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glenatronToday was properly dedicated to the beasts of the field.
Othello is really getting the hang of the basic work I'm asking him to do- the picture shows me asking him to back up from gentle pressure on his noseband and he was doing that so well we moved on to asking him to back up using only energy. This sounds like it's something a bit magical but practically at first it involves making yourself large, applying strong eye contact and swinging the rope- as he gets more accustomed to working this way he will respond to much smaller movements.
We have good turns on the quarters, where I ask him to move his shoulders around and keep his hind quarters where they are, which is a useful skill to have and a good way to teach a horse to get clear of your personal space. A horse that pushes into your personal space is showing that it doesn't respect you and can be inadvertantly dangerous- it's certainly more likely to tread on your toes and generally shove you about the place. We are even starting to get the hang of turns on the forehand, where the hind quarters move and the forefeet stay where they are, although Othello does tend to think I'm asking him to move his front feet as well. The turn on the forehand is very important because when I start riding him, which will involve using the same techniques as we're working with on the ground but doing them from the saddle, it is how we will stop.
Lou did some ridden work with Joe in a bareback pad ( a pad with a girth that works a bit like riding bareback but is a bit less slippery, especially when ponies are shedding ) at the end of which I asked if I could practice getting on from the ground. Vaulting on to a horse is a bit like doing a cartwheel in that before you can do it you have to have the courage to completely throw yourself into the attempt. After a few tries I managed to get far enough over his back that I could turn myself round and be sat in about the right place but the bareback pad was all rucked up. Lou decided that I wasn't allowed to get off until I'd got the pad straight which I very nearly managed to do. Actually, I completely managed to do it, I just ended up in a slightly untenable position at the end of it and promptly fell off, much to Lou's amusement. Fortunately Joe is a calm and solid soul who pretty much ignored the whole thing as humans being weird.
Tomorrow Othello's owner will be coming to see how he is getting on. I'm really hoping she doesn't decide we're mistreating him terribly and that she's going to take him away. That would pretty much break me.
Othello is really getting the hang of the basic work I'm asking him to do- the picture shows me asking him to back up from gentle pressure on his noseband and he was doing that so well we moved on to asking him to back up using only energy. This sounds like it's something a bit magical but practically at first it involves making yourself large, applying strong eye contact and swinging the rope- as he gets more accustomed to working this way he will respond to much smaller movements.
We have good turns on the quarters, where I ask him to move his shoulders around and keep his hind quarters where they are, which is a useful skill to have and a good way to teach a horse to get clear of your personal space. A horse that pushes into your personal space is showing that it doesn't respect you and can be inadvertantly dangerous- it's certainly more likely to tread on your toes and generally shove you about the place. We are even starting to get the hang of turns on the forehand, where the hind quarters move and the forefeet stay where they are, although Othello does tend to think I'm asking him to move his front feet as well. The turn on the forehand is very important because when I start riding him, which will involve using the same techniques as we're working with on the ground but doing them from the saddle, it is how we will stop.
Lou did some ridden work with Joe in a bareback pad ( a pad with a girth that works a bit like riding bareback but is a bit less slippery, especially when ponies are shedding ) at the end of which I asked if I could practice getting on from the ground. Vaulting on to a horse is a bit like doing a cartwheel in that before you can do it you have to have the courage to completely throw yourself into the attempt. After a few tries I managed to get far enough over his back that I could turn myself round and be sat in about the right place but the bareback pad was all rucked up. Lou decided that I wasn't allowed to get off until I'd got the pad straight which I very nearly managed to do. Actually, I completely managed to do it, I just ended up in a slightly untenable position at the end of it and promptly fell off, much to Lou's amusement. Fortunately Joe is a calm and solid soul who pretty much ignored the whole thing as humans being weird.
Tomorrow Othello's owner will be coming to see how he is getting on. I'm really hoping she doesn't decide we're mistreating him terribly and that she's going to take him away. That would pretty much break me.
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Date: 6 Nov 2005 04:50 (UTC)and noone could accuse you of mistreating the fellow