Improvements

Lately Woody and I have been playing a fair amount. Following my last post, I began to realize that the horses stopped whinnying and running to the fence when I came out. I began to take this personal and tried to fix that specific thing. So, my main focus was getting Woody to follow me around at Liberty again. Looking back, this probably wasn't such a great idea. I realize that I was focusing way more on the effect rather than the cause. And, in the process I just made his rapport go down even more probably because I was drilling him and probably "making" him more than waiting, allowing him to search, finding, and offering and wanting to follow me. My mom pointed out that I seemed to be drilling him and I realized that I should take this as feedback, and the only I should do about it is take that feedback, and know that you need to try harder to make your sessions good, and to get him feeling good about what we're doing. Also, I have been doing one thing with him for a year, and allowing him to do some things that I don't now, so there is going to be some mixed emotions about it both from him and me. Anyways, recently he has followed me a bit, and walks up with Charlotte to the fence, and is absolutely fine about haltering. I took him to play in our new arena one day in the past week (I will try hard to post a picture of it soon!) and it went really well in there. We played mainly at Liberty, doing circles, some figure 8s, jumping a bit, and stick to me stuff. He stayed pretty well connected, so I decided to jump on him bareback. However, my Cradle Bridle was missing its chin strap, so I couldn't use it then (it was in the house) so, despite what Harry said about using my halter to ride because it doesn't give enough direction what with the tie underneath his chin, I rode him in it anyways. He did ok to begin, but I could feel him start to drift off "the line" and I probably didn't correct it in time. The basic idea: I wasn't particular enough and because of this he was more sloppy. I stopped before things got bad, and worked on the exercise Harry did with several horse: breaking down a change of direction. So, I slow down in my body, walk toward his hind end a little bit, DON'T WALK BACKWARDS TO ALLOW HIM TO PASS (very important because of the submissive/less-dominant front it gives the horse about your position.), allow him to turn, stop him by shaking the rope, step his front end shoulder over, and continue. We practiced that a lot, and in the beginning he wasn't really tuned in but was focused on the grass. But, patience and persistence in my proper position of saying "that's not necessary" resulted in him connected with me and gave me a couple really nice shoulder's over.
Yesterday Mom and I went out, gathered the horses, tacked them up, and went out to play. I began to circle Woody, and she noted his expression wasn't happy, which it wasn't. She suggested playing another warm-up "checking if your connected with me" exercise. We got out the cones and did figure 8's around then but with me in the saddle position. That way, we also got to practice stopping, backing up slighty (preparing and teaching to rock back on his hind end) some front hand porcupines. He did ok at first, but the last couple he didn't think forward but rather moved over relly nice. We then did some stick to me far away type of thing, and we practiced going off when I did, getting an active walk, and stopping with me, then, directing the shoulder out and over to walk again. I tried to go slow and be polite and be aware of making sure I give him a chance to respond with lighter phases before a big one. He eventually did some nice stops and was not in my space, so I was satisfied. Mom got on Charlotte in the bareback pad and just got her following the feel on the reins, thinking around the turn along withjust physically turning around a turn. She also worked on her active walk and trotted up some hills. I got on Woody, and sat under a shady tree and helped Mom with Charlotte. They have gotten SO much better together during and following camp. Honestly, they are just shining stars. Anyways, I told my Mom what Harry told me about Woody and waiting on his thought to come around a turn. What he said was (loose paraphrase at least :)) that I need to make sure to release my rein when I see his thought go around a turn. This may mean that I am trying to get him to do a 180, and his thought doesn't turn around it and with me until a 270. I may not be headed in the direction I wanted to originally be going when I release, but that release there is SO important to them, and especially a horse like Woody. It is then, after the release, that I can ask for a turn again and hopefully end up going the direction on the original 180 turn. I think this helped because I noticed Charlotte's thought coming around more visibly and a better release on her part. We rode around the pasture a bit, and I practiced my transitions. First, my active walk to halt. Then, once he tuned into my body language I focused on trot to walk. When I first asked for the trot it was a quick, fast, braced trot. I turned him until the thought came and would transition to a walk. Then, ask again. I began to tune into when I could feel his trot speed up, and at that moment, I would ask for a walk or turn. I tried to catch his thought leaving in the very beginning so I could ask softer and his thought wasn't so far gone I would have to yank him for safety. After a couple of times of doing this his trot began to slow, and he was more directable than before. He offered me a really nice slow, but working trot (it is possible to be slow and working :)) and I could tell he was focused on me, not on Charlotte and Mom resting under the tree. I asked for a walk by sitting and bringing my energy down, and he walked too. I called it quits and watched Mom work on the same stuff: transitions. Charlotte was really drawn to the being under the shady tree with Woody and I, so Mom had to be aware of when she began to "leave the line" she was asking her to walk, and correct her then. Charlotte began to focus on her more, and Mom practiced using her body language to slow Charlotte down and speed her up rather than rely on the reins. Mom filmed me taking Woody back to the barn, and despite the terrible camera job, he looks really good while I am riding him. So, enjoy, and try not to focus on the shakiness of the camera.
Also, a couple of nights ago I took my bike into the horse field and rode around. I looked around and saw the horses running after me!! I called my mom and told her to bring the video camera, so she took a couple of videos of the horses and me.








~Eden