HUGE Improvements

Mom and I, before heading out to the barn, watched part of Mark Rashid's DVD Developing Softness. We watched about 20 minutes of it and so far it is really good. He incorporates his martial arts skills into the horse world, because both essentially deal with three steps: taking on/absorbing the energy of the other student (or horse), blending your energy with that energy, and then taking that combined energy and directing it into another outlet (or job for the horse). It was quite interesting and Mark used many simulations (which Mom and I did too) to show that muscling a horse NEVER works, but rather being soft and having a way of softness to you is the way to go to get harmony. He has a "formula" for developing softness with the steps keading to the next
Being consistent leads to dependabilty which leads to trust which leads to a peace of mind (for the horse) which leads to softness. Quite cool stuff.
We went out and I first haltered Teddy because he was curious, and I brushed him and scratched on him some. After this, we went out, caught the horses, saddled 'em up, moved 'em around a bit, tightened girths, and hopped on. We did all kinds of things such as...
-herding Teddy (both individually and Woody and Charlotte together)
-walking/trotting/cantering variously up and down the hills
-working on when we feel their bodies and minds drifting, simply giving a light feel on the rein by holding it up slighty and waiting until they thought back the direction we were headed then setting the rein down
-Woody and I practiced jumping (started in hand sending him over, then rode him over some)
-helped Mom with stirrup length
As you can tell we had a very productive day and we both did all this in hackamores (well, mine was technically my leadrope into reins, but... :))!! It was incredible how awesome they did. I asked Mom if she wanted to go outside, so I opened the gate, she walked out, and I closed it and mounted back up off the mounting block (Woody was still and ok). We rode around the perimeter of the pasture for Teddy's sake at first (he was running around once he noticed we had left). We trotted up some hills, and on the flat too. Woody and I practiced riding into and out of the round pen (both gates were opened, and I had a flashback to the lesson I had with Harry during the week that changed my horsemanship drastically). We trotted some in there, then Mom brought Charlotte in and played some too. We rode back around the pasture another time, and the horses were making only small attempts to eat. I tried to keep Woody busy so he wouldn't think about it. At one point we decided to try to canter (or fast trot) up a big hill, and Woody broke out into this awesome canter all the way up and slowed down just fine. He did so great!!!
Mom told me she could really notice that Charlotte could tell when her focused left. She would move her focus to the pony for a second, and Charlotte would immediantly dodge for grass. But, she realized that if she kept focused on Charlotte and her riding and such, she was mostly not interested in grass. How Interesting. Being present for your horse can REALLY make a difference. Until next time!
P.S. These are pictures of me and my men in my new AWESOME cowboy (or girl) hat!! Isn't it cute?
~Eden