11/27/10
Day 4 was a long one for Annie, rode her (gulp) in a clinic given by my dad (Natural Remuda Equine Learning Center) for about 5 hours total. Thought it might be pretty exciting because she had never been outside the round pen, but it went really well. Started in the round pen just to be sure there was no bucking and moved on to the arena within a few minutes.
Spent most of the time just getting her to unstick her feet. Lean back, smile and squeeze with my cheeks (I don't mean the ones on my face). Dad helped her along with a few timely, encouraging slaps with a stick and she finally freed up and started walking out. After moving out was going pretty well, we started turning her into and away from the fence. She really needed to be back on her hind end in order to complete the turns. She really did well with this, but we really had to work getting her to break at the poll. She is so fearful that I was going to hurt her face that she would raise her head in the air to get away from the pressure. Finally got her to break at the poll, semi-consistently and things got better from there. She has a tendency to attack a little when she is pressured and Dad played with her on the ground for a little while to help me with that.
All in all, it was a good 5 hours. With the time like it is (dark at 5:30-6) most of Annie's rides will be long ones on the weekend. So posts will be on the weekends.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Annie....11/25/10
11/25/10
We loaded up, eventually, and headed to Utopia for some ride time with Dad. Start-up was a little rough....nothing like waiting til the day you are heading out somewhere to load in the trailer for the first time. To be honest, I had forgotten that she hadn't been in the trailer since the day she was born. It took a couple of hours, (take the time it takes, don't rush or you do more damage than good) but finally she was loaded.
When we got there, we started some groundwork. After working a while, Dad suggested I do everything with open hands. She is ultra sensitive and reacts to everything that she feels. We worked on controling her feet and movements. We did this for about 3 hours and I could really tell a difference at the end. Looking forward to tomorrow and riding her in the arena.
We loaded up, eventually, and headed to Utopia for some ride time with Dad. Start-up was a little rough....nothing like waiting til the day you are heading out somewhere to load in the trailer for the first time. To be honest, I had forgotten that she hadn't been in the trailer since the day she was born. It took a couple of hours, (take the time it takes, don't rush or you do more damage than good) but finally she was loaded.
When we got there, we started some groundwork. After working a while, Dad suggested I do everything with open hands. She is ultra sensitive and reacts to everything that she feels. We worked on controling her feet and movements. We did this for about 3 hours and I could really tell a difference at the end. Looking forward to tomorrow and riding her in the arena.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Annie = trouble
By the title maybe you would think it is a training issue. Nope, we got her feet trimmed last Thursday and she has limped around ever since. Bummer! Had the shoer over this morning and we checked her feet, thought maybe she had been trimmed a little close. But after checking, we have decided she has stepped on something. I am going to give her some bute and put turpentine on her foot for a couple of days to help the healing along. So Eva, don't give up hope...we have had a little setback here, but I hope to be back riding by this weekend.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Annie....11/4/10
11/4/10
Annie has a lot of issues with claustraphobia. You would never know it to be around her, she likes people. She will leave her feed to come and see what you are doing. So, I tend to want to move to fast...after all, nothing really bothers her...until the pressure comes. Then it can get a little western. She can sometimes be tied and all of the sudden start yanking back. She feels trapped and I wasn't attentive enough to notice the signs. Blocker rings are a good thing here, but just remember...if your lead rope is to stiff, you can break a blocker ring!
Since I am fairly freshly back from a Brent Grarf clinic, I thought it would be a good idea to put into practice some of the things I learned there. We spent the afternoon doing some ground work. She took to this pretty well but we did have a little trouble with some of the retraining I had to do on myself. The more I pay attention, the better she seems to do. I look forward to some riding this weekend, but I always need to remind myself to pay attention to her claustraphobia. She will get better with this in time.
Annie has a lot of issues with claustraphobia. You would never know it to be around her, she likes people. She will leave her feed to come and see what you are doing. So, I tend to want to move to fast...after all, nothing really bothers her...until the pressure comes. Then it can get a little western. She can sometimes be tied and all of the sudden start yanking back. She feels trapped and I wasn't attentive enough to notice the signs. Blocker rings are a good thing here, but just remember...if your lead rope is to stiff, you can break a blocker ring!
Since I am fairly freshly back from a Brent Grarf clinic, I thought it would be a good idea to put into practice some of the things I learned there. We spent the afternoon doing some ground work. She took to this pretty well but we did have a little trouble with some of the retraining I had to do on myself. The more I pay attention, the better she seems to do. I look forward to some riding this weekend, but I always need to remind myself to pay attention to her claustraphobia. She will get better with this in time.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Learning Something New....
10/30/10
Went to a Brent Graef clinic on Saturday. I was only able to audit til noon, but it was enjoyable and I did learn from it. As I have said in the past, you can learn something from everyone. Even if it is stuff not to do. Brent did not fall into this catagory and I plan on using some of the things he taught. Speaking of the teacher, he was soft and smooth around both the horses and the people.
Smoothness is one of the things I am taking home to work on. Sometimes I get to going to fast and sudden. The horses he worked with, at the clinic, really thrived on his smoothness. So my goal is to be more smooth. Let each thing I am teaching, to both people or horses, flow into the next. Working with horses is all about not pushing into their bubble, it's about shrinking their bubble and them allowing you "in". Flow and smoothness breeds trust and respect. I would like to be a better horseman, so I am going to work on being smoother.
Went to a Brent Graef clinic on Saturday. I was only able to audit til noon, but it was enjoyable and I did learn from it. As I have said in the past, you can learn something from everyone. Even if it is stuff not to do. Brent did not fall into this catagory and I plan on using some of the things he taught. Speaking of the teacher, he was soft and smooth around both the horses and the people.
Smoothness is one of the things I am taking home to work on. Sometimes I get to going to fast and sudden. The horses he worked with, at the clinic, really thrived on his smoothness. So my goal is to be more smooth. Let each thing I am teaching, to both people or horses, flow into the next. Working with horses is all about not pushing into their bubble, it's about shrinking their bubble and them allowing you "in". Flow and smoothness breeds trust and respect. I would like to be a better horseman, so I am going to work on being smoother.
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