The living room and bedroom are painted, the carpet guys come tomorrow, as does the new bed and recliner. The economic stimulus checks have been spent well before they were received and we've done about everything we could to get America back on it's feet and now we're headed out back to spend time with our horses.
The weather here is just now getting warmer. Storms threatened all weekend and it actually was a pretty good weekend to paint. Saturday afternoon was stormy, Sunday afternoon was cold and breezy, but I went out for an hour and did some GW and liberty. I think she is getting the hang of it. Time to capture some more video because there was a lot less carrying on.
Sunday afternoon was cool and nice and we went for a ride to our usual haunts. I found an open area and tried to work on the instructions I got from Matt. She seemed to lean a lot less and I think I was getting the concept of direct and drive. It'll be interesting to see how she does when I ride her in our little area, which, by the way, we may lose because our neighbors are going to cross fence it. Oh well.
Not sure when the next ride will be. Could be done with household chores by tomorrow afternoon. We still have a lot of little things to do and I have a bunch to catch up here at the store (why am I blogging?), but I'm looking forward to getting out of "project" mode.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
A little ground work
It's still windy here. The temps have dropped 30 degrees from a week ago and it's raining right now.
Last night we did the leading beside exercise. It was more of an excuse to just be out there more than anything else. She picked it up pretty quickly. She does take it a little too personal when I have to whack her on the butt. I did a little of the sending exercise and she kept looking away so I insisted on getting two eyes. That was the most challenging and it took about ten minutes before she consistently kept her eyes on me.
This was pretty nice:
I had listened to Rick Lamb's show in a podcast or his TV show or both and there was a trainer named Matt Sheridan. I happened by his website and he had an "Ask Matt" tab. It was a day or two after loping Jessie in that right circle and having her lean to the right. I didn't think I'd actually get a response, but Matt took the time to write me a very thoughtful, instructive email. Here it is:
Q: When loping a circle to the right my 8 yr Foundation/Quarter Horse mare really leans to the center of the circle. She doesn’t do it on a left circle. If I apply a little inside leg to lift the rib cage she just speeds up. If I lift the right rein to pick up her shoulder she shuts down. Any suggestions?
A: Hi John,
First of all, you may have figured out that what you have is a suppleness problem. I would recommend going back to the ground for a little while to retrain your horse to yield to pressure laterally while moving forward. You may only need to do this a few times and for only a few minutes prior to riding. What you are wanting to see if the horse is tracking to the right, is the right hind foot tracking up into the right front foot while remaining round from neck to tail. The basic way to accomplish this is to bump the lead rope twice, then when the hind quarters fall away, drive them up with the tail of the rope. You continue this until the horse steps forward maintaining roundness and tracking correctly. It can be a little frustrating to do this if you have not received actual instruction but if you have a little patience and are willing to try, it will help. I like to get a horse round and forward on the ground when they are really sticky because it is safer. Next, you would work a cirlce under saddle at a walk, trot and then lope. Use your inside leg to bend the body and your hand to pull the nose through smoothly. What you don't want to do is hang on the horses face. Smooth pulls in succession will accomplish more than hanging on your horses face. So, as a quick recap, send the horse forward in a circle, use the leg to round the body, pull through smoothly and repeatedly with the inside hand.
I wish I could show you in person my steps to getting this to work for you. It would be much easier that way. Basically you have a direct and drive problem. It sounds like you have attempted direct and drag to solve your problem. Remember that when you drive with the leg you don't direct with the hand and when you use the hand you don't drive with the leg. Once the horse can move smoothly then you can use both together.
As you told me, your horse will speed up when using the leg and stops when using the lift on the rein. This is why you need to achieve roundness first then work to shape the horse. If the horse speeds up a little maintain a slightly elevated hold on the rein and shrink circle size. Don't worry if the horse goes from trot to a lope, concern yourself with the overall shape and feel created. As your horse begins to understand more of what you want she will slow down more. She probably has more experience with the leg meaning go or go fast than with is meaning get round.
Keep me posted on your progress, let me know if this helps or if I need to try another approach with you.
Regards, Matt
You can check out Matt's website at MattSheridan.net
Last night we did the leading beside exercise. It was more of an excuse to just be out there more than anything else. She picked it up pretty quickly. She does take it a little too personal when I have to whack her on the butt. I did a little of the sending exercise and she kept looking away so I insisted on getting two eyes. That was the most challenging and it took about ten minutes before she consistently kept her eyes on me.
This was pretty nice:
I had listened to Rick Lamb's show in a podcast or his TV show or both and there was a trainer named Matt Sheridan. I happened by his website and he had an "Ask Matt" tab. It was a day or two after loping Jessie in that right circle and having her lean to the right. I didn't think I'd actually get a response, but Matt took the time to write me a very thoughtful, instructive email. Here it is:
Q: When loping a circle to the right my 8 yr Foundation/Quarter Horse mare really leans to the center of the circle. She doesn’t do it on a left circle. If I apply a little inside leg to lift the rib cage she just speeds up. If I lift the right rein to pick up her shoulder she shuts down. Any suggestions?
A: Hi John,
First of all, you may have figured out that what you have is a suppleness problem. I would recommend going back to the ground for a little while to retrain your horse to yield to pressure laterally while moving forward. You may only need to do this a few times and for only a few minutes prior to riding. What you are wanting to see if the horse is tracking to the right, is the right hind foot tracking up into the right front foot while remaining round from neck to tail. The basic way to accomplish this is to bump the lead rope twice, then when the hind quarters fall away, drive them up with the tail of the rope. You continue this until the horse steps forward maintaining roundness and tracking correctly. It can be a little frustrating to do this if you have not received actual instruction but if you have a little patience and are willing to try, it will help. I like to get a horse round and forward on the ground when they are really sticky because it is safer. Next, you would work a cirlce under saddle at a walk, trot and then lope. Use your inside leg to bend the body and your hand to pull the nose through smoothly. What you don't want to do is hang on the horses face. Smooth pulls in succession will accomplish more than hanging on your horses face. So, as a quick recap, send the horse forward in a circle, use the leg to round the body, pull through smoothly and repeatedly with the inside hand.
I wish I could show you in person my steps to getting this to work for you. It would be much easier that way. Basically you have a direct and drive problem. It sounds like you have attempted direct and drag to solve your problem. Remember that when you drive with the leg you don't direct with the hand and when you use the hand you don't drive with the leg. Once the horse can move smoothly then you can use both together.
As you told me, your horse will speed up when using the leg and stops when using the lift on the rein. This is why you need to achieve roundness first then work to shape the horse. If the horse speeds up a little maintain a slightly elevated hold on the rein and shrink circle size. Don't worry if the horse goes from trot to a lope, concern yourself with the overall shape and feel created. As your horse begins to understand more of what you want she will slow down more. She probably has more experience with the leg meaning go or go fast than with is meaning get round.
Keep me posted on your progress, let me know if this helps or if I need to try another approach with you.
Regards, Matt
You can check out Matt's website at MattSheridan.net
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The wind came up last night and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. It was pretty windy and still is.It's going to be tough finding "horse-time" in the coming week. We have plans to paint and re-carpet the house. At least we are motivated to get done. As soon as we're finished we can go back to horsing around on weekends.
Monday, May 19, 2008
A very hot weekend
Most of my weekend was spent in non-horse related endeavors(painting). I did get to do a short GW session on Saturday night. I finished my work about 3 on Sunday, had some lunch and took Jessie out back for some groundwork. We were doing the last three exercises on Groundwork II - Leading behind, leading beside, and turn-and-go.
we didn't work very long. After about 30 minutes we tacked up and Ranae and I went out. It was still in the nineties but there was an occasional breeze blowing. We worked a lot on transitions - start at a trot, sit and relax and if she didn't move to a walk, ORS and start again. She picked it up nicely after about the third or fourth time.
Once we were out in a bigger area we did the serpentine and bending exercises. Then I asked for a lope and she did very well as we loped a big circle a couple of laps, came through the center, and then changed direction. she didn't change leads when we changed directions (I didn't ask either) and so in the direction she usually leans, she was on a counter-canter and that kept her more upright.
She was pretty happy to get home and a nice, cool bath.
we didn't work very long. After about 30 minutes we tacked up and Ranae and I went out. It was still in the nineties but there was an occasional breeze blowing. We worked a lot on transitions - start at a trot, sit and relax and if she didn't move to a walk, ORS and start again. She picked it up nicely after about the third or fourth time.
Once we were out in a bigger area we did the serpentine and bending exercises. Then I asked for a lope and she did very well as we loped a big circle a couple of laps, came through the center, and then changed direction. she didn't change leads when we changed directions (I didn't ask either) and so in the direction she usually leans, she was on a counter-canter and that kept her more upright.
She was pretty happy to get home and a nice, cool bath.
Friday, May 16, 2008
The balance experiment
We did a little groundwork before tacking up and going out back. We had the twenty-two foot long line and our halters. Ranae was first up. Dusty went off okay. You could see in his eyes he was wondering what was going on. Ranae trotted for a while working on her seat. We did a yield to a stop in both directions just to make sure I had control of Dusty. After a couple of minutes Ranae was comfortable and wanted a LFR stage two rollback. Dusty works off his but pretty good and she thought that was quite fun so we did it a few more times. Then I set him off in a canter. That was pretty good too. He's a pretty good horse.
Jessie was a little nervous about the whole thing. Her trot was pretty big and quick. She kept moving in on Ranae and making the circle smaller. She was also really leaning in when going to the right. This has been a trait I was aware of and trying to work on. Ranae had been offering advice and that and the things I've tried haven't helped. We did a few LFR II rollbacks too then stopped and talked about the leaning issue. I asked Ranae if she wanted to ride Jessie. She got on and experienced first hand the "lean". She was wearing spurs and tried to use them to get Jessie's shoulder up, but to no avail.
It was a fun experience and we'll try and do it again. We discussed some other things to do that might help. One might be to ride a square instead of a circle. That will get her to straighten up a little...I hope.
It's going to be a hundred degrees here today and maybe even tomorrow and Sunday.
Jessie was a little nervous about the whole thing. Her trot was pretty big and quick. She kept moving in on Ranae and making the circle smaller. She was also really leaning in when going to the right. This has been a trait I was aware of and trying to work on. Ranae had been offering advice and that and the things I've tried haven't helped. We did a few LFR II rollbacks too then stopped and talked about the leaning issue. I asked Ranae if she wanted to ride Jessie. She got on and experienced first hand the "lean". She was wearing spurs and tried to use them to get Jessie's shoulder up, but to no avail.
It was a fun experience and we'll try and do it again. We discussed some other things to do that might help. One might be to ride a square instead of a circle. That will get her to straighten up a little...I hope.
It's going to be a hundred degrees here today and maybe even tomorrow and Sunday.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Side-passing and Following Behind
Last night we had a little groundwork session. GR II has a different way of teaching the side-pass than what I remember from a CA TV show. So, we tried that method. It still uses the fence, but there are two steps and it's actually easier than the other method. It keeps Jessie a little farther away from me too which made her feel a little uncomfortable. The leading behind exercise was pretty uneventful.
We also did some LFR II and her rollbacks are getting much more crisp, especially to her right. As I was trying to improve the bad side, I did this exercise a bit long because she actually broke a sweat (OMG!) Brought the clippers out just to make sure we hadn't lost that ability. She fussed a little, then acquiesced.
Tonight Ranae and I are going to try and do a passenger lesson on a lunge line. I heard a hunter jumper instructor on Rick Lamb's radio show say it's a good exercise to improve one's balance. We'll see.
The weatherman is predicting hundred degree temperatures this weekend. Don't know how much riding I'll have time for because I'm painting the storefront and sign this weekend.
We also did some LFR II and her rollbacks are getting much more crisp, especially to her right. As I was trying to improve the bad side, I did this exercise a bit long because she actually broke a sweat (OMG!) Brought the clippers out just to make sure we hadn't lost that ability. She fussed a little, then acquiesced.
Tonight Ranae and I are going to try and do a passenger lesson on a lunge line. I heard a hunter jumper instructor on Rick Lamb's radio show say it's a good exercise to improve one's balance. We'll see.
The weatherman is predicting hundred degree temperatures this weekend. Don't know how much riding I'll have time for because I'm painting the storefront and sign this weekend.
This was just too funny
Saw this on the Julie Goodnight Blog and had to post it:
Patches the Coolest Horse
Patches the Coolest Horse
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