I woke up at 3:52am to support Loma in a dressage show. I was her groom. Not a glamorous title for sure, but I'm so glad I did it. I learned a lot and saw some very interesting things.
Loma is an extremely accomplished dressage instructor and won both of the classes she'd entered. We had some good time together, getting to know each better and even exploring some ideas for getting into business together. I got to experience a show from behind the scenes, a first for me.
I especially enjoyed watching the warm-up ring, seeing the various horses and riding styles. I saw some poor displays of horsemanship, but some amazing riding. Not all the people had uncontrollable horses from the ground, but certainly several.
I learned about scoring and how it's done.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Playing with Z
Had a great session today with Z, playing at Liberty, then some tricks, then finesse, then some freestyle, then back to tricks. The wind was blowing so no mosquitoes most of the time and lots of exhuberance and try from Miss Z.
We're working on backwards on the circle and that's going well. We pushed the ball around some and then practiced change of direction and transitions on a smaller circle (on the 12) from walk to canter and down again. We cleaned up sideways towards and then practiced spanish walk. She loves spanish walk!!
We then headed into the arena for some follow the rail and circles, working on bending her and suppling her hind end. I'm looking for her to cross over the hind legs while still moving forward and she's getting better. Our circles were ok, but she got out of balance at the canter very often and dropped to trot. I wonder if my circle was too small. I would then leg yield and ask her up to canter again. She was happy to transition up, but just couldn't manage to stay in a package in the canter.
Then, after I found a good place to quit, we were going to hit the trail together. However, as we entered the front pasture, I realized the breeze was dying and the bugs were coming out. When she starts shaking her head to avoid bugs, it's so hard to get her to focus. So, we just did some walking up and down hills in the front pasture for 5-10 mins and went to the barn for bug spray.
Finally, I practiced more spanish walk from her back (very cool!) and then into the round pen to practice bowing. She's coming all the way down at the bow and even holding it there quite nicely. Now that she's comfortable doing that, I'm going to move a subtle cue into the mix and transfer the bow to the subtle cue.
Funny thing... we finished up and decided to pull a few weeds while she hung out with me in the round pen. She was perfectly happy while I asking her for participation and engagement, but once I turned my back to do something else she got scared and felt she needed the comfort of the herd. They were completely out of sight and she called to them. It was an interesting thing to see that when I stopped "holding her hand", she did not have the confidence to manage it. She needs the herd for confidence. I may start putting her in a stall/run at night sometimes to help her feel more confidence in herself. I can't imagine how bad she'd be w/o Parelli - I know all her behaviors are very mild because of this program. Maybe I just need more UDT with her away from the herd.
Really good night.
We're working on backwards on the circle and that's going well. We pushed the ball around some and then practiced change of direction and transitions on a smaller circle (on the 12) from walk to canter and down again. We cleaned up sideways towards and then practiced spanish walk. She loves spanish walk!!
We then headed into the arena for some follow the rail and circles, working on bending her and suppling her hind end. I'm looking for her to cross over the hind legs while still moving forward and she's getting better. Our circles were ok, but she got out of balance at the canter very often and dropped to trot. I wonder if my circle was too small. I would then leg yield and ask her up to canter again. She was happy to transition up, but just couldn't manage to stay in a package in the canter.
Then, after I found a good place to quit, we were going to hit the trail together. However, as we entered the front pasture, I realized the breeze was dying and the bugs were coming out. When she starts shaking her head to avoid bugs, it's so hard to get her to focus. So, we just did some walking up and down hills in the front pasture for 5-10 mins and went to the barn for bug spray.
Finally, I practiced more spanish walk from her back (very cool!) and then into the round pen to practice bowing. She's coming all the way down at the bow and even holding it there quite nicely. Now that she's comfortable doing that, I'm going to move a subtle cue into the mix and transfer the bow to the subtle cue.
Funny thing... we finished up and decided to pull a few weeds while she hung out with me in the round pen. She was perfectly happy while I asking her for participation and engagement, but once I turned my back to do something else she got scared and felt she needed the comfort of the herd. They were completely out of sight and she called to them. It was an interesting thing to see that when I stopped "holding her hand", she did not have the confidence to manage it. She needs the herd for confidence. I may start putting her in a stall/run at night sometimes to help her feel more confidence in herself. I can't imagine how bad she'd be w/o Parelli - I know all her behaviors are very mild because of this program. Maybe I just need more UDT with her away from the herd.
Really good night.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Short Trailride on Cowboy
As Chrissy develops Cowboy, she is also breaking through her fear thresholds. One of these is the most common for horse owners... trailriding. She's more confident on Rain and she's most concerned over Cowboy's behavior when he encounters something scary. So, I agreed to ride him while she rode Rain so she could see how he manages stimulus on the trail.
I had to ride him English, as Chrissy's in my western for a few more days. I've never ridden him english and he looked so handsome in english tack! My saddle fit him nicely, too. I warmed him up on the ground and got some beautiful trot sideways, among other things. Once mounted, we started with lots of lateral flexion and I even added a treat to the deal when he flexed all the way. He started to magically get very soft with the treats in the picture. He was slightly hesitant to leave, he hasn't been ridden off the property in a lonnng time. However, he got with the program quickly and we headed down the road. The times that he was hesitating, I simply asked him to go backwards until he was soft, then asked him forward again.
The bugs were bad, so I asked Kyle to run us up some bug spray! Dumb mosquitoes. :-)
We didn't have a lot of daylight left, so we only went a couple miles. Cowboy was fine, calm and relaxed and happy to try and snatch the tall grass as we went (the grass is so high it's right at his face!).
Chrissy did well on Rain and I threw her some pointers to help her continue to improve. When we got back, Chrissy untacked Rain, put away some ropes and I threw hay. It's so very nice to have her more self-sufficient now and able to help. We're in a great place and she'll continue to improve rapidly, I'm sure.
It was a nice quiet ride - excellent for helping Chrissy gain confidence.
Should be a great weekend... nice weather and horses to ride. I'll forego a day of riding to get my kids doing something fun, too.
I had to ride him English, as Chrissy's in my western for a few more days. I've never ridden him english and he looked so handsome in english tack! My saddle fit him nicely, too. I warmed him up on the ground and got some beautiful trot sideways, among other things. Once mounted, we started with lots of lateral flexion and I even added a treat to the deal when he flexed all the way. He started to magically get very soft with the treats in the picture. He was slightly hesitant to leave, he hasn't been ridden off the property in a lonnng time. However, he got with the program quickly and we headed down the road. The times that he was hesitating, I simply asked him to go backwards until he was soft, then asked him forward again.
The bugs were bad, so I asked Kyle to run us up some bug spray! Dumb mosquitoes. :-)
We didn't have a lot of daylight left, so we only went a couple miles. Cowboy was fine, calm and relaxed and happy to try and snatch the tall grass as we went (the grass is so high it's right at his face!).
Chrissy did well on Rain and I threw her some pointers to help her continue to improve. When we got back, Chrissy untacked Rain, put away some ropes and I threw hay. It's so very nice to have her more self-sufficient now and able to help. We're in a great place and she'll continue to improve rapidly, I'm sure.
It was a nice quiet ride - excellent for helping Chrissy gain confidence.
Should be a great weekend... nice weather and horses to ride. I'll forego a day of riding to get my kids doing something fun, too.
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