Post by Karon on Jul 17, 2010 8:45:28 GMT
My first ever Silversand clinic report Where do I start?
Things I learnt:
1. Don't take two horses.......
2. Take a chair!
3. If ignoring (1), stay in a B&B......
4. The A49 is incredibly boring to drive up and down 4 times on 4 days
5. The SAS had it in for us - loads of shooting going on, and more helicopters than were really necessary taking off and landing
More importantly, things I learnt with the horses are: don't pull; don't step back from them if they're walking into you - make them move themselves away; having a soft feel; how to get my energy up more effectively; don't just work in my comfort zone as I won't progress at all with them. I'm sure there's loads more that I'll remember as I type this!
Day one:
Working in the field where the horses' pens were, I got Shantih out first and left Rash in the pen watching. Shantih was over-excited and bounced out of the pen, tried to run me over and I spent a few minutes basically walking backwards away from her while she bounded around me generally being a pain. Steve took her off me, and she tried to flatten him too. I think she got a bit of a surprise when Steve didn't move back - there followed what seemed like ages but probably wasn't where Shantih kept trying to do what she wanted (ie, tank around, wound up completely) while Steve stopped her and tried to show her where she'd be comfortable (ie standing quietly, or moving her feet and yielding softly where he wanted her to go). I have never seen Shantih like this - probably because I work in my comfort zone with her all the time and don't ask for much from her. She was really having a go - trying to bite Steve, rearing a bit, and generally being pretty aggressive. She did start to calm down once she realised Steve wasn't going to let her have her own way, but had to keep her feet moving all the time otherwise she got stressed again.
Back to me, and I know now I still kept stepping backwards and not being effective enough in asking her to keep away from me, but I think I was starting to get it by the end of the morning session and was getting Shantih to yield to me a bit more - she was starting to settle and realise that if she was going to move her feet she had to do it my way, not hers. She was also very wary of the other horses so again, I took the easy way out and went off across the field - and was then brought back to work close to the others so Shantih started to get used to them around her. She has only just started hacking out with another horse, and is quite aggressive with her so I did expect her to be difficult, but over the 3 days having other horses working around her did make a huge difference.
Rash, meanwhile, not to be left out was taken out by Tricia who did a bit with her - I'm not sure what she was doing as I was concentrating on Shantih but was aware that Rash was being asked to do bits and seemed to be pretty well behaved.
We also worked on getting them to follow a feel, which after a lot of practise I was able to get the hang of with both of them - it was me who needed the work there, not them - and it did help me realise just how little pressure Shantih needed to get her to soften and yield. Too much and she got upset, her head came up and she rushed. I learnt a lot from her with the groundwork, particularly on being softer myself but also clearer and more consistent with what I'm asking (and how I ask them).
In the afternoon, it was indoors to do some ridden work, after some more ground work. Again, Shantih was quite excited and had to keep moving her feet - she caught on much more quickly that if she was soft and moved around as asked, she had an easier time and was better behaved this time. Rash was brought in to the indoor school too, so I think having her there settled Shantih more. I was nervous about getting on Shantih - how ridiculous, really, as I've done nothing but ride her while I've been out of work! Steve got on her, and she stood pretty well straight away - as if she thought "ah, this is what I normally do". Once I got on, she had to keep moving so I worked on trying to slow her walk down, counting the strides and stopping after 10, 9, 8 etc strides. Everyone else was working on walk 10 strides, back up 10, walk 9, back up 9 etc but Shantih was rushing back with her head up so rather than ruin what softness I had, I just concentrated on slowing the walk and getting a half-decent halt.
Incidentally, while Steve was holding her he got her doing a lovely piaffe in hand, as she just had to keep moving her feet!
Tiricia did some work with Rash, who was being very well behaved and then she held Shantih while I took over Rash. I didn't ride her but worked her in hand, doing hind quarter yields, getting her to move her front end and basically getting her listening to me. One thing I did notice was they both napped back to each other, so although I was working very much in our comfort zone they still weren't 100% with me.
By the end of Day One, Shantih was starting to settle down and would actually stand with her head low, without fussing. Rash couldn't care less, TBH - totally unconcerned with everything.
After the best part of 6 hours working them though, I was exhausted! They weren't, but they'd had to spend a lot more time thinking than I'd ask of them at home so I think mentally, they were quite tired. I was starting to get more of an idea of what Steve meant with some phrases and the movements we were asking the horses to do, too, so wasn't feeling quite so left behind as I was at the start of the day.
That's it for Day One - will start on Day Two in a bit! Someone remind me what I've missed out
Things I learnt:
1. Don't take two horses.......
2. Take a chair!
3. If ignoring (1), stay in a B&B......
4. The A49 is incredibly boring to drive up and down 4 times on 4 days
5. The SAS had it in for us - loads of shooting going on, and more helicopters than were really necessary taking off and landing
More importantly, things I learnt with the horses are: don't pull; don't step back from them if they're walking into you - make them move themselves away; having a soft feel; how to get my energy up more effectively; don't just work in my comfort zone as I won't progress at all with them. I'm sure there's loads more that I'll remember as I type this!
Day one:
Working in the field where the horses' pens were, I got Shantih out first and left Rash in the pen watching. Shantih was over-excited and bounced out of the pen, tried to run me over and I spent a few minutes basically walking backwards away from her while she bounded around me generally being a pain. Steve took her off me, and she tried to flatten him too. I think she got a bit of a surprise when Steve didn't move back - there followed what seemed like ages but probably wasn't where Shantih kept trying to do what she wanted (ie, tank around, wound up completely) while Steve stopped her and tried to show her where she'd be comfortable (ie standing quietly, or moving her feet and yielding softly where he wanted her to go). I have never seen Shantih like this - probably because I work in my comfort zone with her all the time and don't ask for much from her. She was really having a go - trying to bite Steve, rearing a bit, and generally being pretty aggressive. She did start to calm down once she realised Steve wasn't going to let her have her own way, but had to keep her feet moving all the time otherwise she got stressed again.
Back to me, and I know now I still kept stepping backwards and not being effective enough in asking her to keep away from me, but I think I was starting to get it by the end of the morning session and was getting Shantih to yield to me a bit more - she was starting to settle and realise that if she was going to move her feet she had to do it my way, not hers. She was also very wary of the other horses so again, I took the easy way out and went off across the field - and was then brought back to work close to the others so Shantih started to get used to them around her. She has only just started hacking out with another horse, and is quite aggressive with her so I did expect her to be difficult, but over the 3 days having other horses working around her did make a huge difference.
Rash, meanwhile, not to be left out was taken out by Tricia who did a bit with her - I'm not sure what she was doing as I was concentrating on Shantih but was aware that Rash was being asked to do bits and seemed to be pretty well behaved.
We also worked on getting them to follow a feel, which after a lot of practise I was able to get the hang of with both of them - it was me who needed the work there, not them - and it did help me realise just how little pressure Shantih needed to get her to soften and yield. Too much and she got upset, her head came up and she rushed. I learnt a lot from her with the groundwork, particularly on being softer myself but also clearer and more consistent with what I'm asking (and how I ask them).
In the afternoon, it was indoors to do some ridden work, after some more ground work. Again, Shantih was quite excited and had to keep moving her feet - she caught on much more quickly that if she was soft and moved around as asked, she had an easier time and was better behaved this time. Rash was brought in to the indoor school too, so I think having her there settled Shantih more. I was nervous about getting on Shantih - how ridiculous, really, as I've done nothing but ride her while I've been out of work! Steve got on her, and she stood pretty well straight away - as if she thought "ah, this is what I normally do". Once I got on, she had to keep moving so I worked on trying to slow her walk down, counting the strides and stopping after 10, 9, 8 etc strides. Everyone else was working on walk 10 strides, back up 10, walk 9, back up 9 etc but Shantih was rushing back with her head up so rather than ruin what softness I had, I just concentrated on slowing the walk and getting a half-decent halt.
Incidentally, while Steve was holding her he got her doing a lovely piaffe in hand, as she just had to keep moving her feet!
Tiricia did some work with Rash, who was being very well behaved and then she held Shantih while I took over Rash. I didn't ride her but worked her in hand, doing hind quarter yields, getting her to move her front end and basically getting her listening to me. One thing I did notice was they both napped back to each other, so although I was working very much in our comfort zone they still weren't 100% with me.
By the end of Day One, Shantih was starting to settle down and would actually stand with her head low, without fussing. Rash couldn't care less, TBH - totally unconcerned with everything.
After the best part of 6 hours working them though, I was exhausted! They weren't, but they'd had to spend a lot more time thinking than I'd ask of them at home so I think mentally, they were quite tired. I was starting to get more of an idea of what Steve meant with some phrases and the movements we were asking the horses to do, too, so wasn't feeling quite so left behind as I was at the start of the day.
That's it for Day One - will start on Day Two in a bit! Someone remind me what I've missed out