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glenatronI woke up at around 6:30, after about 11 hours sleep and figured I didn't need to sleep much longer so I got up and had a shower. The birds were noisy ( but surprisingly hard to see considering how brightly coloured many of them are ) and the air was cool. That latter point was something of a factor in why you're better having a shower in the evening- it's fine while the shower is running but pretty cold directly afterwards.
After breakfast, Steve came down and we talked about our goals for the day. With Elaine and I, who are over for the fortnight from Europe, we have two regular clinics over the next two weekends, so we are taking part in those riding Steve's horses.
Goals listed this time included:
Steve talked about the reasons we find that we can't do something, or why this horse can't do something and how they tend to be excuses for us not doing that thing.
Today I was working with a horse called Oscar. He's a western trained horse, who competed at a high level at one time but has been teaching here at Silversand for the last few years. As we began with ground work it quickly became clear that Oscar knows how to do pretty much everything I could possibly ask of him, and also that he would really prefer to do it at Oscar's own speed. Oscar's own speed is approximately bullet time.
It was interesting to see some patterns that I often experience with Zorro coming from another horse - a pretty sure-fire indicator that I'm doing something to invite that left-behind shoulder and those slightly draggy transitions. Of course the useful thing about recognised patterns is that it's not too hard to catch and adjust them and I did get him responding faster and offering me a lot more attention.
We started working on setting off and having the horse following a suggestion ( so you don't pull them anywhere, ever, you offer an indication as to where you are going and then you back it up with more of a push if they aren't going already ) to lead on to a circle.
From basic front and hindfoot control we moved on to getting some sideways, finding the balance point where you can ask the horse to turn from going forwards into sideways and then making sure we could get sideways without any forward or back in it, just a regular sideways movement, catching the hindfeet or shoulder up as necessary to modify the movement of the horse.
Steve talked a bit about precision and this moved to asking Gandalf ( his horse ) to jump over a single barrel in the arena.
At first he wasn't sure, trying to come around on either side rather than just hopping over the barrel, at this point he was starting to think about going over it.
A bit later he was getting closer to it. Gandalf is really good at going over the longer barrel jump, so this was not anything totally new or difficult for him, it's just that giving him a more precise task needs more work to help him understand what the job is.
This was something that Oscar knew very well how to do - I had to do a little bit to make sure he was lined up correctly so he knew what the plan was, but once we got there he was great. We even managed to trot a circle and go over the barrel and onwards.
Elaine and Kola.
After lunch we were riding, so we started with the indirect rein, asking for the outside hindfoot as the inside front foot lands so the horse steps out and around that front foot. The exercise was just to pick up a hindfoot and redirect the horse and then move off in a new direction. I soon found I would need more impulsion to get a useful change here and I spent a little while establishing to Oscar that he was the kind of horse that could go forward even when I was riding him.
We moved on to control of the front feet, getting the direct rein working to pick up the horse's front feet. This was somewhere that one could really feel Oscar's reining history come in because he picked up very fast and smooth.
The next exercise was working on a circle, using the inside leg working with the inside hindfoot to build up a correct bend, only using the rein to correct things in a quick take-and-release fashion to set up the bend and then continue using the leg to work the circle.
I found this worked alright in walk but the changes of bend in trot were more difficult. After a bit of work I realised I had my timing backwards, so I was asking with the outside foot rather than the inside one. So yes- the obvious remains obvious.
We finished up working on a soft feel and using it for back-up and taking it forward. Oscar has a fantastic reining-horse back-up, which was really nice to ride. Working on more of a contact moving forward I found that Oscar's impulsion picked up a whole lot. Experimenting with this he began offering me a real elevated trot which felt like it probably looked very impressive. It was certainly hard to sit.
All in all it was a pretty nice day for getting to know Oscar a bit and to see where we're starting out. I think we're riding different horses on alternate days, so tomorrow I'll be riding a different horse ( Samson ) and then riding Oscar again the day after.
Some of the locals. These guys are pretty noisy and excitable. They like to collect in trees and hang upside down making a racket.
After breakfast, Steve came down and we talked about our goals for the day. With Elaine and I, who are over for the fortnight from Europe, we have two regular clinics over the next two weekends, so we are taking part in those riding Steve's horses.
Goals listed this time included:
- Recognising correctness
- Refinement
- Building on existing knowledge
- Effectiveness
- Cantering
- Precision
Steve talked about the reasons we find that we can't do something, or why this horse can't do something and how they tend to be excuses for us not doing that thing.
Today I was working with a horse called Oscar. He's a western trained horse, who competed at a high level at one time but has been teaching here at Silversand for the last few years. As we began with ground work it quickly became clear that Oscar knows how to do pretty much everything I could possibly ask of him, and also that he would really prefer to do it at Oscar's own speed. Oscar's own speed is approximately bullet time.
It was interesting to see some patterns that I often experience with Zorro coming from another horse - a pretty sure-fire indicator that I'm doing something to invite that left-behind shoulder and those slightly draggy transitions. Of course the useful thing about recognised patterns is that it's not too hard to catch and adjust them and I did get him responding faster and offering me a lot more attention.
We started working on setting off and having the horse following a suggestion ( so you don't pull them anywhere, ever, you offer an indication as to where you are going and then you back it up with more of a push if they aren't going already ) to lead on to a circle.
From basic front and hindfoot control we moved on to getting some sideways, finding the balance point where you can ask the horse to turn from going forwards into sideways and then making sure we could get sideways without any forward or back in it, just a regular sideways movement, catching the hindfeet or shoulder up as necessary to modify the movement of the horse.
Steve talked a bit about precision and this moved to asking Gandalf ( his horse ) to jump over a single barrel in the arena.
At first he wasn't sure, trying to come around on either side rather than just hopping over the barrel, at this point he was starting to think about going over it.
A bit later he was getting closer to it. Gandalf is really good at going over the longer barrel jump, so this was not anything totally new or difficult for him, it's just that giving him a more precise task needs more work to help him understand what the job is.
This was something that Oscar knew very well how to do - I had to do a little bit to make sure he was lined up correctly so he knew what the plan was, but once we got there he was great. We even managed to trot a circle and go over the barrel and onwards.
Elaine and Kola.
After lunch we were riding, so we started with the indirect rein, asking for the outside hindfoot as the inside front foot lands so the horse steps out and around that front foot. The exercise was just to pick up a hindfoot and redirect the horse and then move off in a new direction. I soon found I would need more impulsion to get a useful change here and I spent a little while establishing to Oscar that he was the kind of horse that could go forward even when I was riding him.
We moved on to control of the front feet, getting the direct rein working to pick up the horse's front feet. This was somewhere that one could really feel Oscar's reining history come in because he picked up very fast and smooth.
The next exercise was working on a circle, using the inside leg working with the inside hindfoot to build up a correct bend, only using the rein to correct things in a quick take-and-release fashion to set up the bend and then continue using the leg to work the circle.
I found this worked alright in walk but the changes of bend in trot were more difficult. After a bit of work I realised I had my timing backwards, so I was asking with the outside foot rather than the inside one. So yes- the obvious remains obvious.
We finished up working on a soft feel and using it for back-up and taking it forward. Oscar has a fantastic reining-horse back-up, which was really nice to ride. Working on more of a contact moving forward I found that Oscar's impulsion picked up a whole lot. Experimenting with this he began offering me a real elevated trot which felt like it probably looked very impressive. It was certainly hard to sit.
All in all it was a pretty nice day for getting to know Oscar a bit and to see where we're starting out. I think we're riding different horses on alternate days, so tomorrow I'll be riding a different horse ( Samson ) and then riding Oscar again the day after.
Some of the locals. These guys are pretty noisy and excitable. They like to collect in trees and hang upside down making a racket.
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no subject
Date: 22 Apr 2011 13:29 (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 Apr 2011 23:07 (UTC)no subject
Date: 27 Apr 2011 23:51 (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 Apr 2011 17:09 (UTC)Otherwise an awesome entry, as usual.
no subject
Date: 22 Apr 2011 23:03 (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 08:50 (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 12:17 (UTC)Apparently the birds are Galaas, made popular as a mild insult in Australian vernacular because they're kind of dense.
no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 22:39 (UTC)Oh em gee, that little grey pony ... yeh, adding that to the list of Ponies To Smuggle Home with you. Mmkay? Mmkay. So cute. :3
no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 23:26 (UTC)no subject
Date: 26 Apr 2011 21:45 (UTC)no subject
Date: 27 Apr 2011 23:53 (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Apr 2011 08:03 (UTC)no subject
Date: 27 Apr 2011 23:53 (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Apr 2011 07:41 (UTC)