An outstanding Sunday

[glenatron]

It was a fine day and we spent it about as well as a day might be spent. We went out with the ponies for a seven and a half mile loop in the morning. There were a lot of people about so we went onto some more distant trails where I figured we'd meet fewer people. It was genuinely wonderful.

Then I rode Xefira and then I got to sit on our friend's horse, which was really good fun as well.


A water main was leaking, making for a very wet road. Zorro wanted to stop and drink it all.


Over-the-ears-cam going up the hill.


Three deer sprang out in front of us and bounced off to our right. I managed to get two of them into this picture.


Small pony is a fine adventuring kind of a horse.


I love the weird contrast on this one. Some kind of crazy coincidence art.


Small really wanted to run here. You can see his point.

So that was our adventure!

Later I got to ride Filly. Her name is misleading- I think she got it when she was a filly, and it kind of stuck. she's in her early twenties now. She's well trained in a totally different style to the way I'm used to, so riding her was a bit like riding a road bike if you're used to riding mountain bikes- the principles are the same but the practicalities are different. She's a lovely moving horse and it was really nice to have a chance to ride her.


A lot more up and down in her trot than I'm used to. Feels really nice though and her canter is smooth as anything.


She's used to working on a contact and I'm not, but she looked after me pretty well regardless.


I fully endorse Sundays like this.

Comments

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

What a nice set of rides!

(pretty big grin in that last one there, cowboy! ;-) Looks good but one of these days we'll have to teach you contact.)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that mostly when I'm riding I've either got a big grin or a look of intense concentration. If I ride Filly a little more I think I'll get a better idea of how she expects me to be and maybe get more of a handle on that way of riding.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Good. It's always good to know how to ride on contact. Not many Western trainers are necessarily good at that unless they've had some good dressage and hunt seat training. Just going from my own background, the default tends to be "get out of that horse's face!" which leads to a conditioned reflect to avoid contact, which is in itself a failing as severe as riding with too tight a contact. My trainer does teach riding on contact, but then again, he's got the creds to do so, plus even when he's got his Western show judge hat on, he prefers to see some contact. I'm surprised he hasn't had more influence in the show judge world, considering how high up he is in the hierarchy.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Arrgh. Too early. Reflex, not reflect!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

The problem I have is that I want a horse that works in balance without me having to constantly intervene because a lot of the time I might have other things to do than physically hold their front end off the floor which is how a lot of people here seem to want to work. That isn't really for me - I'm a bit lazy for it - but I don't find the concept disagreeable, I just don't want to have to do any pulling or to get pulled on.

I guess in western training if you're working with a hackamore or a shanked bit you're not going to want contact anyway and that probably pervades a lot of other stuff.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Ummm....oh dear.

I feel Joyce Patented Rant #554 coming on. Must....resist...not...wreck...eq....LJ...is..different.

Ohkay. I agree with your goal. In fact, your goal is the same as the one I strive for. But.

You do NOT need to throw away the contact in order to do so. In fact, doing so works to your detriment. Whilst self-carriage and balance does not come about by getting too heavy in the hand, it also doesn't come with throwing away the contact, which is what I see you doing. To gain balance without wrestling around the forehand, take a good hard look at the French school, particularly Jean-Claude Racinet, and the Second Method Baucher. Nuno Oliviera is also a good one to contemplate. In practical terms, school for lightness using many, many up and down transitions and lateral work. Sidepassing, two-tracking, leg-yielding, turns on the forehand, turns on the haunches. To reduce dependence on the rein, issue seat cues first, followed by leg, then hand. But you still have contact with the hand, albeit a light contact, and you seek to have less and less of it each time. Some sessions will be perfectly soft. Others will be a struggle.

The other thing is that if you don't have a contact, then you can't give a release as a reward, or add contact as a reinforcer for other cues.

And no, you're wrong about not riding in contact with either hackamore or curb. What you are striving for is the whisper of a contact, which differs from no contact at all. A draped rein is not a slack rein. You don't want a slack rein, especially with a more sophisticated leverage device like a well-designed spade bit, because the swing of the rein can add unwanted signal to the bit (and spades are all about signal and the lightness thereof). Too long a rein leads to jerking, and that's not desirable for either hackamore (that is, a bosal, not a shanked hackamore as those are all useless devices, in my biased opinion) or curb bit.

Hope that doesn't come across as too intense, but it is a fairly common misconception outside of areas where there's a lot of good-quality Western riding going on. One of the purposes for big leverage bits is to issue signals with a very light touch. But if you talk to people who either train to that level of equipment, or design that level of equipment, you'll find that the leverage aspects are very carefully contemplated and considered, down to the size, weight and number of buttons on the romal rein for a particular horse. Or the weight of the bit chains. It's fascinating to do if you ever get the chance.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

You've expressed this far better than I could have... For years, I was told by instructors that I needed a heavy contact, 'similar to the weight of a bag of sugar in each hand'. It's a lie. If the horse is in balance and working from behind, the contact needs to be just a contact, a quiet conversation, no weight in it at all.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I'm totally down with this weight-of-the-rein contact and having the horse set up so that you are mostly working within a limited space and just asking them to lift and carry themselves correctly. To me that is logical and it's the way I try to work with Zorro.

What I found interesting about riding Filly is that she is not trained in that way- she is a very well trained horse who is trained to drive forward into a heavy contact, which is the traditional English way of working. Very different from what I am accustomed to both as a feeling and as a philosophy.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Knowing how to ride that sort of contact whilst keeping it light is also a very good skill.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Just love that two-sets-of-ears-pointing-in-the-same-direction shot!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's one of my favourite over-the-ears-cam photos, I just wish I could claim some artistic thinking powering it, rather than happy chance.

[herecirm.livejournal.com]

Filly is gorgeous! I like!

And I'm super looking forward to tramping round your kingdom. :3 Such pretty pretty forest trails...

By the way, where did sleepsy_mouse get her reflective gear from? I like the look of Small's breastplate. I've got something similiar for Pepsi, but it's quite narrow and slips forward down her neck if she sticks her head down to graze (a common occurance) as it's only a loop round the neck atttached to her girth. Small's looks like it sits nicely.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where it came from actually. I have the same one you do, I think, which is great around Zorro's chunky neck but would probably not be so great on a smaller horse.

We do very well indeed for forests around here, and heath. If you like those kinds of thing you'll be sure to enjoy it.