On this first day of 2011, we had and excellent day!
Again we worked in the round pen, spent time with the turns in to the fence. Really looking for the turn and wants to carry herself through it. One of the the things I mentioned yesterday was the softness and suppleness homework. I kinda put the cart before the horse, so to speak, in explaining what this is to me. I always work this before I start asking for any turns. If you can't bend that head around, then you can't stop them if they get away from you.
I started out by asking her to bend side to side. Most horses will do this, but if you look at that eye...they are not looking at you, this is called a false release. I kept asking her for the release until her eye connected with me. Meaning, I could see more than the whites of her eye when she bent her head around. She's a pretty sharp mare, so this went pretty fast. Once both side were going well, I then started asking for her to break at the poll. This is nothing more than asking for both sides at the same time. The key to any release, is the soft ask. Most anybody can muscle one, but softness, ask softly. My Dad calls it butterfly fingers. Annie is still pretty resistant to this, but I understand where she is coming from. Her past wreck has made her hypersensitive around her nose. Time and patience will win out in the end.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Annie....12/31/10
Rode today for about 1 1/2 hours. Wasn't suppose to rain, but it did and after the first 10 minutes, I wasn't going to get any wetter.
Worked today on forward momentum. You would think with most horses being forwardholics, this wouldn't be an issue. When you get on them, at first, they sometimes forget how to move their feet. Once the forward part was going pretty well, we worked on turns into the fence. I like to turn into the fence because it really forces them, if you do it right, to walk their front end around. I give myself plenty of space between her and the fence, not to much, usually 2-4 feet. Softly ask for the turn, made sure that I have already done the home work with softness and suppleness. As she started around, I gave the cue (soft pressure with opposite leg - picture pushing her through the turn with your leg) and has she completed walking through, I released the pressure. After 4 or 5 like this, she started looking for the turn in that direction. I repeated all of this on the other side. You cannot use the fence forever, eventually she needs to learn how to move her front end around with nothing more than my cue and no physical aid. All in all...a good day!
Worked today on forward momentum. You would think with most horses being forwardholics, this wouldn't be an issue. When you get on them, at first, they sometimes forget how to move their feet. Once the forward part was going pretty well, we worked on turns into the fence. I like to turn into the fence because it really forces them, if you do it right, to walk their front end around. I give myself plenty of space between her and the fence, not to much, usually 2-4 feet. Softly ask for the turn, made sure that I have already done the home work with softness and suppleness. As she started around, I gave the cue (soft pressure with opposite leg - picture pushing her through the turn with your leg) and has she completed walking through, I released the pressure. After 4 or 5 like this, she started looking for the turn in that direction. I repeated all of this on the other side. You cannot use the fence forever, eventually she needs to learn how to move her front end around with nothing more than my cue and no physical aid. All in all...a good day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)