho has decided she 'doesn't know how' in the last couple of weeks. I am working on correcting that. When I ask her to move forward and swat at her hip she just keeps disengaging her hindquarters instead of going forward. It is *very* frustrating! I have got it mostly corrected on one side. I have found that rhythmically tapping her under her bum kind of in between the point of her hip and her hock(if that makes sense?) she will move. That faster I tap that faster she moves which is something I want her to learn anyways so I might as well start on the ground instead of . On her other side however I haven't really gotten very far, if you watch me working her you will probably see me chasing her around when I work on this side. I have made a little bit a progress at least, it will just take more time.
Then we worked on desensitizing. I used the stick and string and leadrope. She is doing really really good there I can pretty much whack anywhere around her or on her and she doesn't mind. Well, atleast as long as I don't hit her! While was at it I messed with her ears for a long time. She has come so far. I could barely put a halter on when I got her. I couldn't touch anywhere in the general area of her ears either, unless she could see the halter. Now I can rub her ears all I want and she has decided that she LOVES in between her ears to be scratched!
After that I worked on lateral flexion. I just use my index finger on the halter and wrap the lead rope around her neck because I like to teach them with just a teenie bit of pressure so they don't get used to being able to brace themselves against me or get to be resistant. It was pretty awesome because I pulled down instead of to the side accidently one time and she totally flexed vertically!!!!!! I was super excited because I haven't even been doing lateral flexion for very long or very much....it works!!! I think I am a believer now more than ever! I can't wait to try it under saddle.
After I did the flexing I just let her sit there while I walked around her doing all sorts of crazy stuff. Whacking the stick and string around, jumping all over the place(me not the horse!) and other stuff. She was ''locked on me" yay!!! There she was standing alone, with no restraint in the middle of this huge corral with all of her focus on me, but keeping her feet still at the same time. It was pretty sweet!!! I felt almost like a professional....yeah, almost.
To finish things off for the day I worked with the plastic bag, she still thinks it is going to kill her but she has come a loooong way because she used to think it was going to kill and eat her. :)
Yep, she's pretty sweet!
Let me know if you or someone else you know would be interested in her. She is going to make someone a killer barrel horse if they want or a awesome trail/pleasure/kids/just fun to ride horse if they don't want to barrel race.
