I finished Day 2 of a 4-day clinic with David Lichman today. It's a L3/4 clinic and the most advanced clinic I've ever done. Z and I are doing our best of course, but I feel that we're struggling a bit in our relationship. She's not happy. Day 2 was better than day 1. She's had 3+ weeks off due to her leg injury and I don't know if that's the problem. She's telling me she doesn't want to do things. David thinks I'm fluctuating between being too soft in my ask and then being effective enough in my phase 4. She was much better under saddle than on the ground, but still - not very happy.
Her sweat pattern on her back looked off with a dry spot on the left by the withers and ruffled hairs. I believe my shimming needs a look and I'll do that before riding on day 3. Otherwise, I'm working on making things more interesting for her - and being more provocative myself. Her draw is amazing, her drive is snotty. David was actually quite perplexed by us.
Anyway, it's a big learning curve and we'll keep figuring it out. More, I'll keep figuring Z out.
What I've learned...
He had us doing question box patterns with counter canters in an effort to get easy flc's. Z and I didn't have a good enough canter depart to get it done. I knew something was wrong with her and at the end of the day, I really think I discovered saddle fit as the problem.
We watched videos in the basement in the morning and one of them had music by Jennifer Warnes that was lovely.
We talked about playing all 7 games with the head down and teaching a horse to be that relaxed always. Z could do a few things that way (circle was pretty good right away).
We develop our horses in this order: Mind, Weight, Flexion, Feet. First get the MIND!
Sandy had the Craig Cameron headstall and I loved it. I want one.
We talked about haunches in at the trot being very similar to a canter depart request. Make sure you are clear with your horse between the two asks.
We worked on developing the spin. Dave taught us how to do it with a line by looping it once over the horse's neck. Tip: Don't hurry into the spin, don't hurry during the spin, hurry OUT of the spin. I got in Z's way at the end of the spin - we've only ever done that at liberty.
Test ourselves by riding with no reins and getting head low, going slow, transitions, move the hind and fore, 8 bends, figure 8 and canter circles.
The horse should do nearly all of it's work with the poll at or below the withers.
Dave showed a video of Katja doing a circus act with 7 horses at liberty called "Arabian Nights". She had the horses all rearing, doing spins, going in opposite directions of each other. It was simply beautiful.
My homework was to practice cantering in the open pasture and build canter departs. I felt that I had a different problem to fix so I didn't do my homework.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Day 1 with David Lichman
This was a tough day for Z and I. I had a bit of an attitude and was struggling with not feeling like the best student in the class. There were a few students who were L4/5 and I was having ego-issues. LOL. Once I admitted it to myself, I could address it. Emotional fitness, Tia!! I went home after the first day and really put myself in check. I'd paid for the clinic, I had the time off from work, it was up to me to get the most from the 4 days. It was entirely up to me.
The first day, we talked in the basement, watched some videos and then headed out to do ground work. The 12 students were split into 2 groups - L2/3 and the advanced group - L3/4/5. I was in the advanced group. A couple of the students are working on L5 stuff, so quite advanced. We started with figure 8's on the ground and Z was having a hard time driving away from me. She could come into me just fine, but driving away was a challenge. We were the only ones with that problem. Typically the problem is with the draw, not the drive. Dave had Z and I work on the S-pattern to fix our figure 8. We went out into the pasture and built the S-pattern. It was going nicely after about 30 minutes. I was very pleased.
With the L2/3 group, he worked on the Touch It game (target training). He talked a lot about reinforcement and using a 50/50 schedule so the horse is always wondering when he'll get rewarded versus expecting it every time.
Some other notes I took:
The first pattern is touch it. Why? Because it teaches FOCUS! The human learns to focus and the horse learns to read the humans focus. Use positive reinforcement so they're motivated to follow our focus.
When Dave lays a horse down, he gets the bow, but then he holds the leg up and tucked until the horse goes down for comfort. I'm going to try that with Rain and then Z. They can both bow nicely, but I haven't ventured to the lay down yet. It's time to do that.
We discussed the 6 methods of teaching: mimicking, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, manipulation, scan and capture and ?? (shoot, missing the last one). Positive reinforcement uses bridging and target training.
Dave made a great point - you should be able to drive from zone 3 and play touch it before you ever ride a horse. I'll be working on that with Tina next. I also think Chrissy could really benefit. Dave had the early students using treats to enforce the touch it game. The treat on the object they were headed so the horse started to like the game.
Dave showed us sideways on the circle to get the horse thinking about the human. He demonstrated teaching the horse to circle with their eyes on their human. He disengaged the hind everytime the horse looked away and after a very short time, the horse (Ray's horse) was circling him in a nice curved way with her eyes always on Dave.
He talked about bonding exercises such as letting the horse rest the front of their face on the humans belly. He also talked about teaching the horse to rest it's jaw bone on their humans shoulder.
For teaching target training, hold the treat in 1 hand closed. If they touch the target, open the hand and present the treat. If they dont touch the target, keep the hand closed. They will learn quickly to seek the target!
Dave talked about clicker training and the problem with it: the click is terminal. This means that when you click, the behavior should end and the horse is rewarded. How do you encourage the try with clicker training?
Dave does a ton of voice command training and he also uses voice to encourage try. I do that as well and I know my horses respond.
Dave made a big deal about teaching horses their names. He also talked about how to teach a horse what his name is NOT. This way, you can single a horse out when playing with multiples. He said you need a group name, too - like ALL. Each horse has two names, their own and the group name.
He praised Alexander kurlin's book on clicker training and he talked a lot of the sea lion training done by a group in Florida (google: Slewths).
It was an interesting first day.
The first day, we talked in the basement, watched some videos and then headed out to do ground work. The 12 students were split into 2 groups - L2/3 and the advanced group - L3/4/5. I was in the advanced group. A couple of the students are working on L5 stuff, so quite advanced. We started with figure 8's on the ground and Z was having a hard time driving away from me. She could come into me just fine, but driving away was a challenge. We were the only ones with that problem. Typically the problem is with the draw, not the drive. Dave had Z and I work on the S-pattern to fix our figure 8. We went out into the pasture and built the S-pattern. It was going nicely after about 30 minutes. I was very pleased.
With the L2/3 group, he worked on the Touch It game (target training). He talked a lot about reinforcement and using a 50/50 schedule so the horse is always wondering when he'll get rewarded versus expecting it every time.
Some other notes I took:
The first pattern is touch it. Why? Because it teaches FOCUS! The human learns to focus and the horse learns to read the humans focus. Use positive reinforcement so they're motivated to follow our focus.
When Dave lays a horse down, he gets the bow, but then he holds the leg up and tucked until the horse goes down for comfort. I'm going to try that with Rain and then Z. They can both bow nicely, but I haven't ventured to the lay down yet. It's time to do that.
We discussed the 6 methods of teaching: mimicking, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, manipulation, scan and capture and ?? (shoot, missing the last one). Positive reinforcement uses bridging and target training.
Dave made a great point - you should be able to drive from zone 3 and play touch it before you ever ride a horse. I'll be working on that with Tina next. I also think Chrissy could really benefit. Dave had the early students using treats to enforce the touch it game. The treat on the object they were headed so the horse started to like the game.
Dave showed us sideways on the circle to get the horse thinking about the human. He demonstrated teaching the horse to circle with their eyes on their human. He disengaged the hind everytime the horse looked away and after a very short time, the horse (Ray's horse) was circling him in a nice curved way with her eyes always on Dave.
He talked about bonding exercises such as letting the horse rest the front of their face on the humans belly. He also talked about teaching the horse to rest it's jaw bone on their humans shoulder.
For teaching target training, hold the treat in 1 hand closed. If they touch the target, open the hand and present the treat. If they dont touch the target, keep the hand closed. They will learn quickly to seek the target!
Dave talked about clicker training and the problem with it: the click is terminal. This means that when you click, the behavior should end and the horse is rewarded. How do you encourage the try with clicker training?
Dave does a ton of voice command training and he also uses voice to encourage try. I do that as well and I know my horses respond.
Dave made a big deal about teaching horses their names. He also talked about how to teach a horse what his name is NOT. This way, you can single a horse out when playing with multiples. He said you need a group name, too - like ALL. Each horse has two names, their own and the group name.
He praised Alexander kurlin's book on clicker training and he talked a lot of the sea lion training done by a group in Florida (google: Slewths).
It was an interesting first day.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Squeeze and Sideways with Tina
Tonight, I wanted to build more sideways and squeeze game patterns with Tina. I started with asking her to go sideways over an obstacle. It's obvious that she's never done sideways or sidepassing. She was able to take small steps sideways over an obstacle, but she really wasn't comfortable going sideways so we have some work to do.
We continued to build those 2 games and by the end of the session, she was licking and chewing and giving some nice sideways with hinds and fores crossing. Squeeze is tough because the horse can get scared when they can't go forward. I was looking for relaxation and Tina not wishing to go forward and leave. She had learned that she could find the answer and forward wasn't it. Her answer is typically forward, which is very natural for a prey animal so I'm trying to build a more confident and inquisitive mind in her. I want to try other answers besides forward.
After our ground session, I spent some more time shaping up her feet. The left fore is extremely flat, so I'm trying to lift the sole and build the solar dome. The right hand is the nicest, for whatever reason. Things are coming along. She's getting lots of good concussion on the track and her hoof wall grows stong.
We continued to build those 2 games and by the end of the session, she was licking and chewing and giving some nice sideways with hinds and fores crossing. Squeeze is tough because the horse can get scared when they can't go forward. I was looking for relaxation and Tina not wishing to go forward and leave. She had learned that she could find the answer and forward wasn't it. Her answer is typically forward, which is very natural for a prey animal so I'm trying to build a more confident and inquisitive mind in her. I want to try other answers besides forward.
After our ground session, I spent some more time shaping up her feet. The left fore is extremely flat, so I'm trying to lift the sole and build the solar dome. The right hand is the nicest, for whatever reason. Things are coming along. She's getting lots of good concussion on the track and her hoof wall grows stong.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)