Post by breakfast on Jun 9, 2013 21:42:13 GMT
It has been a bit of a funny week for horses because I wasn’t really expecting my search to conclude so rapidly and consequently I have been somewhat booked up. I have made time every day to work with Iris mare, however, so we’re starting to get some basics in place gradually. It has all been groundwork because that is what I felt she needed mentally and because my saddle needs cleaning before I try it on her and may not fit even when I do. I doubt cleaning will happen until I have a free evening. In the meantime she has a lot of basics to figure out, so we are not short of things to do.
Day 1
On Sunday we went into the arena ( past the chain harrow, helpfully placed dangerously close to the gateway ) and I spent a while figuring out where she is at. From my point of view it wasn’t far along- her previous owners had described her as “nosey” which I would characterise as anxiously watchful- she was fixing her attention on various objects in the distance and making keeping an eye on those her prime interest. My job at first was to get her attention and then try to give her enough of a job to do that she could stop worrying about what was going on around the horizon and start listening to me.
I began just asking her to lead up, which she would do to a degree, but very distractedly and quite diffuse. Making a bit of fuss at the other end of the rope wasn’t enough to persuade her do anything more than glance at me, so I switched to using the flag, asking politely for a change- stepping off to walk with me, a step of back up, a change of balance – and then using the flag to make a bit of noise if she ignored me. Typically she did ignore me asking and then jumped when the flag came into play and started getting more interested in what I was asking for. After a moment her attention would return to the horizon, but over a bit of time we got some changes and her head started to come down a little so we called it a day.
Day 2
On Monday I started by finding out where we were following the previous day’s work. She was still interested in the distance – a bit more so perhaps having realised there were cows in field less than a mile away – but it took a lot less to bring her attention back and after a couple of minutes I realised I wasn’t going to need the flag to bring her attention back. I used it a little for desensitisation, though, as she was very keen to run away from it.
Asking her to accept that I could touch her with the end of the stick while she was walking, she thought she needed to run away from it.
Working in trot.
I also spent more time on asking her to catch up with me, so that if I started walking she would come with me rather than dragging behind. This is fairly simple work but it makes a horse much more pleasant to lead and helps them to get the idea of following your thought rather than just wandering along in vaguely the same time you do. The important change one has to make in order to work on this is to stop waiting for the horse. Rather than getting ready to go then waiting for the horse to get ready to go, then going, you get ready to go, then you go. If the horse isn’t ready they have to catch up- you can put a steady pressure on the lead if they are dragging and maybe make some noise or otherwise cause a bit of a fuss as you go to ask them to think about something other than leaning back on the rope.
I began looking at asking her to back up correctly, starting with lowering her head. She found this quite hard- she naturally has a high head carriage and she is quite locked up in her neck, so this took quite a lot of work and she was inclined to nod rather than to lower her head and pause at all.
At the end of the session we went over to look at the cows, but they were mostly at the far side of their field, so I don’t know that she really benefited, but it did make for a nice picture...
Day 3
This was an early start, so we just worked on reinforcing the work we had done before- no need for the flag at all now and she was way better at paying attention to me - and I began to work on lateral bending, asking her to bring her head around to the left or right smoothly and without totally locking up her neck. She is very bracey so she finds this quite hard, but each day of work she is a bit better.
Day 4
Continuing with the same work and starting to get more connection with her feet, so that she will pick up her life with mine and come back down with me. We worked on building our bend up into a turn on the forehand and she was finding it very hard to move her feet without locking her neck up. This is clearly going to be one of the things we must work on extensively- she finds it hard to yield her neck without taking it back immediately at the best of times and when her feet move she locks up again quickly, meaning it is hard to get even one relaxed step.
Aside from this, we have gone from where she would drag behind and more or less wander along doing her own thing on the other end of a rope, to where I can have the rope balanced on one finger and get changes of speed and direction without her feeling any need to pull on me. I am not going to ignore what amazing progress this horse is making or how quickly. The things that I am needing to work on have changed massively over the last few days.
She can move faster with me a lot better now, not trying to run off or drag behind unless I get my position wrong.
Not sure what was going on here, but we both seem quite cheerful.
Asking her to bend towards me.
Good horse.
Day 5
More work on asking her to bend and stay relaxed- her head turns in notches as though she can’t understand that I would just ask her to move her head and I must be asking her to look at something specific. She’s more than happy to look at whatever it is, but she hasn’t figured that it’s not about where I am pointing her head as much as about her just softening. This will come with time, no doubt.
She is starting to get really good about moving with me most of the time, though if there is something she is a bit concerned about/interested in, she will still bend to look at it in a way that means she then drops her shoulder in on me. This is changing as we progress, however.
Day 7
After a day off, because I was helping with the Shires at a show, we got home this evening and I did a short session with Iris. Considering we have had a week, she has made unbelievable progress. She is <i>so smart</i>. I am going to have to work very hard to keep up with her and keep things interesting. Hopefully we'll get to riding this week.
And just in case you thought I had forgotten the little guy. He has been a total star through all of this. Iris let herself in with him in the middle of the week and they have been doing fine since. She's kicked him a couple of times when he asked for it, but today we noticed them grooming each other and they are very sweet together without - so far - being ridiculously clingy.
Day 1
On Sunday we went into the arena ( past the chain harrow, helpfully placed dangerously close to the gateway ) and I spent a while figuring out where she is at. From my point of view it wasn’t far along- her previous owners had described her as “nosey” which I would characterise as anxiously watchful- she was fixing her attention on various objects in the distance and making keeping an eye on those her prime interest. My job at first was to get her attention and then try to give her enough of a job to do that she could stop worrying about what was going on around the horizon and start listening to me.
I began just asking her to lead up, which she would do to a degree, but very distractedly and quite diffuse. Making a bit of fuss at the other end of the rope wasn’t enough to persuade her do anything more than glance at me, so I switched to using the flag, asking politely for a change- stepping off to walk with me, a step of back up, a change of balance – and then using the flag to make a bit of noise if she ignored me. Typically she did ignore me asking and then jumped when the flag came into play and started getting more interested in what I was asking for. After a moment her attention would return to the horizon, but over a bit of time we got some changes and her head started to come down a little so we called it a day.
Day 2
On Monday I started by finding out where we were following the previous day’s work. She was still interested in the distance – a bit more so perhaps having realised there were cows in field less than a mile away – but it took a lot less to bring her attention back and after a couple of minutes I realised I wasn’t going to need the flag to bring her attention back. I used it a little for desensitisation, though, as she was very keen to run away from it.
Asking her to accept that I could touch her with the end of the stick while she was walking, she thought she needed to run away from it.
Working in trot.
I also spent more time on asking her to catch up with me, so that if I started walking she would come with me rather than dragging behind. This is fairly simple work but it makes a horse much more pleasant to lead and helps them to get the idea of following your thought rather than just wandering along in vaguely the same time you do. The important change one has to make in order to work on this is to stop waiting for the horse. Rather than getting ready to go then waiting for the horse to get ready to go, then going, you get ready to go, then you go. If the horse isn’t ready they have to catch up- you can put a steady pressure on the lead if they are dragging and maybe make some noise or otherwise cause a bit of a fuss as you go to ask them to think about something other than leaning back on the rope.
I began looking at asking her to back up correctly, starting with lowering her head. She found this quite hard- she naturally has a high head carriage and she is quite locked up in her neck, so this took quite a lot of work and she was inclined to nod rather than to lower her head and pause at all.
At the end of the session we went over to look at the cows, but they were mostly at the far side of their field, so I don’t know that she really benefited, but it did make for a nice picture...
Day 3
This was an early start, so we just worked on reinforcing the work we had done before- no need for the flag at all now and she was way better at paying attention to me - and I began to work on lateral bending, asking her to bring her head around to the left or right smoothly and without totally locking up her neck. She is very bracey so she finds this quite hard, but each day of work she is a bit better.
Day 4
Continuing with the same work and starting to get more connection with her feet, so that she will pick up her life with mine and come back down with me. We worked on building our bend up into a turn on the forehand and she was finding it very hard to move her feet without locking her neck up. This is clearly going to be one of the things we must work on extensively- she finds it hard to yield her neck without taking it back immediately at the best of times and when her feet move she locks up again quickly, meaning it is hard to get even one relaxed step.
Aside from this, we have gone from where she would drag behind and more or less wander along doing her own thing on the other end of a rope, to where I can have the rope balanced on one finger and get changes of speed and direction without her feeling any need to pull on me. I am not going to ignore what amazing progress this horse is making or how quickly. The things that I am needing to work on have changed massively over the last few days.
She can move faster with me a lot better now, not trying to run off or drag behind unless I get my position wrong.
Not sure what was going on here, but we both seem quite cheerful.
Asking her to bend towards me.
Good horse.
Day 5
More work on asking her to bend and stay relaxed- her head turns in notches as though she can’t understand that I would just ask her to move her head and I must be asking her to look at something specific. She’s more than happy to look at whatever it is, but she hasn’t figured that it’s not about where I am pointing her head as much as about her just softening. This will come with time, no doubt.
She is starting to get really good about moving with me most of the time, though if there is something she is a bit concerned about/interested in, she will still bend to look at it in a way that means she then drops her shoulder in on me. This is changing as we progress, however.
Day 7
After a day off, because I was helping with the Shires at a show, we got home this evening and I did a short session with Iris. Considering we have had a week, she has made unbelievable progress. She is <i>so smart</i>. I am going to have to work very hard to keep up with her and keep things interesting. Hopefully we'll get to riding this week.
And just in case you thought I had forgotten the little guy. He has been a total star through all of this. Iris let herself in with him in the middle of the week and they have been doing fine since. She's kicked him a couple of times when he asked for it, but today we noticed them grooming each other and they are very sweet together without - so far - being ridiculously clingy.