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!
