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Post by el on Jan 31, 2015 10:58:14 GMT
SESSION 1-4: A HANDFUL but made huge effort to behave when asked, and contain his squeeliness!
Oz in January. In great condition according to our vet, looks as if it was actually the middle of summer. Full of life, lots of galloping about, squeeling, fiestyness with Dougal, play fighting, galloping about. In great form. My aim was to get some nice work out of this horse and not end up in a fiesty mess! Decided to stick to GW.
Early Jan - did about 3-4 sessions of groundwork. In the first one he had forgotten how to lead and I had this squeely jumpy horse on the end of my lead rope. 20 mins later I had a lovely horse. We worked on just doing a few steps (slow, normal, fast & trot) and stopping. Then repeating. Got it to the stage where wematched foot for foot.
Session 2 - same again, much improved.
Session 3 - Same, good leading now, despite being full of beans.
Session 4 - Wanted to improve catching. So worked on adding in a step.
1) stand my me (good) 2) move HQ and face me (good) 3) NEW STEP - head down by my hand either lightly touching or hovering near his poll while loose - now brilliant after 2 sessions! 4) By doing 2 & 3 a few times while Oz is loose, his mind is now focused on me a lot more. Putting on halter now a lot easier.
End Jan - Oz back out on holidays as I've got to go away for work. Happy some of the basics have been re-installed! Generally though Oz was feisty all January at least when I went out & wasn't quite the horse you wanted to thrown a saddle on!
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Post by el on Mar 7, 2015 13:00:22 GMT
Oz had all Feb off. SESSION #5, 2015; BRILLIANT Mar 6: Went up to find my crazy pony Not crazy this time lol. He kept trying to bite the halter & rope but was great aside from this. Dropped head when my hand is near his poll. Put on halter. Perfect to lead on loose rein, foot by foot. No squeals or jumps. Who hid my semi-feral pony from Jan!?
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Post by el on Mar 7, 2015 15:45:51 GMT
SESSION #6: Happy & mellow. I think his emotional state closely references the level of sunshine that day. Not joking at all. Mar 7: lovely sunshine, nearly spring like! Lovely horse again. Understands now when my hands slowly goes up near how poll to drop his head. Still loves to eat the halter when its near his mouth. Great walks, yields, stops & starts on a loose rein. I pulled once yesterday on him which annoyed me when I thought about it last night. Today made it a mission to never pull on him. So I didn't Lovely horse, mellow (I think the sun affects his mood a lot!), listening and stalked me the whole way back looking for a carrot and more scratches. Like last last year,when we have a really soft session together I feel very relaxed afterwards, changed from when I went out (which was still pretty relaxed). Weird!
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Post by el on Mar 8, 2015 12:15:07 GMT
SESSION 7: MELLOW & LOVELY Decided to bring out the saddle today. Caught him via lowering poll from a suggestion... all good. Did leading turning, slow & fast on foot and he was perfect... Brought him down & put on the saddle, all cool as custard. Expect when the realised the girth was dangling on the off side, so he proceed to stamp his off fore, which made the girth dangle more, when made him stand more.... NOTE: I must do some type of desensitisation with this, and I'll imagine there'll be a fine line between desen and creating a foot stomping monster! All good then, so as Dougal had taken off somewhere we went up to see, more time for practising leading and following a feel & making sure our minds were in similar places... Got the mounting block then in the middle of the field, and did Crissi's style mounting... walk away, walk past block on off side, 180 turn, then back on the near side. Oz was like a pro and lined himself perfectly on both off & near sides automatically Got up, scratches lick & chew from a relaxed Oz. (I was delighted). Did about 10 mins walking around on a loose rein in the field, me looking where I was going, trying to sit up tall & putting weight on inside seatbone. Oz continued as good as gold. Got off, walked back down, Dougal reappeared & both got carrots and a mineral block. I didn't pull on Oz once SO HAPPY great day the Oz is back! And I'm a month ahead of myself. Last year we didn't start back until April!
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Post by kas on Mar 8, 2015 16:24:05 GMT
Great stuff El!! x
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Post by el on Mar 10, 2015 12:58:13 GMT
SESSION 8: DOZY and LOVELY Very similar to 2 days ago. Lovely warm sunshine & a dozy pony. Did lots of walking in straight lines, me focusing on looking ahead, shoulders down, hands near pommel, and relaxing my ass. Horse just pootled about nicely FAB RELAXED RIDE IN THE SUN!
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Post by el on Mar 13, 2015 13:00:08 GMT
SESSION 9: Funny and glorious weather. Went out, Oz was sitting down. So I sat down for a while too and we enjoyed the sun. Then it was time to get up. It took Oz about 5 minutes and a LOT of rolling and groaning to complete this feat. I had a dozy pony again. Great to lead, tack up, mount up. Stood quietly relaxed. Riding wise did a fair bit.. mainly trying not to stop as it took Oz about 30 mins to work up to go to the bathroom (#2). Played with turns with eyes and body first (great when listening really subtle, not so good when on a mission to go to Dads horse or had spotted something in the distance). Stopped some leaning through the shoulder by doing leg yields out that way hehehehehe I'm devious Did some lovely trots, again Oz keen to stop, but we got a good few. Then went for a big ramble around the field. lovely stuff form Oz. YAY great day. And I got my bosal in teh post. No idea how to adjust leather properly so it fits, I might wait for Isi to come over. One thing - Oz loves biting stuff. He doesn't bite lead ropes etc much when in a halter during groundwork (but he'd like to), as he knows he'll be made to move backwards fast. BUT - he does bite stuff like his halter when it gets put on his head. This will not work with the expensive bosal! Any thoughts?
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Post by el on Mar 14, 2015 16:27:04 GMT
SESSION 10: Bareback & fab!
I was feeling lazy so decided just to bring up a halter and sit on for a few minutes. Did exactly this!
Lovely ride around, did walks and trying to get Oz to turn from my body but he was a bit distracted so it didn't work that well. But got some nice 'walk the lines', even a little counter bend (!), nice yields both directions and a loose rein HQ yield from halt with no forward steps. Very happy relaxed horse (a little dozy like his owner!) and a lovely sunny low key afternoon. Much valued & appreciated!
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Post by el on Apr 30, 2015 16:49:33 GMT
SESSION 11 AFTER a 6 WEEK BREAK:
Was going to go for a bareback ride, but Oz was biting the halter when I put it on. He cant do that more because he'll destroy a new bosal if he does! So plan B - stop biting.
- horse stand still - my hand near his poll - horse drops head (good) - halter near head - horse not to bite halter - halter beside nose - horse not to bite halter - horse on nose - horse not to bite halter
when he bits it, I asked him to back up softly, then we try it all again
when he doesn't bit (when its near head / nose) he gets praise and we go for a nice walk around the paddock.
Got about 6-7 non-bites in 45 mins. Tiny progress so we'll see what he's like next time.
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Post by el on May 3, 2015 12:10:30 GMT
Went out yesterday, rainy and cold. Oz was jumping galloping and fighting with dads horse to stay warm. No chance doing any training with a feisty horse it'd get too messy so left it.
SESSION 12
Next day - dry day. Mellow horse. 3 perfect non biting halter ons and he got groomed and his mane pulled. What s difference the weather makes.
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Post by el on May 3, 2015 15:05:53 GMT
Session 13 same day:
Went out Oz sitting down. When I got near him he started groaning. After a while he stretched out completely head flat on ground and eyes closed.
When he sat back up again I put the halter on and off. No biting as he is mellow today! The I sat on him, on the ground and felt his breathing (in / out about every 2 or 3 secs) and he continued siting. Then I got off, brought him fresh hand picked grass which he ate while sitting. End of session as I hadn't the heart to make him get up.
Aka my horse has the life of Riley.
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Post by el on May 4, 2015 13:12:25 GMT
14: mixed weather and a Mixed horse Got lazy so decided it hop on bareback. Got little nibble on Halter which I didn't address (!). Oz was a little foot stampy / head tossing, but thought I bugger it and got on bareback anyway. He felt fiesty when onboard, so to relax his mind we did one step forward then release and halt. It felt if I just kept him moving it'd just wind him up more. Though at the rashids clinic, serpintines at non- stop walk solved the issue. Big sigh and lick and chew. Repeated This a few times, just one or two steps them a rest. Started to calm down asap. We got little steps of backward, forward, circle, roll back, fq yield, hq yield, leg yield, sideways and buck bs tear drops. All with lists of mini rests to keep him mellow. Got off, mellow horse, no halter biting. Lovely light moves after a 2 month break. Isi is coming for her clinic next Thursday to Sunday so can't wait to see what she thinks of him. It's more about his mental state and reducing his fiestyness if he starts off like that, than teaching him to do stuff, as he's fairly handy at picking up new moves petty quickly.
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Post by el on May 5, 2015 12:26:17 GMT
SESSION 15: nice weather.
As Oz was doing a bit of head tossing yesterday and I wasn't very effective bareback, it was saddle time today. First got him with me on loose lead in walk and trot. Then before we tacked up, I got the girth and flapped it all around 4 legs, ears, ass, etc. This was to avoid any potential foot stamping and it did the trick. Then saddle on.
Oz was lovely... not asleep but not wound up. The pattern was do a little, give him a rest and we got LOTS of huge yawns throughout as per usual.
With halt to walk, to get this bareback I just breathed in and rose up and forwards tiny bit. I didnt tighten my legs. Tried this with the saddle, and once i remembered not to do my habits got some nice walk departs.
A big thing - at halt before we moved off, I checked to see where there was tension in my body - usually shoulders & ass! So I relaxed both looked up and then imagined walking forwards.
Oz great throughout, no pulling, minimal head shakes and he was listening very hard. My quest now is to becomemore aware of tension in my body (which is probably putting pressure on oz to move in a random direction I don't want) and release it and see how relaxed my body can get when I ride.
I think I've got my focus for Isi when she comes!
1) make Oz feel happy, if he starts off grumpy cos of the weather 2) once Oz is ok, get Isi to help me stop doing all this crazy extra muscle tension stuff and just let the horse move my relaxed body.
This clinic it's not going to be about Oz doing better moves. Once he's soft thats fine. I think basic moves (like halt to walk), but with me really soft & mellow.
:)Elaine
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Post by el on May 5, 2015 18:44:50 GMT
Pens all ready for our clinic this weekend with the amazing Silversand Isi from Germany!
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Post by el on May 12, 2015 16:26:01 GMT
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