Dear blog...

[glenatron]

Today I did Natural Horsemanship.

I worked my pony on a line using a flag, then we did some liberty, then I rode him bareback off the halter. It was only a short session but we got some things done.

Actually, the bareback was quite a big deal for me- Zorro tends to buck when you change his tack at all, so switching from our big saddle and regular bridle to a halter and nothing else was a prime "making Zorro buck" opportunity. Consequently I've not dared do it in a long time; certainly not in the last year, probably in longer.


Somehow - probably by taking lots of pauses, giving me a chance to get used to the feel of that big round barrel shifting as we moved about and giving him a chance to feel that I was secure - we avoided any bucking, although I could feel him thinking about it a couple of times. Instead he carefully looked after me, tried napping to the gate of the school, found it didn't work and then was very well behaved. Once I'd got back into the feel of it while mooching about we even did a couple of strides of trot. Compared with what most of my horsey LJ friends do often ( I know buymeaclue regularly hacks out bareback ) it was absolutely nothing, but it broke down a barrier I had built up and in that respect it was a good thing to do.

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

A little absolutely nothing here and a little absolutely nothing there adds up to a whole lot when you look back on it from a few weeks/months/years down the road. Well done!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

A very good point. Having some of those nice yields we can get under saddle still available to me with neither saddle or bridle was a very nice indicator from my point of view that I'm starting to get things working more from my body rather than relying on the rein as I used to do.

[serennig]

This!

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Groundwork is always good (I avoid the NH label whenever possible; around our barn we call it Showmanship--the performance halter class for kids in 4-H now expanded to all ages. Pretty much the same thing, but without flags, work on ground tie, work on walk, trot, haunches turns, forehand turns, sidepassing, backing. Nuances include teaching the horse to step off when you use a specific foot and halt without touching the lead--ie, horse is at your shoulder and attentive, really nitpicky nuances include horse stopping when you plant the opposite foot from the one you stepped off on. Advanced work is doing it all at liberty).

It's always a good thing to do when introducing new stuff. Works on getting compliance and dialing the horse into you.

Bareback--what fun! I did it with Miss Mocha once last summer, but ouch, ouch, ouch, she has a spiny spine that I hadn't anticipated which makes anything past a walk difficult. My trainer G. would compliment you--his comment is often a horse will react poorly the first time if unaccustomed to bareback, just because they're confused. Congratulations!

I started riding bareback as a little kid because my family firmly believed in not using a saddle until you knew what you were doing. Fear of catching a foot in a stirrup and all that. But bareback on a chunky Shetland, even an American Shetland, is not like riding spiny-backed Mocha. I have a bareback pad I need to take to the barn so I can do bareback--one of my planned summer activities.

Anyway, good for you! Bareback is a lot of fun and it really does improve your balance.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough I used to ride my first pony bareback and that was fine, but although I'm a much better rider now Zorro is an order of magnitude tougher to work with as a horse. I'm not going to start doing it the whole time ( the big deal with the saddle to my mind is weight distribution ) but it's something else we can play with from time to time.

The NH thing is funny to me because it's not a term I really use, but many of the people I learn with have been referred to in those terms over the years. We have nothing like 4-H in this country and that even if we did I wouldn't have experienced it, having only come to horses in my late twenties. Most of the people in the UK teaching anything on the ground beyond lungeing ( typically in a way that tunes your horse out ) or leading ( on a dangerously short rope ) are the people with that type of background...

Steve, who we go and learn with a couple of times a year, starts all his youngstock bareback. He can hop onto a 17 hand warmblood easier than I can climb a mounting block.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

It's too bad that the UK doesn't have 4-H or even a tradition of groundwork, from what you (and some others) have said. I started out as a very young child with a green American Shetland, and my mentor was big on traditional groundwork methods (I didn't realize it was Showmanship but we did a lot of playing horse show doing groundwork amongst the barn rats).

Later, when I had the really tough, broncy Quarter Horse mare, I took her into 4-H. Showmanship was a required class, and it didn't take long for me to figure out that after we were done with working in Showmanship, I had a much more compliant horse.

Horses are more difficult to work bareback than ponies, IMO. I need a mounting block, and Mocha moves bigger than any pony I've ever ridden (and then there's the bony spine, ouch, ouch. Does Zorro have a bony spine?).

Steve's amazing, from the sound of it. I knew an eventing trainer who could mount like him, though--up on any horse easily, without a stirrup. But he'd started out under Jimmy Williams, back in the era where when you rode at a big stable, you might be expected to learn and ride several disciplines (this guy knew hunt seat, dressage, saddle seat and Western).

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Zorro is not too band spinewise- he's pretty comfortable in that respect because he is so amazingly wide- his spine is almost a dip in his wide, level, back. That comes with it's own downsides though- he really is amazingly wide, which can make him hard going on the hips, particularly in a treeless saddle as that has no twist to speak of...

Steve started doing a lot of the colt starting stuff with Pat Parelli, back when Pat was still doing horsemanship and working personally with his instructors. I don't know if Pat had them starting bareback or that is something Steve has started doing off his own back - he's changed a lot since he started doing thigns his own way - but it's a pretty interesting way of working.

[makoiyi.livejournal.com]

Good for you! I rode Merlin bareback about the fourth ride. Everest I wouldn't have dared. At least not so soon. I just knew Merlin wouldn't care less. I even trotted. I want Tom to do this on Oprah - after I've done it first - the last ride I said, right, take your feet out the stirrups, stretch down, roll your shoulders. Wow! he said. These things may seem small but they aren't. Look at your smile *G*.

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

What they said - I love it as a change, and good on you for starting.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

Very cool to see you on the stroppy cob sans saddle! Having Small injured must be tough, but it does seem to coincide with a whole lot of strides forward for you & Zorro...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It certainly coincides with having a photographer on hand...

Somehow I think the last clinic with Steve really focussed and consolidated a lot of the experience I had at Martin's so the whole thing is just falling into place better. It will be a long time before I'm finished learning from that month.

[serennig]

I'll admit I get the gibblies whenever I hear the NH term -- I see lots of variations on it, too. But ground work and showmanship, that I understand. :) River's our only "competitive" showmanship horse, and, for the record, still needs a lariat on her arse to get her onto the trailer some days, but it's excellent respect training. Our other two were started with at least standard 4H groundwork too, though Faran likes to pretend she was asleep that class. But even practising it does make a difference.

I'd love to ride bareback some more. I can't, on Anton, at more than a walk because he's too boney on the spine -- if I had a pad, maybe! I could on Faran, if I felt she trusted me enough while I tried to handle her ridiculously lofty trot, but we're not there yet. Tucson has no problem trusting, and has an insanely rideable jog/trot, and theoretically can be ridden on the halter... so maybe someday I'll try it with him. But it's Faran that I want to do it with, because she's it would be a triumph in our understanding of each other when we do, finally, get there. (I was thrilled enough just having sat on her back on a loose walk, what a step that was!)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's where I come from more than where I'm going I think, although of course the horsemanship is all the same, people just change the name of things from time to time to confuse everyone...

[gnapp.livejournal.com]

Well done! (I understand the big step - I've ridden bareback very few times, and when I do, I feel pretty unbalanced. I probably should do it more...)

Working from the ground is fun. I've done it quite a lot, and it's definitely helped in giving me a more manageable horse.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

We've done a lot of it down the years, but it hasn't been so necessary lately cos Zorro is pretty reliable in the saddle and increasingly so am I. He's a great horse for doing liberty with though, once you get his attention, really good fun.