Today I started with Smarty and today online we worked on pretty much the same as yesterday so I won‘t bother writing it all again, the only difference today was he did seem to be much more relaxed and focused on me.
I then saddled and mounted and the first few minutes he was a little impulsive, but today as soon as he started this I started moving him sideways and doing shoulder in to get his attention on me and help him calm himself down. This really worked today and he settled very quickly, so we moved on and were just playing with straight lines and circles. But I felt he was starting to get quite bored with all this, so I decided to play about with him using patterns in preparation for him being a games pony. We played to start with the pattern we have already done while we have been here, going up to the first block and stopping and then moving on to the second one and turning this and coming back to the first and stopping again. This went really well and his turns were really good, I was using the technique Eddy had showed me and it really seems to be working well for Smarty. We then moved on to a new pattern and this was to go straight to the second block and turn this and come back towards the first and then turn this and go back to the second and then back to the first and stop. He picked this up really well and I could feel him asking questions like are we stopping or are we going or are we turning? It was really nice to see this from him! Lastly I worked on getting him to run for me to vault on him, he is starting to get the idea that he has to run for me to get on. But at the moment I still have to run with him for the first few strides, but he is now totally ok with me jumping off him when he is moving which is really good!
Today with Blossom I started online to get her connected to my energy and her focus on me and then we went into the round pen to play at liberty. The first 4 games were to me perfect, the send on the circle still needs a little work as sometimes she decided to go the opposite way to where I am sending her. But I am now able to do transitions up and down with only my energy and the disengage and draw back to me is really good! Squeeze game in one direction was really good (me in her left eye) but the opposite side she found difficult and would rush through and run off, but then come back to me. This happened a couple of times, so I attached the line to the string around her neck to help her gain more confidence playing this game. This seemed to help and we were then able to go back and play with it at liberty. Sideways, nothing actually went wrong but I would still like this to be a little better.
I then mounted and had a little ride around the arena with just the string on and she was really good, we even had a nice canter round the top half of the arena!
I then thought I should saddle her and try riding her and see if I can get the same results that Eddy was getting from her without Eddy riding her first. Today I also used the balance saddle on her as I didn’t want to change anything as if things did go wrong I would blame the equipment as the reason, instead of it might be something I am doing. Plus I really like riding in the balance saddle, I really feel that I am on my balance point and feel really secure. Think I will need to look into getting one when I get home for her.
Today it was like I was riding a totally new pony, it was amazing!! Walk, trot and canter felt so soft and relaxed and she didn’t pull or even really think about getting impulsive, I think maybe three times there was a stride of her getting impulsive and I just had to say “don’t go there” and use the strategies I have learnt from Eddy to keep her calm her again. It just felt so good, don’t get me wrong I still had to ride her and work quite hard to keep her in this state of mind!! So I finished after quite a short session as it was so tempting to just keep riding as it was so nice, but I now know that this isn’t a good idea and it is better for Blossom at this stage to keep the sessions short.
What an amazing day with her, I can’t believe the change in her!!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday 29th January
Today I started with Smarty and we played online with:
1. Stick to me at walk and trot
2. Sideways without a fence
3. Squeeze game between me and the wall
4. Trailer loading
5. Circling game, he had loads of energy and bucks!!
6. Change of direction in walk and trot, still needs work
I then saddled and mounted him, but right from the start he was full of energy and really leaning on me. So I done lots of trot and canter with him following the rail to try and get rid of some of this extra energy he had, as a few laps around the arena tend to settle him. But today it didn’t work and he was still very impulsive, so I decided to try some of the strategies Eddy has been using on Blossom to get her to relax - Shoulder in, Counter shoulder in, sideways on the circle and disengaging the HQ. He really didn’t like this very much and did fight to start with but instead of giving up I stayed with it and really didn’t give up until he yielded to the pressure. After an hour he really relaxed and we finished by having a lovely ride.
Today with Blossom I played with her with a string round her neck and the 22ft line attached to this, and it went much better than I thought it would have. We managed to played all seven games, even circling game which I didn’t expect to be able to do with her yet. I then ask her to go into the trailer backwards and also stand all four feet on the pedestal!!
I then mounted her with just the string and we started with the figure of eight pattern and we were able to do this in walk and trot. Eddy suggested that I play with sideways like this, but I still had some forward movement so I went to the wall and we played with sideways until she was yielding softly to both sides. I then got her to circle the block in walk and trot (pattern Eddy used on her) She was so nice and relaxed it felt amazing!! I done a few circles both directions and I was tempted to try canter, but I decided it would be better to stop at such a good point.
I then saddled Blossom for Eddy to ride again today he worked on the same patteren as yesterday (circling around a block) and today was even so much better than yesterday. It was really quite amazing to see how calm she was and she really didn’t try and fight at all. I have also filmed this session so it will be great to look at it over and over again until I see all the small things Eddy is doing to get such a good response from her.
1. Stick to me at walk and trot
2. Sideways without a fence
3. Squeeze game between me and the wall
4. Trailer loading
5. Circling game, he had loads of energy and bucks!!
6. Change of direction in walk and trot, still needs work
I then saddled and mounted him, but right from the start he was full of energy and really leaning on me. So I done lots of trot and canter with him following the rail to try and get rid of some of this extra energy he had, as a few laps around the arena tend to settle him. But today it didn’t work and he was still very impulsive, so I decided to try some of the strategies Eddy has been using on Blossom to get her to relax - Shoulder in, Counter shoulder in, sideways on the circle and disengaging the HQ. He really didn’t like this very much and did fight to start with but instead of giving up I stayed with it and really didn’t give up until he yielded to the pressure. After an hour he really relaxed and we finished by having a lovely ride.
Today with Blossom I played with her with a string round her neck and the 22ft line attached to this, and it went much better than I thought it would have. We managed to played all seven games, even circling game which I didn’t expect to be able to do with her yet. I then ask her to go into the trailer backwards and also stand all four feet on the pedestal!!
I then mounted her with just the string and we started with the figure of eight pattern and we were able to do this in walk and trot. Eddy suggested that I play with sideways like this, but I still had some forward movement so I went to the wall and we played with sideways until she was yielding softly to both sides. I then got her to circle the block in walk and trot (pattern Eddy used on her) She was so nice and relaxed it felt amazing!! I done a few circles both directions and I was tempted to try canter, but I decided it would be better to stop at such a good point.
I then saddled Blossom for Eddy to ride again today he worked on the same patteren as yesterday (circling around a block) and today was even so much better than yesterday. It was really quite amazing to see how calm she was and she really didn’t try and fight at all. I have also filmed this session so it will be great to look at it over and over again until I see all the small things Eddy is doing to get such a good response from her.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday 28th January
Today Eddy’s niece came to play with Smarty again and Nadine came to teach her, as I struggled last week as I couldn’t speak to her as my Dutch still sucks!!
I watched them playing with him to start with and they were just having so much fun both playing friendly games with him, at one point both of them were running and dancing round him and he was just standing there really relaxed. It was really nice to see how much fun they were having and how good an imagination Daisy has, plus it was all so good for Smarty to have all these friendly games played with him.
I was still quite sore today after my treatment yesterday, so Eddy offered to ride Blossom again for me! So I played a little with her online to get her warmed up and saddled ready for Eddy to ride her. Today she was so much better and stayed much more relaxed for him and did fight less than she did the other day. Today again Eddy changed his strategy for riding her and today mainly played with circles around a block and making her yield sideways to the block. It was really good to watch and I even filmed him riding her on my camera so I could watch it all again and try and really work out what he is doing and most important when he is doing it.
Once Eddy finished I did have a little ride on her and she was so much softer than normal, so it was really nice to feel how it could be like with her and now it is just up to me to keep this work up with her so she stays like this.
I watched them playing with him to start with and they were just having so much fun both playing friendly games with him, at one point both of them were running and dancing round him and he was just standing there really relaxed. It was really nice to see how much fun they were having and how good an imagination Daisy has, plus it was all so good for Smarty to have all these friendly games played with him.
I was still quite sore today after my treatment yesterday, so Eddy offered to ride Blossom again for me! So I played a little with her online to get her warmed up and saddled ready for Eddy to ride her. Today she was so much better and stayed much more relaxed for him and did fight less than she did the other day. Today again Eddy changed his strategy for riding her and today mainly played with circles around a block and making her yield sideways to the block. It was really good to watch and I even filmed him riding her on my camera so I could watch it all again and try and really work out what he is doing and most important when he is doing it.
Once Eddy finished I did have a little ride on her and she was so much softer than normal, so it was really nice to feel how it could be like with her and now it is just up to me to keep this work up with her so she stays like this.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday 27th January
Today I had an appointment with the Osteopath as my back and neck have been really sore. So after the treatment I was quite sore and very sleepy so both the ponies got the day off.
Monday 26th January
Today Eddy had another lady coming for the next two days for horsemanship lessons and he said me and Corine could join in too.
We all had a chat to start with about what we would like to work on, I said with Smarty I would like to work more on his confidence as over the last week he had appeared a little nervous again, and with Blossom I wanted Eddy to have a look at my seven games at liberty. We also discussed when to use a phase 4 and also when to use treats. So it was a really interesting discussion and I feel I actually learnt quite a lot from it.
So this morning I decided to start with Smarty and typical he was really good and relaxed, so Eddy couldn’t really help me with any of the problems I have been experiencing with him as he couldn’t see them! But to help me improve his confidence even more he suggested that I work on the S pattern with him to help him become more confident about giving me two eyes and this should also help improve my draw. H also helped my with moving him sideways on the circle, similar to what we have been working on with Blossom as he also looks out of the circle but nothing as extreme as Blossom is.
So it was a really good session and Smarty stayed relaxed and connected to me most of the time, Eddy said that maybe the problems I have had are nothing to do with anything I am doing wrong when we are playing. It might be actually Smarty has had a bad nights sleep or maybe he just isn’t in the mood to play, these are more just examples but something like this could be the cause…
This afternoon I played with Blossom and started with a little bit of online stuff to get her connected to me and then I let her go at liberty just in the arena. We started with playing with some stick to me around the arena and this went very well in walk, trot and back up. I then trailer loaded her at liberty, she had never seen the trailer that was in the arena and she still went straight in! But I did have a little problem getting her to come back out, I could get her to back a couple of steps by using the stick outside the trailer moving it up and down. But I couldn’t get her to come all the way out (she likes the trailer) Eddy suggested I use her tail, but that didn’t really work as I haven’t done enough of this on line for her to understand what I am asking. So in the end I had to go into the trailer with her and back her out this way.
I then spoke to Eddy about my seven games at liberty saying the main problem was my squeeze game, as soon as I send her she takes off and won’t disengage. Seen as there was someone in the round pen he suggested I have a play with it against the wall in the arena and see how it goes there. So I did, some of it was good, but she did leave a couple of times but the problem with this was she then went over to try and attack the horse in the round pen. So I decided that it wasn’t fair on the other lady trying to work at liberty, so I put a string round her neck and attached the rope to that and played some more with squeeze game and sideways and this went very well.
I then went into the round pen and asked Eddy if he could watch so if I had any problems he could help me with them or see what I was doing wrong that may be causing the problem. But all the games went very well, typical I get Eddy to watch so he can help me and there is no problems!!
I then rode her in the round pen with just the string in walk, trot and canter and she was really good and relaxed. So I then decided to saddle her and ride her with the cradle bit again, and she was really good and we managed to do some really nice transitions from walk, trot and canter. I then managed to convince Eddy to ride her, as he has a quarter horse in at the moment to start and it really isn’t that much bigger than Blossom so he really couldn’t use her height as an excuse.
Well I had to change the saddle for him as there was no way he would have been able to ride in mine, so he choose to ride her in the balance saddle. Surprisingly he really didn’t look that bad on her, I expected him to look massive on her but he actually got away with it!
I really don’t know how to explain what he all done with her as I think he used every strategy he knew for impulsive horses to see which one he thought worked best one her. What he did tell me at the once he finished riding was he found doing lots of shoulder in and lots of counter shoulder in seemed to work well for her especially counter shoulder in as this is more difficult for her and makes her think more. He also really pushed a lot of buttons on her and really took her right to the edge and Blossom tried everything to fight Eddy. But after over an hour of Blossom fighting she eventually relaxed and really started listening to what Eddy was asking her to do and she looked like a much better pony. O it will be interesting if I notice a difference in her the next time I ride her.
We all had a chat to start with about what we would like to work on, I said with Smarty I would like to work more on his confidence as over the last week he had appeared a little nervous again, and with Blossom I wanted Eddy to have a look at my seven games at liberty. We also discussed when to use a phase 4 and also when to use treats. So it was a really interesting discussion and I feel I actually learnt quite a lot from it.
So this morning I decided to start with Smarty and typical he was really good and relaxed, so Eddy couldn’t really help me with any of the problems I have been experiencing with him as he couldn’t see them! But to help me improve his confidence even more he suggested that I work on the S pattern with him to help him become more confident about giving me two eyes and this should also help improve my draw. H also helped my with moving him sideways on the circle, similar to what we have been working on with Blossom as he also looks out of the circle but nothing as extreme as Blossom is.
So it was a really good session and Smarty stayed relaxed and connected to me most of the time, Eddy said that maybe the problems I have had are nothing to do with anything I am doing wrong when we are playing. It might be actually Smarty has had a bad nights sleep or maybe he just isn’t in the mood to play, these are more just examples but something like this could be the cause…
This afternoon I played with Blossom and started with a little bit of online stuff to get her connected to me and then I let her go at liberty just in the arena. We started with playing with some stick to me around the arena and this went very well in walk, trot and back up. I then trailer loaded her at liberty, she had never seen the trailer that was in the arena and she still went straight in! But I did have a little problem getting her to come back out, I could get her to back a couple of steps by using the stick outside the trailer moving it up and down. But I couldn’t get her to come all the way out (she likes the trailer) Eddy suggested I use her tail, but that didn’t really work as I haven’t done enough of this on line for her to understand what I am asking. So in the end I had to go into the trailer with her and back her out this way.
I then spoke to Eddy about my seven games at liberty saying the main problem was my squeeze game, as soon as I send her she takes off and won’t disengage. Seen as there was someone in the round pen he suggested I have a play with it against the wall in the arena and see how it goes there. So I did, some of it was good, but she did leave a couple of times but the problem with this was she then went over to try and attack the horse in the round pen. So I decided that it wasn’t fair on the other lady trying to work at liberty, so I put a string round her neck and attached the rope to that and played some more with squeeze game and sideways and this went very well.
I then went into the round pen and asked Eddy if he could watch so if I had any problems he could help me with them or see what I was doing wrong that may be causing the problem. But all the games went very well, typical I get Eddy to watch so he can help me and there is no problems!!
I then rode her in the round pen with just the string in walk, trot and canter and she was really good and relaxed. So I then decided to saddle her and ride her with the cradle bit again, and she was really good and we managed to do some really nice transitions from walk, trot and canter. I then managed to convince Eddy to ride her, as he has a quarter horse in at the moment to start and it really isn’t that much bigger than Blossom so he really couldn’t use her height as an excuse.
Well I had to change the saddle for him as there was no way he would have been able to ride in mine, so he choose to ride her in the balance saddle. Surprisingly he really didn’t look that bad on her, I expected him to look massive on her but he actually got away with it!
I really don’t know how to explain what he all done with her as I think he used every strategy he knew for impulsive horses to see which one he thought worked best one her. What he did tell me at the once he finished riding was he found doing lots of shoulder in and lots of counter shoulder in seemed to work well for her especially counter shoulder in as this is more difficult for her and makes her think more. He also really pushed a lot of buttons on her and really took her right to the edge and Blossom tried everything to fight Eddy. But after over an hour of Blossom fighting she eventually relaxed and really started listening to what Eddy was asking her to do and she looked like a much better pony. O it will be interesting if I notice a difference in her the next time I ride her.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday 25th January
Today I wasn’t feeling so good, my neck and back is starting to get really sore and is also giving me headaches so today I wasn’t really feeling up to a big play session.
So this afternoon me and Corine were going to watch some videos of an Parelli course Eddy attended as a student with an Australian instructor, but we couldn’t get the sound to work on it very well so we couldn’t really hear much. So instead we watched the Karen Rolf dvd instead.
I felt I should really do something with the ponies, so to make things easy for me I decided to play with them both at the same time. It went ok online, we managed to do some nice circles and yo yo game but that was about it. Smarty really wasn’t sure about what I wanted and got worried sometimes, so I thought it would be easier to ride Smarty and lead Blossom.
This went very well, I had to work quite hard at the start to get them both focused on my energy as I hadn’t done as much as normal with them online first. But they soon settled and were very good. Today I did work them hard, with lots of trot work as I have felt the last few days they have had a lot of energy especially Smarty! What I noticed was that at the start of the session he had his body bent the wrong way and was leaning on me when I would ask him to turn. But nearer the end of the session he was much softer and relaxed and overall much nicer to ride. So I think I maybe need to give him harder work (well lots of trot) when I first start my ridden session to let him get out all his extra energy before I actually start asking him to do anything more challenging as this is where he then starts fighting me. So it might be interesting to see if this theory works, I will try it the next time I ride him..
So this afternoon me and Corine were going to watch some videos of an Parelli course Eddy attended as a student with an Australian instructor, but we couldn’t get the sound to work on it very well so we couldn’t really hear much. So instead we watched the Karen Rolf dvd instead.
I felt I should really do something with the ponies, so to make things easy for me I decided to play with them both at the same time. It went ok online, we managed to do some nice circles and yo yo game but that was about it. Smarty really wasn’t sure about what I wanted and got worried sometimes, so I thought it would be easier to ride Smarty and lead Blossom.
This went very well, I had to work quite hard at the start to get them both focused on my energy as I hadn’t done as much as normal with them online first. But they soon settled and were very good. Today I did work them hard, with lots of trot work as I have felt the last few days they have had a lot of energy especially Smarty! What I noticed was that at the start of the session he had his body bent the wrong way and was leaning on me when I would ask him to turn. But nearer the end of the session he was much softer and relaxed and overall much nicer to ride. So I think I maybe need to give him harder work (well lots of trot) when I first start my ridden session to let him get out all his extra energy before I actually start asking him to do anything more challenging as this is where he then starts fighting me. So it might be interesting to see if this theory works, I will try it the next time I ride him..
Saturday 24th January
Well today it was much better weather than yesterday, it was dry without any wind but still quite cold. So I thought I should make the most of this nice weather and take Smarty out a trail ride, we started in the arena first as he has been quite bad to ride the last few times I thought it would be safer to check everything first.
I gave him a quick warm up on line and then saddle and then played with him again and he really did have quite a lot of energy!! But once he was calm and focused on me I mounted and checked lateral flexion and back up, this was better than yesterday but still needs to improve quite a bit. I then followed the rail in walk, trot and canter and this all went very well and he didn’t try to d his little sideways thing once. So maybe what I done with him yesterday worked and he has learnt that doing that with me isn’t going to work… We then set out on our trail ride and it was so nice and relaxing for both of us, so it was really nice and we both enjoyed it.
When I got back the horsemanship lessons were still going on, at the moment there are three ladies here all with young horses so I watched some of this for a while. I then went and got Blossom and went into the arena, it was still quite busy so we started with my just giving Blossom a groom (she had so much sand on her!!) to let her relaxe before we started our play session as I have found that she does worry a little if there are lots of horses in the arena and they come into her space.
Once she was settled and focused on me we played with:
1. Backwards
2. Trailer loading
3. Backwards into the trailer
4. Sideways without a fence
5. Sideways over a pole
6. Sideways over a block, but this is still too much for her
7. Circling - getting the circles soft.
Julie the girl I was working with when I first arrived was here today to spectate as she thought it was a level 2/3 course.. Which I think it was meant to be originally, oops. Anyway she commented on the difference in Blossom and said there really was a massive difference to her circles and her trot looked so much more calm and relaxed. So I was really happy to hear this and it made me feel really good!
I then saddle and again decided to ride again in the cradle bit, and today everything went very well. Canter is much more in control now and with this bit she no longer leans on me or pulls, so this in itself is really helping us as this was one of the biggest problems. So it will be interesting to see how it goes over the next few days and then I hope to ride her in the halter again and see if I notice a difference or not.
I gave him a quick warm up on line and then saddle and then played with him again and he really did have quite a lot of energy!! But once he was calm and focused on me I mounted and checked lateral flexion and back up, this was better than yesterday but still needs to improve quite a bit. I then followed the rail in walk, trot and canter and this all went very well and he didn’t try to d his little sideways thing once. So maybe what I done with him yesterday worked and he has learnt that doing that with me isn’t going to work… We then set out on our trail ride and it was so nice and relaxing for both of us, so it was really nice and we both enjoyed it.
When I got back the horsemanship lessons were still going on, at the moment there are three ladies here all with young horses so I watched some of this for a while. I then went and got Blossom and went into the arena, it was still quite busy so we started with my just giving Blossom a groom (she had so much sand on her!!) to let her relaxe before we started our play session as I have found that she does worry a little if there are lots of horses in the arena and they come into her space.
Once she was settled and focused on me we played with:
1. Backwards
2. Trailer loading
3. Backwards into the trailer
4. Sideways without a fence
5. Sideways over a pole
6. Sideways over a block, but this is still too much for her
7. Circling - getting the circles soft.
Julie the girl I was working with when I first arrived was here today to spectate as she thought it was a level 2/3 course.. Which I think it was meant to be originally, oops. Anyway she commented on the difference in Blossom and said there really was a massive difference to her circles and her trot looked so much more calm and relaxed. So I was really happy to hear this and it made me feel really good!
I then saddle and again decided to ride again in the cradle bit, and today everything went very well. Canter is much more in control now and with this bit she no longer leans on me or pulls, so this in itself is really helping us as this was one of the biggest problems. So it will be interesting to see how it goes over the next few days and then I hope to ride her in the halter again and see if I notice a difference or not.
Friday 23rd January
Today it was really windy and the direction in which the wind was coming from meant it was coming straight in the indoor school, so it made it very cold and also very noisy!!
So today Blossom was very uptight about things as she really doesn’t like the wind. So today I didn’t do very much with her, I started with lots of friendly game and we then played stick to me around the arena so she could see all the scary corners as they were really noisy.
We then played with circling game and really just worked on getting her to bend the correct way on the circle and to keep her focus on me.
Today with Smarty I decided to ride him as he is now fully recovered, today I also decided to try him in my myler bit as I haven’t found a bit that I think he likes yet so thought it was worth a try.
Once we played I then saddled and mounted and started with ride the rail in walk and trot and also added in some stop and back up transitions. He was really leaning on the bit today, so we worked on getting him to be softer and to basically stop leaning as this is quite a bad habit he has. He isn’t trying to run off with me or anything, but if I apply pressure he leans into it instead of yielding. So today was mostly working on this.
We then had a little canter and again today he done his little run sideways off the circle with me and as soon as he done it I bent him to a stop, I think he done it another couple of times and I done the same thing and I think this must have worked as he stopped doing it after this. So my original thought that he might have been in pain could still be right of course, but I think this is more a learn behaviour he has learnt over the yeas.
I spoke to Eddy about this just after it happened and he suggested that I also attach the side of the halter to the bit using the reins and when I use the reins it will also apply pressure on the halter so will help me teach him not to lean on the pressure and to yield instead. In a way it is actually working very similar to how the cradle bridles work.. So it will be interesting to see how this goes over the next couple of days..
So today Blossom was very uptight about things as she really doesn’t like the wind. So today I didn’t do very much with her, I started with lots of friendly game and we then played stick to me around the arena so she could see all the scary corners as they were really noisy.
We then played with circling game and really just worked on getting her to bend the correct way on the circle and to keep her focus on me.
Today with Smarty I decided to ride him as he is now fully recovered, today I also decided to try him in my myler bit as I haven’t found a bit that I think he likes yet so thought it was worth a try.
Once we played I then saddled and mounted and started with ride the rail in walk and trot and also added in some stop and back up transitions. He was really leaning on the bit today, so we worked on getting him to be softer and to basically stop leaning as this is quite a bad habit he has. He isn’t trying to run off with me or anything, but if I apply pressure he leans into it instead of yielding. So today was mostly working on this.
We then had a little canter and again today he done his little run sideways off the circle with me and as soon as he done it I bent him to a stop, I think he done it another couple of times and I done the same thing and I think this must have worked as he stopped doing it after this. So my original thought that he might have been in pain could still be right of course, but I think this is more a learn behaviour he has learnt over the yeas.
I spoke to Eddy about this just after it happened and he suggested that I also attach the side of the halter to the bit using the reins and when I use the reins it will also apply pressure on the halter so will help me teach him not to lean on the pressure and to yield instead. In a way it is actually working very similar to how the cradle bridles work.. So it will be interesting to see how this goes over the next couple of days..
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday 22nd January
Today with Blossom I started on line, but she really wanted to have a roll and today for whatever reason she just couldn’t decided where she wanted to roll. So I decided it was easier just to let her loose to have a roll, and as soon as took the halter off she rolled nearly straight away!
Well seen as she was now at liberty I thought I would just play like this, we mainly just played with stick to me around obstacles and following the rail and she was really good.
I then tied the SS round her neck and jumped on and started with riding the rail of the arena and checking I could stop with just the string. We then played with moving the FQ and HQ and it was better today, so I must have got it right yesterday!! We then played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot and she was really good and stayed pretty relaxed.
I then saddled and Eddy had suggested that I try her in a cradle bridle to see if this will help with my lateral flexion and help her to bend the correct way. Well we tried to just use one of Eddy’s cradle bridles, but it was far too big for her and even if we had punched holes it wouldn’t have helped. So instead I just attached the bit to one of my own bridles so that I could try it on her and see what she thought of it before I buy one. Well she seemed to really like it.. I only rode her in it for about 10 minutes, but everything did go really well and she was very soft and didn’t pull into the pressure like she does in the halter. So I will ride her again in this and see how it goes.
We then played the property game at liberty in the arena, there was Myself, Corine, Sophie, Barbara, Marieke and Eddy. It was a little bit crazy at the start as all the horses were leaving there owners, except Blossom she stayed with me the whole time. The scary bit was all the horses wanted to come on to my property as I was next to the gate, so it was sometimes quite a challenge to get Blossom to stick to me and chase the other horses. But it was really good fun for all of us and it really tested my relationship with Blossom which turns out to be better than I expected!!
I then played with Smarty and today I decided to just do a little and mainly just play in walk to let him fully recover from his injury, he is now 100% but I prefer to give them a little longer just to make sure everything is fully healed.
We played with:
1. Friendly game with the CS
2. Extreme friendly with the CS in all zones
3. Friendly game with the ball - bouncing it around him and also up onto his back and HQ
4. Yo Yo game, trying to get the back up a little better and he draw to me with both eyes
5. Circling game in walk, but today I really worked on getting him to look into the circle and focus on me as like Blossom he tends to look out of the circle and also sometimes leans on the halter.
6. Sideways without a fence, still needs some work but better than I expected it to be.
7. Stick to me in walk, trot and back up - which went well.
Eddy also offered to film me playing with Smarty, but as I didn’t want to do very much with him I decided it wasn’t really worth it today, but maybe we will film him another day when I can do more with him.
Well seen as she was now at liberty I thought I would just play like this, we mainly just played with stick to me around obstacles and following the rail and she was really good.
I then tied the SS round her neck and jumped on and started with riding the rail of the arena and checking I could stop with just the string. We then played with moving the FQ and HQ and it was better today, so I must have got it right yesterday!! We then played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot and she was really good and stayed pretty relaxed.
I then saddled and Eddy had suggested that I try her in a cradle bridle to see if this will help with my lateral flexion and help her to bend the correct way. Well we tried to just use one of Eddy’s cradle bridles, but it was far too big for her and even if we had punched holes it wouldn’t have helped. So instead I just attached the bit to one of my own bridles so that I could try it on her and see what she thought of it before I buy one. Well she seemed to really like it.. I only rode her in it for about 10 minutes, but everything did go really well and she was very soft and didn’t pull into the pressure like she does in the halter. So I will ride her again in this and see how it goes.
We then played the property game at liberty in the arena, there was Myself, Corine, Sophie, Barbara, Marieke and Eddy. It was a little bit crazy at the start as all the horses were leaving there owners, except Blossom she stayed with me the whole time. The scary bit was all the horses wanted to come on to my property as I was next to the gate, so it was sometimes quite a challenge to get Blossom to stick to me and chase the other horses. But it was really good fun for all of us and it really tested my relationship with Blossom which turns out to be better than I expected!!
I then played with Smarty and today I decided to just do a little and mainly just play in walk to let him fully recover from his injury, he is now 100% but I prefer to give them a little longer just to make sure everything is fully healed.
We played with:
1. Friendly game with the CS
2. Extreme friendly with the CS in all zones
3. Friendly game with the ball - bouncing it around him and also up onto his back and HQ
4. Yo Yo game, trying to get the back up a little better and he draw to me with both eyes
5. Circling game in walk, but today I really worked on getting him to look into the circle and focus on me as like Blossom he tends to look out of the circle and also sometimes leans on the halter.
6. Sideways without a fence, still needs some work but better than I expected it to be.
7. Stick to me in walk, trot and back up - which went well.
Eddy also offered to film me playing with Smarty, but as I didn’t want to do very much with him I decided it wasn’t really worth it today, but maybe we will film him another day when I can do more with him.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday 21st January
Well today Smarty was so much better, if I wasn’t looking for something to be wrong with him I wouldn’t have noticed anything so I was so happy to see there was nothing wrong with him. I am sure he was maybe a little sore still and maybe stiff, but it is nothing serious and he wasn’t lame in walk or trot so that was the main thing.
Today it was planned for Eddy’s niece to come and play and ride Smarty and I did think about not letting her because of his injury yesterday, but then I thought it might actually be good for him to get out and walk about and if his muscles were stiff the light exercise would help.
Daisy and Smarty
Circling game
Extreme Friendly, with Smarty standing on the pedestal
Extreme Friendly
Eddy and Daisy playing circling game with Smarty and Salo
Daisy then did have a little ride on Smarty but there was a lot of shooting going on today, so we didn’t think it was very safe for Daisy to be riding just incase Smarty did get a fright .
So as she couldn’t do much riding with Smarty I let her play with Blossom for a bit on line and she played all seven games and also with Blossom lots of extreme friendly game and really seemed to enjoy it.
Daisy and Blossom
Once Daisy left I played with Blossom at liberty around the arena and she was really focused on me and really connected to my energy. So I decided to ride her bareback with just the Savvy string around her neck and she was so calm and relaxed. I started with ride the rail and made sure I was able to stop her with just the string and also to check my back up, all that went really well so we played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot.
Eddy then came into the arena and was totally amazed to see me riding her like this considering how badly the first ridden session had went yesterday. He then helped me work on moving the FQ and the HQ, to start with it was worse than normal as I only had the SS and the CS instead of the halter so this made things a lot more difficult. But I worked away with it and very quickly I was able to move the FQ and the HQ. In a way I think it was actually good for me to do it like this as I had to be more careful with my aids and were I positioned my body and by the end it seemed to make a lot more sense to me.
Well as everything was going so well I decided to try cantering like this, nobody else was in the arena so I knew if it all went wrong at least I wasn’t going to run into another horse or person! But it went really good I was so surprised by this, we only cantered a few strides as Blossom offered to stop so of course I took this from her. I played with this a few times in each direction and it all went really well, so I was so happy!!
Today it was planned for Eddy’s niece to come and play and ride Smarty and I did think about not letting her because of his injury yesterday, but then I thought it might actually be good for him to get out and walk about and if his muscles were stiff the light exercise would help.
Daisy and Smarty
Circling game
Extreme Friendly, with Smarty standing on the pedestal
Extreme Friendly
Eddy and Daisy playing circling game with Smarty and Salo
Daisy then did have a little ride on Smarty but there was a lot of shooting going on today, so we didn’t think it was very safe for Daisy to be riding just incase Smarty did get a fright .
So as she couldn’t do much riding with Smarty I let her play with Blossom for a bit on line and she played all seven games and also with Blossom lots of extreme friendly game and really seemed to enjoy it.
Daisy and Blossom
Once Daisy left I played with Blossom at liberty around the arena and she was really focused on me and really connected to my energy. So I decided to ride her bareback with just the Savvy string around her neck and she was so calm and relaxed. I started with ride the rail and made sure I was able to stop her with just the string and also to check my back up, all that went really well so we played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot.
Eddy then came into the arena and was totally amazed to see me riding her like this considering how badly the first ridden session had went yesterday. He then helped me work on moving the FQ and the HQ, to start with it was worse than normal as I only had the SS and the CS instead of the halter so this made things a lot more difficult. But I worked away with it and very quickly I was able to move the FQ and the HQ. In a way I think it was actually good for me to do it like this as I had to be more careful with my aids and were I positioned my body and by the end it seemed to make a lot more sense to me.
Well as everything was going so well I decided to try cantering like this, nobody else was in the arena so I knew if it all went wrong at least I wasn’t going to run into another horse or person! But it went really good I was so surprised by this, we only cantered a few strides as Blossom offered to stop so of course I took this from her. I played with this a few times in each direction and it all went really well, so I was so happy!!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday 20th January
Well what a day I have had!!
During lunch I spoke to Eddy about my impulsion problems with Blossom yesterday and what things I should do to help her. As we have tried the backwards, sideways, move the front end, bend her etc and this really doesn’t help that much. He suggested that I ride Blossom and lead Smarty of her, this way my focus would mainly be on Smarty and it would then just be Blossom’s responsibility to stay in walk or trot. The other suggestion was to try dragging an object from her as again my focus wouldn’t all be on her. But as I haven’t tried dragging anything from the ground yet, I thought today leading Smarty would be the better option.
So to get Blossom warmed up and focused on me I played with her online first with the same things as we have been doing lately so I won’t bore you all with writing it all again. But everything went very well and again today we got all four feet on the pedestal.
I then saddled and started with walking round and I was able to stop and back up just using my energy and the SS. But as soon as I asked for trot things got bad again with lots of impulsion so I tried going with her and just making the circles smaller and smaller until she relaxed but as soon as we went again she was back to trying to canter off with me. I must have been riding for over half an hour and nothing seemed to be improving and I just got so upset and frustrated and ended up leaving the arena in tears as I just didn’t know what to do with her and really felt like just giving up on her! Why does she go nice one day and then horrible the next…
Well as I was feeling so down, I went and sat with her outside and let her eat some grass and just spent some undemanding time with her until I felt better.
I then went and got Smarty and went into the arena and gave him and good groom, and just as I was about to start playing with him Eddy offered to film me play as he suggested I do this so I can see where the problems are as sometimes when you are actually playing you don’t see what the problems are or what you can do to improve things. But I really wanted to see myself with Blossom rather than Smarty, so I put Smarty out in a paddock with Benji so they could have a play and went and got Blossom again.
We started with filming yo yo’s, sideways and transitions on a circle and change of direction - it didn’t go as well as it normally does but nothing on the other hand went wrong either. I just know that we can do all of these tasks better, but I think because I was being filmed I was a little nervous and didn’t ask as much from Blossom as I normally would.
Eddy then asked if I would be up for riding again, he knew how bad things had went earlier for me. But I thought it would be worth another go and if everything went really bad again at least I would be able to watch and maybe see if I was doing something to cause the problem or if I could see something that would maybe help.. Eddy suggested I ride her in the bareback pad as I had already ridden her today with a saddle and it didn’t go well, so he thought it would be worth seeing if riding bareback would maybe help her as the problem may be with the saddle or even how I ride in the saddle. Sophie had just set up a round pen so I decided to ride the rail of this, Eddy then said whenever I was ready to trot and then canter if I felt I could. So I managed to walk, trot and canter in both directions totally in control with a very relaxed pony. Well as everything went so well bareback Eddy said to try her doing the same with the saddle on and see if I got a different reaction. So I did and again everything went so well, calm and relaxed. We the filmed sideways and back up ridden and this went quite well and we also filmed moving the HQ and then the FQ, but this didn’t go so well. This wasn’t really Blossom fault, the problem is still more I still get confused where my legs, hands and stick should be so I then get Blossom confused and that’s why the moves don’t quite work as well as they should. But with practise this should come good quite easy.
I then went to get Smarty back in and he was really lame, it appears him and Benji had a little fight at one point during there play session and Smarty seems to have come of worse. There wasn’t any sign of a cut or a certain area that was really sore from a kick. So I think he has maybe just pulled/strained a muscle kicking out at Benji so hopefully it isn’t anything too serious and tomorrow he will be much better.
After dinner tonight I also watched the video Eddy made of me playing and riding, it was actually really nice to see as it is the first time I have ever seen myself play. Eddy said my online tasks we filmed were good enough to pass level two, but suggested I really work hard on making her look into the circle and bend her body in the correct way as this will really help her and also help us both as we progress through the programme.
My riding in walk, trot and canter he couldn’t fault as Blossom was calm and relaxed and I was also in the correct position. So this was really nice to hear!!
My sideways and backup are good, but I need to still work on moving the FQ and HQ, Eddy suggested trying this on the seat builder to see if this will help me understand what I need to do to get the different zones to move.
So a very emotional day with lots of bad parts, but also some really good bits too.
During lunch I spoke to Eddy about my impulsion problems with Blossom yesterday and what things I should do to help her. As we have tried the backwards, sideways, move the front end, bend her etc and this really doesn’t help that much. He suggested that I ride Blossom and lead Smarty of her, this way my focus would mainly be on Smarty and it would then just be Blossom’s responsibility to stay in walk or trot. The other suggestion was to try dragging an object from her as again my focus wouldn’t all be on her. But as I haven’t tried dragging anything from the ground yet, I thought today leading Smarty would be the better option.
So to get Blossom warmed up and focused on me I played with her online first with the same things as we have been doing lately so I won’t bore you all with writing it all again. But everything went very well and again today we got all four feet on the pedestal.
I then saddled and started with walking round and I was able to stop and back up just using my energy and the SS. But as soon as I asked for trot things got bad again with lots of impulsion so I tried going with her and just making the circles smaller and smaller until she relaxed but as soon as we went again she was back to trying to canter off with me. I must have been riding for over half an hour and nothing seemed to be improving and I just got so upset and frustrated and ended up leaving the arena in tears as I just didn’t know what to do with her and really felt like just giving up on her! Why does she go nice one day and then horrible the next…
Well as I was feeling so down, I went and sat with her outside and let her eat some grass and just spent some undemanding time with her until I felt better.
I then went and got Smarty and went into the arena and gave him and good groom, and just as I was about to start playing with him Eddy offered to film me play as he suggested I do this so I can see where the problems are as sometimes when you are actually playing you don’t see what the problems are or what you can do to improve things. But I really wanted to see myself with Blossom rather than Smarty, so I put Smarty out in a paddock with Benji so they could have a play and went and got Blossom again.
We started with filming yo yo’s, sideways and transitions on a circle and change of direction - it didn’t go as well as it normally does but nothing on the other hand went wrong either. I just know that we can do all of these tasks better, but I think because I was being filmed I was a little nervous and didn’t ask as much from Blossom as I normally would.
Eddy then asked if I would be up for riding again, he knew how bad things had went earlier for me. But I thought it would be worth another go and if everything went really bad again at least I would be able to watch and maybe see if I was doing something to cause the problem or if I could see something that would maybe help.. Eddy suggested I ride her in the bareback pad as I had already ridden her today with a saddle and it didn’t go well, so he thought it would be worth seeing if riding bareback would maybe help her as the problem may be with the saddle or even how I ride in the saddle. Sophie had just set up a round pen so I decided to ride the rail of this, Eddy then said whenever I was ready to trot and then canter if I felt I could. So I managed to walk, trot and canter in both directions totally in control with a very relaxed pony. Well as everything went so well bareback Eddy said to try her doing the same with the saddle on and see if I got a different reaction. So I did and again everything went so well, calm and relaxed. We the filmed sideways and back up ridden and this went quite well and we also filmed moving the HQ and then the FQ, but this didn’t go so well. This wasn’t really Blossom fault, the problem is still more I still get confused where my legs, hands and stick should be so I then get Blossom confused and that’s why the moves don’t quite work as well as they should. But with practise this should come good quite easy.
I then went to get Smarty back in and he was really lame, it appears him and Benji had a little fight at one point during there play session and Smarty seems to have come of worse. There wasn’t any sign of a cut or a certain area that was really sore from a kick. So I think he has maybe just pulled/strained a muscle kicking out at Benji so hopefully it isn’t anything too serious and tomorrow he will be much better.
After dinner tonight I also watched the video Eddy made of me playing and riding, it was actually really nice to see as it is the first time I have ever seen myself play. Eddy said my online tasks we filmed were good enough to pass level two, but suggested I really work hard on making her look into the circle and bend her body in the correct way as this will really help her and also help us both as we progress through the programme.
My riding in walk, trot and canter he couldn’t fault as Blossom was calm and relaxed and I was also in the correct position. So this was really nice to hear!!
My sideways and backup are good, but I need to still work on moving the FQ and HQ, Eddy suggested trying this on the seat builder to see if this will help me understand what I need to do to get the different zones to move.
So a very emotional day with lots of bad parts, but also some really good bits too.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Monday 19th January
Today with Blossom I played with:
1. Backwards - really getting good
2. Back up and then move the FQ
3. Yo Yo
4. Circles - much better today
5. Change of direction
6. Sideways with out a fence
7. Sideways over a pole and cones
8. Trot sideways
9. All FOUR feet on the pedestal and she stayed there for a few minutes!!
I then decided to have a break before riding her and used this time to watch some of the others playing on line and ridden. Even though none of the other horses are like Blossom I still feel I learn a lot from watching and really learn a lot about different horses.
I then saddled and played a little to get her focus on me, I then mounted and checked my lateral flexion and back up and all was good so we set of to ride the rail of the arena. But today we had major impulsion problems and Blossom only seemed to be able to walk or canter and she decided when we would canter. At the start I decided to go with her and do a passenger lesson and thought she would then calm down, but I was so wrong. I then changed strategy and every time she would go off into canter I would bend her to a stop and hold her until she relaxed, I also done lots of back up especially at the points where she would want to canter. But this really didn’t seem to help, the only good thing I suppose was the transitions were actually quite good and the canter wasn’t that un controllable and I was able to stop her quite easily or keep her cantering on small circle but for whatever reason she just wouldn’t trot or stay in walk!! So I was rather frustrated by the end of this session as lately everything has been going so well.
1. Backwards - really getting good
2. Back up and then move the FQ
3. Yo Yo
4. Circles - much better today
5. Change of direction
6. Sideways with out a fence
7. Sideways over a pole and cones
8. Trot sideways
9. All FOUR feet on the pedestal and she stayed there for a few minutes!!
I then decided to have a break before riding her and used this time to watch some of the others playing on line and ridden. Even though none of the other horses are like Blossom I still feel I learn a lot from watching and really learn a lot about different horses.
I then saddled and played a little to get her focus on me, I then mounted and checked my lateral flexion and back up and all was good so we set of to ride the rail of the arena. But today we had major impulsion problems and Blossom only seemed to be able to walk or canter and she decided when we would canter. At the start I decided to go with her and do a passenger lesson and thought she would then calm down, but I was so wrong. I then changed strategy and every time she would go off into canter I would bend her to a stop and hold her until she relaxed, I also done lots of back up especially at the points where she would want to canter. But this really didn’t seem to help, the only good thing I suppose was the transitions were actually quite good and the canter wasn’t that un controllable and I was able to stop her quite easily or keep her cantering on small circle but for whatever reason she just wouldn’t trot or stay in walk!! So I was rather frustrated by the end of this session as lately everything has been going so well.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sunday 18th January
Today I spoke to Eddy about the problems I had with Smarty and also showed him the video we had made of him. His thoughts were that Smarty as learnt that he can just push through pressure by doing this and this is what he thinks he is doing. So he advised doing clover leaf patterns, questions box and point to point to really get Smarty focused on me and be more balanced turning left and right and also when I want him to do it.
So today I started with Smarty as I knew Eddy would be more likely to be around as he had horsemanship lessons, so if the problem started again Eddy would be able to see it and also help me. But as I was grooming Smarty I decided to do a little ET on his saddle area and girth area before I saddled to loosen his back before we done anything. But from doing this I really got the feeling that he was quite sore as I was really getting big moves and ripples through his body from one move. So I decided today it maybe wasn’t a good idea to play with him or ride him just incase he is really sore. So instead I done a full body balance on him, so he will also have tomorrow off and we will see then if there is an improvement.
Today with Blossom we started with playing with stick to me and then moved on to working on our back up, which was much better today. We then moved on to playing with circles and today again I was quite firm with her about where she was looking and used moving her sideways to help me get her looking in on the circle.
I then put the bareback pad on her and mounted and we started with ride the rail in walk, but today Blossom just didn’t seem settled. There was a lot of horses in the arena and everyone was doing there own thing and sometimes other horses just got a little too close to Blossom for her liking so I think this could have been the problem. So I decided there was no point fighting her and pushing her as I knew I would just make things worse, so finished for the day.
So as I had finished early I done a ET session on Marieke’s pony benji as she has been at me for weeks to do it one him. I then watched a little of Eddy playing with the new horse he has in to start, nothing to exciting today as the horse responded well to the seven games so it was nice to see that.
So today I started with Smarty as I knew Eddy would be more likely to be around as he had horsemanship lessons, so if the problem started again Eddy would be able to see it and also help me. But as I was grooming Smarty I decided to do a little ET on his saddle area and girth area before I saddled to loosen his back before we done anything. But from doing this I really got the feeling that he was quite sore as I was really getting big moves and ripples through his body from one move. So I decided today it maybe wasn’t a good idea to play with him or ride him just incase he is really sore. So instead I done a full body balance on him, so he will also have tomorrow off and we will see then if there is an improvement.
Today with Blossom we started with playing with stick to me and then moved on to working on our back up, which was much better today. We then moved on to playing with circles and today again I was quite firm with her about where she was looking and used moving her sideways to help me get her looking in on the circle.
I then put the bareback pad on her and mounted and we started with ride the rail in walk, but today Blossom just didn’t seem settled. There was a lot of horses in the arena and everyone was doing there own thing and sometimes other horses just got a little too close to Blossom for her liking so I think this could have been the problem. So I decided there was no point fighting her and pushing her as I knew I would just make things worse, so finished for the day.
So as I had finished early I done a ET session on Marieke’s pony benji as she has been at me for weeks to do it one him. I then watched a little of Eddy playing with the new horse he has in to start, nothing to exciting today as the horse responded well to the seven games so it was nice to see that.
Saturday 17th January
Well this morning we had a lady arrive with her horse for 2 days of horsemanship lessons with Eddy, but I didn’t watch very much of her as it really wasn’t that interesting! (That sounds terrible, oops)
This afternoon I started playing with Blossom and we started with having a little play with some of the games to get her focus on me and then we moved on to playing with circles. The main focus today was getting her to look where she was going and not to lean on the rope, as Eddy now thinks it is time that I ask for a little more from her and this would be a massive change for her if she is able to do this. So to get her to do this I worked with small circles to start with and would move her sideways on the circle to get her focus more on me and where she is going, once it was better at a short distance I would allow the circles to get bigger. But if she started pulling or looking out I would make the circles smaller again as this way I can use the CS and string to move her sideways as if she is out on a bigger circle I can’t touch her and she just ignores me!
We then played with all the other tasks we have been playing with lately and everything went really well today. The best bit was she managed to get all 4 feet on the pedestal, I was so happy for her and she has been trying so hard to work out what she has to do to get all her feet up there and today she got it!! She only managed to stay there for about 4 seconds, before she fell off so it wasn’t long enough for me to get a photo. But now that she has done it once I am sure she will be able to do it again and maybe next time I will be able to get a photo for you all to see!!
I then saddled and today again she was lovely to ride, strange!! Today I was able to do transitions from walk, trot, stand and back up only using the savvy string - Marieke was watching and I think she was shocked to see me being able to do this with Blossom!! Today I decided to give cantering a go and use my new position to see if it made a difference to Blossom.. Well the first few canters were really good and I think the new position really helped as the transition was really smooth and there wasn’t her usual really fast trot before canter, so I think this also helped me to really stay back and on my balance point and therefore also helped her keep her weight more on her HQ. So I was really happy, but on our last canter she was more impulsive. But we think this could have been caused by something spooking her as a lot of the horses were quite jumpy today, especially on the side where I was riding…
Eddy asked if I had ever tried cantering bareback and if that made a difference to Blossom because my seat might also be different. I am sure I have cantered her bareback, but at the time I didn’t really think about is she better or worse than normal. So I decided to give it a go today and see what the result would be.. But I think for safety reasons for me and everyone else in the arena Eddy put me on line and played with Blossom with me riding bareback. But I am not sure it really made much difference to Blossom as she was I would say faster on line with me bareback in canter than she was before.. But I think I will continue to try and ride bareback more often as I do feel I need to improve me seat more as a few times bareback I did loose my balance, nothing too serious but to Blossom I think if I can really stay with her it will really help her to stay calm!
Today with Smarty we had lots of fun playing on line and everything is just getting so much better, today we were playing with change of direction and it is really quite good!!
I then saddled and girthed in stages and then played with transitions in walk, trot, stand and back up - his back up wasn’t great today as I have now put a bit back on him he still has a tendency to lean on the bit rather the yield from the pressure. So we played around teaching him to be soft and not to lean on the bit and everything was going really well.
So I decided to canter and this is where the problems started, the transitions were good but the problem was when I went to turn him to do a half circle around the arena he just lifted his head and sort of ran sideways… During this I had no control over him whatsoever!! I done another couple of circles and every time he done it and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do, I tried to turn him using the reins and also using my body to try and turn him but nothing worked!!
Corine was in the arena, so I asked her to watch and see what she thought - but she had no idea and thought it was quite an extreme behaviour for no reason, well of course there is a reason but it wasn’t an obvious one and I wasn’t asking any new or challenging things from him. So I got Corine to film it for me on my camera so I could watch it and also so I could show Eddy to see what he thought the problem was.
This afternoon we also had a lady arrive with a quarter horse and a Shetland pony and she will be staying for a week for horsemanship lessons. We also had another horse arrive that is here for about a month for Eddy to do a restart on. So this will be really interesting to watch!!
This afternoon I started playing with Blossom and we started with having a little play with some of the games to get her focus on me and then we moved on to playing with circles. The main focus today was getting her to look where she was going and not to lean on the rope, as Eddy now thinks it is time that I ask for a little more from her and this would be a massive change for her if she is able to do this. So to get her to do this I worked with small circles to start with and would move her sideways on the circle to get her focus more on me and where she is going, once it was better at a short distance I would allow the circles to get bigger. But if she started pulling or looking out I would make the circles smaller again as this way I can use the CS and string to move her sideways as if she is out on a bigger circle I can’t touch her and she just ignores me!
We then played with all the other tasks we have been playing with lately and everything went really well today. The best bit was she managed to get all 4 feet on the pedestal, I was so happy for her and she has been trying so hard to work out what she has to do to get all her feet up there and today she got it!! She only managed to stay there for about 4 seconds, before she fell off so it wasn’t long enough for me to get a photo. But now that she has done it once I am sure she will be able to do it again and maybe next time I will be able to get a photo for you all to see!!
I then saddled and today again she was lovely to ride, strange!! Today I was able to do transitions from walk, trot, stand and back up only using the savvy string - Marieke was watching and I think she was shocked to see me being able to do this with Blossom!! Today I decided to give cantering a go and use my new position to see if it made a difference to Blossom.. Well the first few canters were really good and I think the new position really helped as the transition was really smooth and there wasn’t her usual really fast trot before canter, so I think this also helped me to really stay back and on my balance point and therefore also helped her keep her weight more on her HQ. So I was really happy, but on our last canter she was more impulsive. But we think this could have been caused by something spooking her as a lot of the horses were quite jumpy today, especially on the side where I was riding…
Eddy asked if I had ever tried cantering bareback and if that made a difference to Blossom because my seat might also be different. I am sure I have cantered her bareback, but at the time I didn’t really think about is she better or worse than normal. So I decided to give it a go today and see what the result would be.. But I think for safety reasons for me and everyone else in the arena Eddy put me on line and played with Blossom with me riding bareback. But I am not sure it really made much difference to Blossom as she was I would say faster on line with me bareback in canter than she was before.. But I think I will continue to try and ride bareback more often as I do feel I need to improve me seat more as a few times bareback I did loose my balance, nothing too serious but to Blossom I think if I can really stay with her it will really help her to stay calm!
Today with Smarty we had lots of fun playing on line and everything is just getting so much better, today we were playing with change of direction and it is really quite good!!
I then saddled and girthed in stages and then played with transitions in walk, trot, stand and back up - his back up wasn’t great today as I have now put a bit back on him he still has a tendency to lean on the bit rather the yield from the pressure. So we played around teaching him to be soft and not to lean on the bit and everything was going really well.
So I decided to canter and this is where the problems started, the transitions were good but the problem was when I went to turn him to do a half circle around the arena he just lifted his head and sort of ran sideways… During this I had no control over him whatsoever!! I done another couple of circles and every time he done it and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do, I tried to turn him using the reins and also using my body to try and turn him but nothing worked!!
Corine was in the arena, so I asked her to watch and see what she thought - but she had no idea and thought it was quite an extreme behaviour for no reason, well of course there is a reason but it wasn’t an obvious one and I wasn’t asking any new or challenging things from him. So I got Corine to film it for me on my camera so I could watch it and also so I could show Eddy to see what he thought the problem was.
This afternoon we also had a lady arrive with a quarter horse and a Shetland pony and she will be staying for a week for horsemanship lessons. We also had another horse arrive that is here for about a month for Eddy to do a restart on. So this will be really interesting to watch!!
Friday 16th January
This morning after finishing all the jobs, I watched Eddy playing with the trailer loading horse (I have no idea what its name was) He started with playing with the seven games making sure everything was working well, especially backwards and sideways as he thinks once the horse learns this trailer loading shouldn’t be such a big issue. Well he was totally right and very quickly he had the horse trailer loading. But the next issue is can he give the owners enough savvy so that they can be able to get the same results..
This afternoon I started with playing with Blossom and we worked on:
1. Backwards, driving her to really get a good back up
2. Yo Yo game, much better after driving her back
3. Circling game with transitions
4. Change of direction
5. Sideways over a pole
6. Sideways over small cones
7. Trot sideways
I then saddled and she was really nice to ride today - she was so soft and responsive!! We mainly played with transitions in walk and trot and this was going so well that we even had a few canters and they were semi calm so I was so happy with this. I then played with turning the FQ to try and encourage her to keep her weight on her HQ and she still keeps most of her weight on her FQ and this is what makes her go so fast and pull so much. We also played with sideways, which is now getting so much better. So seen as everything was going so well I decided to finish in that, it was so tempting to keep riding her as she was being so good. But I didn’t want to spoil things and hopefully she will be this good again tomorrow.
As I was saddling Smarty, Eddy came and offered to show me a exercise on the seat builder that will help me with my position in canter. Basically all I had to do was kind of roll my hips back, so all my weight went to the back well the HQ and by doing this it allows the horse to bring up its front end and canter with the weight in the HQ instead of more on the FQ. It was really good to feel this on the seat builder as it is so sensitive you could really feel the weight change and also the movement in which I have to do to allow the FQ to come up.
So once I warmed Smarty up and girthed him, I started with playing with follow the rail playing with transitions in walk, trot, stand and back up. Everything was going really well so I was desperate to try out my new position in canter and see what it felt like on a horse and if it did make any difference. Wow as soon as I rolled my hips back like Eddy had shown me Smarty took up canter straight away and it was such a lovely smooth transitions. So of course I played around with this for quite a while to make sure I had really got the idea of what I am meant to do in my body to get such good transitions, so when it comes to cantering Blossom again this I think will really help her and me.
I was talking to Eddy the other night and he asked how I would train a pony to do games and what I need to teach them. Basically I need a good go and whoa button, good turns, flying changes in canter, running for me to vault (canter/gallop with me in zone 3) and of course a rally good friendly game with all of the equipment and also with me hanging off them as they are moving. The rest just comes with practice and the ponies learning the patterns.
So Eddy then said he would be able to show me a way of helping Smarty to turn like some of the top barrel racers turn and he thinks this will really help me when I start doing games with Smarty.
So today I asked Eddy if he could show me how I would teach Smarty to turn better, I expected something really complicated but nope all I have to do is push him round the turn instead of leaning into it and that’s it!! So for the moment for the teaching phase for both me and Smarty we are slightly exaggerated for example if I am trying to do a right hand turn, I moved my body maybe a couple of inches to the left and use my weight and my left leg to push him into the turn and I can also use the CS to help him move his shoulder round if I need it. Well I practiced this in walk so we both got the idea of what we were trying to do and I got the feeling for a good turn. So I decided to move it up to a trot and wow!! The first turn we done I trotted up the arena, got into my position and pushed and oh yes he turned - the turn was so good and tight I nearly fell off as I didn’t expect it to be so good!! We played around with this as Eddy was watching to see how it worked and we even managed a turn in canter, it was just so good!!
Well of course in between helping me with all this stuff Eddy was also helping the owners of the trailer loading horse and Yes they managed to load the horse!! Actually by the end of the day it really looked like a different horse and they owners also looked like different people with all there new found Savvy, and they also bought some Parelli equipment and will continue to work through the programme at home!!
Well what a good day!!
This afternoon I started with playing with Blossom and we worked on:
1. Backwards, driving her to really get a good back up
2. Yo Yo game, much better after driving her back
3. Circling game with transitions
4. Change of direction
5. Sideways over a pole
6. Sideways over small cones
7. Trot sideways
I then saddled and she was really nice to ride today - she was so soft and responsive!! We mainly played with transitions in walk and trot and this was going so well that we even had a few canters and they were semi calm so I was so happy with this. I then played with turning the FQ to try and encourage her to keep her weight on her HQ and she still keeps most of her weight on her FQ and this is what makes her go so fast and pull so much. We also played with sideways, which is now getting so much better. So seen as everything was going so well I decided to finish in that, it was so tempting to keep riding her as she was being so good. But I didn’t want to spoil things and hopefully she will be this good again tomorrow.
As I was saddling Smarty, Eddy came and offered to show me a exercise on the seat builder that will help me with my position in canter. Basically all I had to do was kind of roll my hips back, so all my weight went to the back well the HQ and by doing this it allows the horse to bring up its front end and canter with the weight in the HQ instead of more on the FQ. It was really good to feel this on the seat builder as it is so sensitive you could really feel the weight change and also the movement in which I have to do to allow the FQ to come up.
So once I warmed Smarty up and girthed him, I started with playing with follow the rail playing with transitions in walk, trot, stand and back up. Everything was going really well so I was desperate to try out my new position in canter and see what it felt like on a horse and if it did make any difference. Wow as soon as I rolled my hips back like Eddy had shown me Smarty took up canter straight away and it was such a lovely smooth transitions. So of course I played around with this for quite a while to make sure I had really got the idea of what I am meant to do in my body to get such good transitions, so when it comes to cantering Blossom again this I think will really help her and me.
I was talking to Eddy the other night and he asked how I would train a pony to do games and what I need to teach them. Basically I need a good go and whoa button, good turns, flying changes in canter, running for me to vault (canter/gallop with me in zone 3) and of course a rally good friendly game with all of the equipment and also with me hanging off them as they are moving. The rest just comes with practice and the ponies learning the patterns.
So Eddy then said he would be able to show me a way of helping Smarty to turn like some of the top barrel racers turn and he thinks this will really help me when I start doing games with Smarty.
So today I asked Eddy if he could show me how I would teach Smarty to turn better, I expected something really complicated but nope all I have to do is push him round the turn instead of leaning into it and that’s it!! So for the moment for the teaching phase for both me and Smarty we are slightly exaggerated for example if I am trying to do a right hand turn, I moved my body maybe a couple of inches to the left and use my weight and my left leg to push him into the turn and I can also use the CS to help him move his shoulder round if I need it. Well I practiced this in walk so we both got the idea of what we were trying to do and I got the feeling for a good turn. So I decided to move it up to a trot and wow!! The first turn we done I trotted up the arena, got into my position and pushed and oh yes he turned - the turn was so good and tight I nearly fell off as I didn’t expect it to be so good!! We played around with this as Eddy was watching to see how it worked and we even managed a turn in canter, it was just so good!!
Well of course in between helping me with all this stuff Eddy was also helping the owners of the trailer loading horse and Yes they managed to load the horse!! Actually by the end of the day it really looked like a different horse and they owners also looked like different people with all there new found Savvy, and they also bought some Parelli equipment and will continue to work through the programme at home!!
Well what a good day!!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday 15th January
Well sorry for the delay in posting, I killed the laptop!! But I have managed to get it to work again so I am now just trying to remember what I have all done over the last few days and try and write it all down.
Well today I can’t remember what I actually done with the ponies… But I am sure it is likely to be the same as what I have been working on over the last couple of weeks and seen as I can’t remember must mean everything went well.
Today Eddy got a horse to play with that has problems trailer loading, so I was really looking forward to watching this demo. But today Eddy mostly taught the owner the seven games with the horse as she is not a parelli student. So there is no point Eddy playing with the horse and getting it to trailer load if the owners are not able to do this when they get home. But it was still very interesting to watch as the horse was very dominant and tended to push through any pressure instead of yielding and a lot of the time would just rear instead of yielding especially when being asked to go sideways or backwards. So Eddy did in the end play with the horse so it would be easier for the owners as the horses behaviours were quite extreme and it was really good to watch Eddy as he was really having to go through his phases and through the whole process stayed so calm. So it will be interesting to see how the actual trailer loading goes tomorrow as the horse has to then go home.
Well today I can’t remember what I actually done with the ponies… But I am sure it is likely to be the same as what I have been working on over the last couple of weeks and seen as I can’t remember must mean everything went well.
Today Eddy got a horse to play with that has problems trailer loading, so I was really looking forward to watching this demo. But today Eddy mostly taught the owner the seven games with the horse as she is not a parelli student. So there is no point Eddy playing with the horse and getting it to trailer load if the owners are not able to do this when they get home. But it was still very interesting to watch as the horse was very dominant and tended to push through any pressure instead of yielding and a lot of the time would just rear instead of yielding especially when being asked to go sideways or backwards. So Eddy did in the end play with the horse so it would be easier for the owners as the horses behaviours were quite extreme and it was really good to watch Eddy as he was really having to go through his phases and through the whole process stayed so calm. So it will be interesting to see how the actual trailer loading goes tomorrow as the horse has to then go home.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday 14th January
Well today I had the morning off to catch up on some sleep as I haven't had any time off since I arrived, and I must have really needed it as I slept for over 15 hours!!
So today I decided to give Blossom the day off and just play with Smarty. Today with Smarty I started with playing with extreme friendly games with the CS and the CS and plastic bag, he is now getting so much better with all this!
We then played with all the other games and spent some extra time working on circling game as he has started to get faster and faster when we have been playing with this. So to keep his attention on me and stop him just trying to run in circles we started playing with transitions, change of direction and I also done lots of disengaging him when he was nice and calm.
I then saddled and we played with transitions in walk, trot and canter following the rail. This went really well so I then played freindly game when I was on him, by hanging off the side of him and touching his legs and belly and also rubbing my legs againist his sides and his bum. This went really well so I started picking objects of the ground and then playing friendly game rubbing him with the objects and he was so good!!
So today I decided to give Blossom the day off and just play with Smarty. Today with Smarty I started with playing with extreme friendly games with the CS and the CS and plastic bag, he is now getting so much better with all this!
We then played with all the other games and spent some extra time working on circling game as he has started to get faster and faster when we have been playing with this. So to keep his attention on me and stop him just trying to run in circles we started playing with transitions, change of direction and I also done lots of disengaging him when he was nice and calm.
I then saddled and we played with transitions in walk, trot and canter following the rail. This went really well so I then played freindly game when I was on him, by hanging off the side of him and touching his legs and belly and also rubbing my legs againist his sides and his bum. This went really well so I started picking objects of the ground and then playing friendly game rubbing him with the objects and he was so good!!
Tuesday 13th January
Today with Blossom I played with all the same tasks as we have been playing with and everything went really well. So I won’t bore you all writing about it all again!!
I then saddled and today we started with ride the rail playing with transitions in walk, trot, stand and back up. Everything was going well so we then moved on to playing with getting her to back up from the Savvy string, this actually went ok. I still have to apply quite a lot of pressure to the string until I get a response from her but she then knows she is to back up. So I will continue to work on this to get her really soft.
Marieke then played with me on line again today to help with my canter and today went very well, Marieke had me pedalling and rubbing while we were trotting and cantering and this really seemed to help Blossom relax and stay with me.
Marieke then explained to me how to do snakey bends with Blossom to help encourage her to look where she is going and have and have her body bent in the correct way. We played with this for a while in walk and trot and it really seemed to help Blossom, so hopefully if I continue to do this she will learn to relax in this position.
I then saddled and today we started with ride the rail playing with transitions in walk, trot, stand and back up. Everything was going well so we then moved on to playing with getting her to back up from the Savvy string, this actually went ok. I still have to apply quite a lot of pressure to the string until I get a response from her but she then knows she is to back up. So I will continue to work on this to get her really soft.
Marieke then played with me on line again today to help with my canter and today went very well, Marieke had me pedalling and rubbing while we were trotting and cantering and this really seemed to help Blossom relax and stay with me.
Marieke then explained to me how to do snakey bends with Blossom to help encourage her to look where she is going and have and have her body bent in the correct way. We played with this for a while in walk and trot and it really seemed to help Blossom, so hopefully if I continue to do this she will learn to relax in this position.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monday 12th January
Today with Blossom I started playing with back up with me in zone 3 as if I was riding her as I have noticed that her back up when I have been riding her hasn’t been very good. So as I expected when I asked her to back from me in zone 3 I also got the same brace and resistance as I have been when I have been riding. So today I was really firm with her and went to phase 4 several times to get a really nice soft back up - we played with this for quite a while until I felt she was really yielding well.
We then had a play with all the other tasks we have been playing with and all of them went well, so at the moment the main issue is getting a good back up . As I think if I get this really good it will also improve everything else.
I then saddled and worked on our back up while riding, I had to really go through my phases to start with so she worked out what it was I was asking and to realise I wasn’t going to except any brace and I wanted a good back up from her as I know she can do it. Once this improved I then started working on getting her to abck up from just the savvy string, she was a little unsure about this so I only asked for a couple of backwards steps to teach her the pattern.
Marieke then played with me online today and really helped me with my fluidity and it also seemed to help Blossom as we got a lovely canter in both directions today, without any impulsion it felt so good!!
Today with Smarty I with all seven games and everything went really well and he is now becoming more confident and relaxed while we are playing.
I then saddled and we played with transitions following the rail, he was really good and was really connected to my energy. To keep him interested we played with the pattern we played with before with the barrels, but today we used cones instead. He remembered the pattern and was starting to slow himself before the marker where he has to stop, he was so good and seems to really enjoy this type of work as it really keeps him thinking and makes it more interesting for him.
We then had a play with all the other tasks we have been playing with and all of them went well, so at the moment the main issue is getting a good back up . As I think if I get this really good it will also improve everything else.
I then saddled and worked on our back up while riding, I had to really go through my phases to start with so she worked out what it was I was asking and to realise I wasn’t going to except any brace and I wanted a good back up from her as I know she can do it. Once this improved I then started working on getting her to abck up from just the savvy string, she was a little unsure about this so I only asked for a couple of backwards steps to teach her the pattern.
Marieke then played with me online today and really helped me with my fluidity and it also seemed to help Blossom as we got a lovely canter in both directions today, without any impulsion it felt so good!!
Today with Smarty I with all seven games and everything went really well and he is now becoming more confident and relaxed while we are playing.
I then saddled and we played with transitions following the rail, he was really good and was really connected to my energy. To keep him interested we played with the pattern we played with before with the barrels, but today we used cones instead. He remembered the pattern and was starting to slow himself before the marker where he has to stop, he was so good and seems to really enjoy this type of work as it really keeps him thinking and makes it more interesting for him.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sunday 11th January
Today with Blossom I started with playing with friendly game with the umbrella again and today she was much more confident, she was still wasn’t 100% sure when I had it above her head but so much better than she has been before and was still LB the whole time so I was happy with this!
I then had a play with all the other tasks we have been working on and everything is getting so much better and much softer now, so I really happy with this improvement.
I then went out to saddle her and Marieke said I could try her fluidity on Blossom and see what we thought of that and to see if would maybe help Blossom stay more relaxed if she can move more freely..
Blossom modelling the fluidity
Well the fluidity was too big from myself and Blossom, but we still had a little ride round in it to see how we liked it. We played with follow the rail of the round pen and then added in some transitions from walk, trot, walk, stand, back up. She was really good and relaxed but I didn’t feel I was really on my balance point in this saddle and felt I was tipping forward, so if I use it again I will have to shim it better to get it more balanced.
I then changed back to my own saddle and Eddy played with her on line again with me, today was much better than yesterday and we did get a few nice canters and some very relaxed trots. So I was really happy with this and feel a bit more positive that I will be able to canter her calmly very soon without Eddy holding on to her, so it will be interesting to see how and if she changes over the next few days..
I then had a play with all the other tasks we have been working on and everything is getting so much better and much softer now, so I really happy with this improvement.
I then went out to saddle her and Marieke said I could try her fluidity on Blossom and see what we thought of that and to see if would maybe help Blossom stay more relaxed if she can move more freely..
Blossom modelling the fluidity
Well the fluidity was too big from myself and Blossom, but we still had a little ride round in it to see how we liked it. We played with follow the rail of the round pen and then added in some transitions from walk, trot, walk, stand, back up. She was really good and relaxed but I didn’t feel I was really on my balance point in this saddle and felt I was tipping forward, so if I use it again I will have to shim it better to get it more balanced.
I then changed back to my own saddle and Eddy played with her on line again with me, today was much better than yesterday and we did get a few nice canters and some very relaxed trots. So I was really happy with this and feel a bit more positive that I will be able to canter her calmly very soon without Eddy holding on to her, so it will be interesting to see how and if she changes over the next few days..
Saturday 10th January
Today with Blossom I played with:
1. Extreme Friendly with CS and plastic bag.
2. Friendly with the umbrella, this still needs a little work as she wasn’t sure of it in zone 1.
3.Yo Yo game
4. Yo Yo over a pole
5.Sideways without a fence
6. Sideways over a pole
7. Trotting sideways
8. Transitions on a circle
9. Change of direction
10. Working on getting 4 feet on the pedestal - 3 today!!
I then saddled and followed the rail of the round pen, she was very calm and relaxed so I started adding in transitions from trot to walk to stand to back up. She was really good and stayed relaxed and connected to my energy.
As everything was going so well I decided to try cantering the rail of the round pen and see how she was with this. Well it wasn’t as calm as I hoped, but it wasn’t a full gallop either so I basically done a passenger lesson following the rail to see when and if she would stop herself. I found that yes she would stop herself after about 4 laps, but the canter never seemed to get any slower or more relaxed. I played with this for a while with lots of walk and rest in-between and found it to be the same and also in both directions..
Eddy then appeared just as I had got off, so I tried to get him to ride her as see if she would be better for him.. But he said he was too big for her, so instead he offered to play with her online with me on her and look at her canter this way. I had explained to him that I just felt I was getting nowhere with the canter as she was always going so fast and I was just always having to hold her to stop her going too fast as it would be really dangerous to let her do this.
So what Eddy thought would be the best idea would be if he controlled where she went and if she did go too fast he would make the circle smaller to slow her down, but I had to ask her to trot and then to canter and I was to try and control the speed of the gaits from my body. Well the first canter was really fast and I don’t think Eddy really expected her to actually go this fast (he hasn’t seen me doing much canter work with her before) We played around with this for about half an hour doing lots of transitions from trot to canter, but we didn’t really get a very relaxed or slow canter. But it was good for me to get a good feel of her canter and to really work on my fluidity without having to worry about Blossom running off with me. Eddy says he will try and do this with me for the next couple of days or however long it takes to teach her to stay calm in canter.
1. Extreme Friendly with CS and plastic bag.
2. Friendly with the umbrella, this still needs a little work as she wasn’t sure of it in zone 1.
3.Yo Yo game
4. Yo Yo over a pole
5.Sideways without a fence
6. Sideways over a pole
7. Trotting sideways
8. Transitions on a circle
9. Change of direction
10. Working on getting 4 feet on the pedestal - 3 today!!
I then saddled and followed the rail of the round pen, she was very calm and relaxed so I started adding in transitions from trot to walk to stand to back up. She was really good and stayed relaxed and connected to my energy.
As everything was going so well I decided to try cantering the rail of the round pen and see how she was with this. Well it wasn’t as calm as I hoped, but it wasn’t a full gallop either so I basically done a passenger lesson following the rail to see when and if she would stop herself. I found that yes she would stop herself after about 4 laps, but the canter never seemed to get any slower or more relaxed. I played with this for a while with lots of walk and rest in-between and found it to be the same and also in both directions..
Eddy then appeared just as I had got off, so I tried to get him to ride her as see if she would be better for him.. But he said he was too big for her, so instead he offered to play with her online with me on her and look at her canter this way. I had explained to him that I just felt I was getting nowhere with the canter as she was always going so fast and I was just always having to hold her to stop her going too fast as it would be really dangerous to let her do this.
So what Eddy thought would be the best idea would be if he controlled where she went and if she did go too fast he would make the circle smaller to slow her down, but I had to ask her to trot and then to canter and I was to try and control the speed of the gaits from my body. Well the first canter was really fast and I don’t think Eddy really expected her to actually go this fast (he hasn’t seen me doing much canter work with her before) We played around with this for about half an hour doing lots of transitions from trot to canter, but we didn’t really get a very relaxed or slow canter. But it was good for me to get a good feel of her canter and to really work on my fluidity without having to worry about Blossom running off with me. Eddy says he will try and do this with me for the next couple of days or however long it takes to teach her to stay calm in canter.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Friday 9th January
Well another very cold day, but I did get some pretty pictures!!
Today with Blossom I played at liberty and she was really good and we were able to do all seven games without any problems. So I was really happy with this as I have put a lot of work into getting sideways better as this didn’t work at liberty the last time I tried, and today we managed a few steps both ways without any problems! The problem we had with squeeze game the last time seemed to have disappeared as there was no problems today, so I don’t know what the problem was the last time.
I them put the savvy string around her neck and jumped on her and we started with follow the rail of the round pen. She was really calm and relaxed so I then asked her to trot and she was so soft and would come back to walk from the energy in by body and then stand and back up. Eddy commented how relaxed she was and I think he was actually shocked to see me riding her like this ‘naked’ as he calls it!! I then worked on disengaging the HQ and FQ, moving the FQ was easier than the HQ so I will need to work on this to improve it.
By the time I finished playing with Blossom I was really cold so I didn’t do very much with Smarty today, just a few games to let him stretch his legs and the rest was mainly just friendly games with the CS and the CS with the plastic bag which he is now getting much better with!!
Today with Blossom I played at liberty and she was really good and we were able to do all seven games without any problems. So I was really happy with this as I have put a lot of work into getting sideways better as this didn’t work at liberty the last time I tried, and today we managed a few steps both ways without any problems! The problem we had with squeeze game the last time seemed to have disappeared as there was no problems today, so I don’t know what the problem was the last time.
I them put the savvy string around her neck and jumped on her and we started with follow the rail of the round pen. She was really calm and relaxed so I then asked her to trot and she was so soft and would come back to walk from the energy in by body and then stand and back up. Eddy commented how relaxed she was and I think he was actually shocked to see me riding her like this ‘naked’ as he calls it!! I then worked on disengaging the HQ and FQ, moving the FQ was easier than the HQ so I will need to work on this to improve it.
By the time I finished playing with Blossom I was really cold so I didn’t do very much with Smarty today, just a few games to let him stretch his legs and the rest was mainly just friendly games with the CS and the CS with the plastic bag which he is now getting much better with!!
Thursday 8th January
Today I started with Smarty as I wanted to work on my position in canter and also my canter lead changes so when it comes to doing this with Blossom I will be better and hopefully be able to help her more.
I started on line playing with:
1. Extreme Friendly game
2. Yo Yo on the 22ft line
3. Loads of sideways - it is getting good!!
4. Circling game playing with transitions from trot to walk
I then saddled and mounted and checked my lateral flexion which is now getting really soft, we then followed the rail and played with transitions from walk to trot and trot to walk to back up. He was really good and really responsive to my energy, but then Corine started playing extreme friendly with her horse using a tarp and an umbrella so this got Smarty a little worried. So when I asked for canter he was very impulsive and really wasn’t listening to me so I decided to forget about the lead changes for today and just played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot to get him relaxed again and then finished.
Today with Blossom we played with:
1. Extreme Friendly game in all zones
2. Getting her to put her back feet on the pedestal, which she done!!
3. Yo yo game
4. Loads of sideways
5. Circling with transitions
6. Change of direction
7. Circling from a flank rope, First time doing this and she was really good!!
8. Driving from zone 5
I then played at liberty with stick to me and it was going really well, and for some reason I decided to get on her. Totally crazy idea to get on a really impulsive pony that doesn’t even have a halter on, well anyway I did and started with follow the rail at walk. Seen as I managed to not die during this lap of the arena I decided to put a savvy string around her neck and carried on riding like this. She was brilliant and we managed to do the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot and even managed to do walk and trot transition following the rail. I was so happy I didn’t think I would ever be able to ride Blossom bareback and bridleless!!!
I started on line playing with:
1. Extreme Friendly game
2. Yo Yo on the 22ft line
3. Loads of sideways - it is getting good!!
4. Circling game playing with transitions from trot to walk
I then saddled and mounted and checked my lateral flexion which is now getting really soft, we then followed the rail and played with transitions from walk to trot and trot to walk to back up. He was really good and really responsive to my energy, but then Corine started playing extreme friendly with her horse using a tarp and an umbrella so this got Smarty a little worried. So when I asked for canter he was very impulsive and really wasn’t listening to me so I decided to forget about the lead changes for today and just played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot to get him relaxed again and then finished.
Today with Blossom we played with:
1. Extreme Friendly game in all zones
2. Getting her to put her back feet on the pedestal, which she done!!
3. Yo yo game
4. Loads of sideways
5. Circling with transitions
6. Change of direction
7. Circling from a flank rope, First time doing this and she was really good!!
8. Driving from zone 5
I then played at liberty with stick to me and it was going really well, and for some reason I decided to get on her. Totally crazy idea to get on a really impulsive pony that doesn’t even have a halter on, well anyway I did and started with follow the rail at walk. Seen as I managed to not die during this lap of the arena I decided to put a savvy string around her neck and carried on riding like this. She was brilliant and we managed to do the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot and even managed to do walk and trot transition following the rail. I was so happy I didn’t think I would ever be able to ride Blossom bareback and bridleless!!!
Wednesday 7th January
The tractor is alive again!!!
So today with Blossom play was back to normal, today we played with:
1. Driving from zone 5
2. Yo Yo game, improving our drive and draw
3. Sideways over a pole - getting much better
4. Circling game with transitions and change of direction
5. Back up from her tail
6. Lead by the jaw and ear
Again today everything went well, she got really impulsive and started playing up in the circling game at one point. But I just matched her energy and put her in front of lots of obstacles and she soon calmed herself down.
Getting her to back up from pressure on her tail and lead by the jaw and ear all went very well and I will continue to work with these to get her really yielding from a soft pressure.
I then saddled and played with back up transitions only using my feet, I had to use my reins or the CS the first couple of times but then she was really good and backing really well. I then played with trot transitions on a circle at the bottom of the arena and she was so good and was really connected to my energy in my body and stopped as soon as I thought about stopping. We then played with the figure of eight pattern and again today I was able to do this using only a CS, so I was really happy! I then decided seen as everything was going so well we would try a canter, she was quite calm in the canter and we only done a couple of small circles and then back to trot. But because of the canter this then made her quite impulsive, so I had to work to get her relaxed again but this didn’t actually take very long. So we did have a few more canters and each time seemed to get better and better!!
Today with Smarty I played with him on line we played with:
1. Stick to me in walk and back up
2. Standing on the pedestal
3. Sideways - which is now getting much better
4. Circling trying to get the circles soft
5. Transitions on a circle
6. Jumping on a circle
He was really good today, a little impulsive at some points when he was circling but I think he just got a little worried with me asking new things of him.
So today with Blossom play was back to normal, today we played with:
1. Driving from zone 5
2. Yo Yo game, improving our drive and draw
3. Sideways over a pole - getting much better
4. Circling game with transitions and change of direction
5. Back up from her tail
6. Lead by the jaw and ear
Again today everything went well, she got really impulsive and started playing up in the circling game at one point. But I just matched her energy and put her in front of lots of obstacles and she soon calmed herself down.
Getting her to back up from pressure on her tail and lead by the jaw and ear all went very well and I will continue to work with these to get her really yielding from a soft pressure.
I then saddled and played with back up transitions only using my feet, I had to use my reins or the CS the first couple of times but then she was really good and backing really well. I then played with trot transitions on a circle at the bottom of the arena and she was so good and was really connected to my energy in my body and stopped as soon as I thought about stopping. We then played with the figure of eight pattern and again today I was able to do this using only a CS, so I was really happy! I then decided seen as everything was going so well we would try a canter, she was quite calm in the canter and we only done a couple of small circles and then back to trot. But because of the canter this then made her quite impulsive, so I had to work to get her relaxed again but this didn’t actually take very long. So we did have a few more canters and each time seemed to get better and better!!
Today with Smarty I played with him on line we played with:
1. Stick to me in walk and back up
2. Standing on the pedestal
3. Sideways - which is now getting much better
4. Circling trying to get the circles soft
5. Transitions on a circle
6. Jumping on a circle
He was really good today, a little impulsive at some points when he was circling but I think he just got a little worried with me asking new things of him.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Tuesday 6th January
Well as it has been so cold here the last couple of weeks, the diesel in the tractor has frozen and we can’t seem to un - freeze it, which is a bit of a pain as we use it to drag the arena. It has now been about a week since the arena was done and it is now really deep and hard for the ponies to work on.
So to try and avoid any injury or anything I decided to just take it easy with Blossom today. We played with:
1. Getting backwards faster
2. Getting her to draw to me at trot
3. Getting sideways really soft and her connected to my energy
4. Sideways over a pole
5. We tried sideways over a block, but she isn’t quite ready for this yet
6. Backwards over a pole
I then saddled and started with follow the rail at walk and I was getting her to come back to stand with just my energy and then backing up using my feet. We then played with the bow tie pattern in walk to get her used to the pattern in preparation for out canter leads. Lastly we played with sideways, I haven’t done this is quite a while and it really showed so I need to try and play with this every time I ride to really get her good and soft at this.
Today Corine and Sophie were going out a walk with there horses, so I decided to take Smarty along with them. But I was going to ride as I am to lazy to walk - but it turned out I did have to walk half the way as Smarty was feeling his feet on the stones on the track and I felt bad riding him if he was sore so thought I should walk.
View from on our Trail.
Me and Smarty.
So to try and avoid any injury or anything I decided to just take it easy with Blossom today. We played with:
1. Getting backwards faster
2. Getting her to draw to me at trot
3. Getting sideways really soft and her connected to my energy
4. Sideways over a pole
5. We tried sideways over a block, but she isn’t quite ready for this yet
6. Backwards over a pole
I then saddled and started with follow the rail at walk and I was getting her to come back to stand with just my energy and then backing up using my feet. We then played with the bow tie pattern in walk to get her used to the pattern in preparation for out canter leads. Lastly we played with sideways, I haven’t done this is quite a while and it really showed so I need to try and play with this every time I ride to really get her good and soft at this.
Today Corine and Sophie were going out a walk with there horses, so I decided to take Smarty along with them. But I was going to ride as I am to lazy to walk - but it turned out I did have to walk half the way as Smarty was feeling his feet on the stones on the track and I felt bad riding him if he was sore so thought I should walk.
View from on our Trail.
Me and Smarty.
Monday 5th January
Today was so cold, well it was actually warmer than it has been the last couple of weeks but the wind felt like it was minus 20!!
So after lunch instead of going back outside into the cold we stayed inside and watched a Dutch students level 3 assessment, which she passed!! So this was really interesting to see the standard you have to be at to pass level 3. I wasn’t really familiar with the level 3 tasks so sometimes I was unsure of what she was trying to do, but it was still really good to watch.
We then headed back outside and I started with playing with Blossom we played with:
1. Yo yo game, getting the back up faster
2. Circling game, getting the circles soft and Blossom connected to me
3. Change of direction
4. Sideways over a pole
5. Trot sideways
6. Backwards into the trailer
7.Backwards into the trailer at Liberty!!
8. Stick to me at walk, trot, back up at liberty
9. Stand on the pedestal at liberty
I then got Smarty and saddled him and warmed him up using a few games, I then mounted and followed the rail adding in transitions to get him connected to my energy. He was really good and Eddy even commented on how much better my riding position is!!
I then got Blossom and decided to lead her of Smarty, they were both really good and stayed really connected to me. We done lots of transitions walk, trot, stand and back up and all of this went really well - Blossom got a little impulsive at times but calmed herself down quickly. I think having Smarty next to her keeps her calm as she sees he isn’t worried so why should she be. So this was a really good, but short session but as it was so cold I just couldn’t find the energy to do very much more.
So after lunch instead of going back outside into the cold we stayed inside and watched a Dutch students level 3 assessment, which she passed!! So this was really interesting to see the standard you have to be at to pass level 3. I wasn’t really familiar with the level 3 tasks so sometimes I was unsure of what she was trying to do, but it was still really good to watch.
We then headed back outside and I started with playing with Blossom we played with:
1. Yo yo game, getting the back up faster
2. Circling game, getting the circles soft and Blossom connected to me
3. Change of direction
4. Sideways over a pole
5. Trot sideways
6. Backwards into the trailer
7.Backwards into the trailer at Liberty!!
8. Stick to me at walk, trot, back up at liberty
9. Stand on the pedestal at liberty
I then got Smarty and saddled him and warmed him up using a few games, I then mounted and followed the rail adding in transitions to get him connected to my energy. He was really good and Eddy even commented on how much better my riding position is!!
I then got Blossom and decided to lead her of Smarty, they were both really good and stayed really connected to me. We done lots of transitions walk, trot, stand and back up and all of this went really well - Blossom got a little impulsive at times but calmed herself down quickly. I think having Smarty next to her keeps her calm as she sees he isn’t worried so why should she be. So this was a really good, but short session but as it was so cold I just couldn’t find the energy to do very much more.
Sunday 4th January
Today with Blossom I decided to work through the level 2 online assessment tasks and see if there was anything we couldn’t do or need to work on. We still need to work on sideways to get it just that little bit softer, but today was much better and she managed sideways over the pole in both directions without going forwards or backwards so this is a massive improvement.
My main problem today was getting Blossom to maintain gait… Would you believe I couldn’t get Blossom to stay in trot!!! So to work on getting her to maintain gait I had to bring her energy up a little, so we done some walk to canter transitions. But I think I maybe done just a little too much as she became very impulsive, so I had to then work on getting her to calm down again. But once we got the balance right, she was really good and we got some nice changes of direction and transitions.
All the other tasks went really well and there was no real problems with any of them, some couldn’t maybe just get a little better but I was still really happy with what we done.
I then saddled and we started with checking my lateral flexion and back up, all was good so we moved on to riding the rail of the arena. She was calm so we started doing some trot transitions and these went quite well, she was a little impulsive at times but relaxed again very quickly. We then played with the figure of eight pattern with circles either end and she was really good and was relaxed the whole time!! I was able to do the pattern without using my reins at all and just using the CS to guide her round the pattern when she needed it.
I then played with circling round a block, this went really well and I think it helped both me and Blossom to have a focus on what we are circling. Everything was going so well we even done some canter circles in both directions, canter wasn’t totally relaxed but on the other hand it wasn’t totally out of control either and when I asked her to slow she did. So I was really happy with this and will try and start doing more canter with her.
Today with Smarty I played lots of friendly games with the CS and the rope, he is now starting to relax so it is really nice to see the change in him.
I then played with stick to me with walk, stand and backup transitions - he was very good at sticking to me and was really connected to my energy but he found the back up really difficult. So we done a lot of work on this to get him good at this and really going backwards straight. I I then played with yo yo game from zone 3 to again help him with his back up and he was really good at this and whatever the problem was with his back up had gone.
I then saddled and we started with some CS riding and he was really good and very relaxed. We then moved on to playing with walk to canter transitions and he was really good at this and was totally calm the whole time. So I thought I would test ourselves and tried canter to halt transitions, and these worked quite well too. To start with he over shot my marker by maybe one stride, but I thought for our first time doing this he was brilliant!!
I then set up my own little pattern which involved a block and a barrel, set out the same as you would for a figure of eight pattern about 50ft apart. What we had to do was go to the block and then stop, then we went forward and around the barrel and back to the block to stop again. We started doing this in walk and he quickly worked out the pattern so we moved up to trot and very quickly we were cantering the pattern!! Even doing this is canter he stayed relaxed and stopped and relaxed at the block and let me play friendly games hanging off the side of him and touching the block. I was so happy with him today, he is just such a good pony and seems to love getting ridden!!!
My main problem today was getting Blossom to maintain gait… Would you believe I couldn’t get Blossom to stay in trot!!! So to work on getting her to maintain gait I had to bring her energy up a little, so we done some walk to canter transitions. But I think I maybe done just a little too much as she became very impulsive, so I had to then work on getting her to calm down again. But once we got the balance right, she was really good and we got some nice changes of direction and transitions.
All the other tasks went really well and there was no real problems with any of them, some couldn’t maybe just get a little better but I was still really happy with what we done.
I then saddled and we started with checking my lateral flexion and back up, all was good so we moved on to riding the rail of the arena. She was calm so we started doing some trot transitions and these went quite well, she was a little impulsive at times but relaxed again very quickly. We then played with the figure of eight pattern with circles either end and she was really good and was relaxed the whole time!! I was able to do the pattern without using my reins at all and just using the CS to guide her round the pattern when she needed it.
I then played with circling round a block, this went really well and I think it helped both me and Blossom to have a focus on what we are circling. Everything was going so well we even done some canter circles in both directions, canter wasn’t totally relaxed but on the other hand it wasn’t totally out of control either and when I asked her to slow she did. So I was really happy with this and will try and start doing more canter with her.
Today with Smarty I played lots of friendly games with the CS and the rope, he is now starting to relax so it is really nice to see the change in him.
I then played with stick to me with walk, stand and backup transitions - he was very good at sticking to me and was really connected to my energy but he found the back up really difficult. So we done a lot of work on this to get him good at this and really going backwards straight. I I then played with yo yo game from zone 3 to again help him with his back up and he was really good at this and whatever the problem was with his back up had gone.
I then saddled and we started with some CS riding and he was really good and very relaxed. We then moved on to playing with walk to canter transitions and he was really good at this and was totally calm the whole time. So I thought I would test ourselves and tried canter to halt transitions, and these worked quite well too. To start with he over shot my marker by maybe one stride, but I thought for our first time doing this he was brilliant!!
I then set up my own little pattern which involved a block and a barrel, set out the same as you would for a figure of eight pattern about 50ft apart. What we had to do was go to the block and then stop, then we went forward and around the barrel and back to the block to stop again. We started doing this in walk and he quickly worked out the pattern so we moved up to trot and very quickly we were cantering the pattern!! Even doing this is canter he stayed relaxed and stopped and relaxed at the block and let me play friendly games hanging off the side of him and touching the block. I was so happy with him today, he is just such a good pony and seems to love getting ridden!!!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Saturday 3rd January
Today with Smarty my plans were to take him out a trail ride as it was a nice but very cold day - but there was shooting going on, so I didn’t think it would be such a good idea to go out riding myself. So I decided to stay in the indoor arena and ride there instead, I played a few games with him and then saddled and girthed in three stages.
I then mounted and today I worked on two CS riding, he was really good today and really relaxed and responsive to my energy. I was really happy with him!!
I then used some electric fence posts to set up some bending (weave) for him to keep him interested and to have some fun. He was really good, and really learnt the pattern very quickly and seemed to really enjoy himself. I will continue to play with this pattern with him as I am also using this to work on my riding as normally I would be leaning forward and would use my inside leg to get him to turn the top pole, but today I was using my outside leg and pushing him round and this really did get us a better turn. So I need to keep practising this to get myself used to this new way of riding.
Today with Blossom we played with all the stuff we have been doing the last few sessions and everything went really well, and seems to be getting better every time we play!!
Todays riding started really well and I was able to ride her with two CS and get her to go from walk to stand to back up, only using my energy and the CS if I needed them. I then went back to one CS riding as I thought this would be the safer option for trot transitions and I am so glad I did!! To start with she was really good, but as soon as I started asking for more than a few strides of trot she became very impulsive and really wasn’t listening to anything I was asking her to do. So I spent a lot of time trying to get her to relax again and to stop bracing against me. Well after this little argument, everything went really well and I got a lovely figure of eight pattern in trot with circles either end, totally on a casual rein and mainly only using my body and the CS to turn her. I was so impressed with this, we have never managed this so well before!!!
Tonight I also went Ice skating with Nadine, the lake across from our house is frozen and everybody is out ice slaking on it!! There is even music and flood lights for at night, it is crazy but fun and I only fell once so I was happy with this!!
This is the lake in the morning as I am leaving to go to the stables.
Nadine
Me
I then mounted and today I worked on two CS riding, he was really good today and really relaxed and responsive to my energy. I was really happy with him!!
I then used some electric fence posts to set up some bending (weave) for him to keep him interested and to have some fun. He was really good, and really learnt the pattern very quickly and seemed to really enjoy himself. I will continue to play with this pattern with him as I am also using this to work on my riding as normally I would be leaning forward and would use my inside leg to get him to turn the top pole, but today I was using my outside leg and pushing him round and this really did get us a better turn. So I need to keep practising this to get myself used to this new way of riding.
Today with Blossom we played with all the stuff we have been doing the last few sessions and everything went really well, and seems to be getting better every time we play!!
Todays riding started really well and I was able to ride her with two CS and get her to go from walk to stand to back up, only using my energy and the CS if I needed them. I then went back to one CS riding as I thought this would be the safer option for trot transitions and I am so glad I did!! To start with she was really good, but as soon as I started asking for more than a few strides of trot she became very impulsive and really wasn’t listening to anything I was asking her to do. So I spent a lot of time trying to get her to relax again and to stop bracing against me. Well after this little argument, everything went really well and I got a lovely figure of eight pattern in trot with circles either end, totally on a casual rein and mainly only using my body and the CS to turn her. I was so impressed with this, we have never managed this so well before!!!
Tonight I also went Ice skating with Nadine, the lake across from our house is frozen and everybody is out ice slaking on it!! There is even music and flood lights for at night, it is crazy but fun and I only fell once so I was happy with this!!
This is the lake in the morning as I am leaving to go to the stables.
Nadine
Me
Friday, January 2, 2009
Friday 2nd January
Today I started with Smarty to make sure I don’t run out of time for him today!
We played with:
1. Friendly with the CS
2. Friendly with the CS and plastic bag
3.Friendly on his legs with my hands
4. Picking up his feet
5. Yo Yo game
6. Yo Yo game over a pole - he done this well, just a little approach and retreat needed when he got closer to the pole
7.Sideways - still working on getting this soft and to have slack in the line, much better today though
8. Friendly game while he was circling
9. Getting circles softer and getting his focus on me
10. Standing on the pedestal
Smarty was really good today and I am really noticing a difference in him, he really appears a much happier pony and more confident to be around people.
Today with Blossom we played with:
1.Friendly game
2. YoYo game, working on getting the back up faster and the draw better.
3. Yo Yo over a pole
4. Circles - she was so soft and relaxed today!! I think my main problem was getting her to stay in trot!!
5. Change of direction
6. Sideways, was much softer today
7 Sideways at trot
Well today with Blossom was another great day, she was soo good again it is like I have a new pony…
I asked Marieke to come and watch my change of direction today as I feel the last few days it has been really good, but I thought it was worth getting someone to have a look to make sure I am doing everything correct. Well Marieke thought my change of direction was really good and the only fault was Blossom wasn’t maintaining gait all the time. So I felt really good about this as it wasn’t just on the change Blossom would slow it was all the time so this I know I will be able to fix quite easily. She also had a look at my sideways and said this was also really good, even when we were doing it in trot. So I was really happy today!!
We played with:
1. Friendly with the CS
2. Friendly with the CS and plastic bag
3.Friendly on his legs with my hands
4. Picking up his feet
5. Yo Yo game
6. Yo Yo game over a pole - he done this well, just a little approach and retreat needed when he got closer to the pole
7.Sideways - still working on getting this soft and to have slack in the line, much better today though
8. Friendly game while he was circling
9. Getting circles softer and getting his focus on me
10. Standing on the pedestal
Smarty was really good today and I am really noticing a difference in him, he really appears a much happier pony and more confident to be around people.
Today with Blossom we played with:
1.Friendly game
2. YoYo game, working on getting the back up faster and the draw better.
3. Yo Yo over a pole
4. Circles - she was so soft and relaxed today!! I think my main problem was getting her to stay in trot!!
5. Change of direction
6. Sideways, was much softer today
7 Sideways at trot
Well today with Blossom was another great day, she was soo good again it is like I have a new pony…
I asked Marieke to come and watch my change of direction today as I feel the last few days it has been really good, but I thought it was worth getting someone to have a look to make sure I am doing everything correct. Well Marieke thought my change of direction was really good and the only fault was Blossom wasn’t maintaining gait all the time. So I felt really good about this as it wasn’t just on the change Blossom would slow it was all the time so this I know I will be able to fix quite easily. She also had a look at my sideways and said this was also really good, even when we were doing it in trot. So I was really happy today!!
Thursday 1st January 2009!!
Happy New Year!!!
Well the new year got of to a great start for me and Blossom, everything just went so well today and we both seemed to enjoy every minute of it.
We played with:
1. Friendly game
2. Yo Yo game getting the back up faster
3.Yo Yo game over a pole
4.Yo Yo into the trailer from 22ft
5.Sideways with and without a fence, working on getting her to go and stop from my energy
6.Circles - getting them really soft and her focus on me
7.Transistions on the circle including stand and a couple of steps of back up
8.Change of direction
9.Figure of eight pattern
I then saddled, and again today I used Smarty’s saddle seen as everything went so well using this yesterday.
Today we started with riding the rail of the round pen, and there was no impulsion problems at all it was amazing. I don’t think I actually used the reins at all today, only my energy and the CS and she was brilliant. We done lots of trot and I also added in lots of transitions to really keep her focused on my energy and I really couldn’t fault her!!
Well I am sure you have guessed I had a brilliant day, so because we were having so much fun I played for longer than normal which was great for Blossom but it meant I ran out of time for Smarty today. So he had a little day off.
Well the new year got of to a great start for me and Blossom, everything just went so well today and we both seemed to enjoy every minute of it.
We played with:
1. Friendly game
2. Yo Yo game getting the back up faster
3.Yo Yo game over a pole
4.Yo Yo into the trailer from 22ft
5.Sideways with and without a fence, working on getting her to go and stop from my energy
6.Circles - getting them really soft and her focus on me
7.Transistions on the circle including stand and a couple of steps of back up
8.Change of direction
9.Figure of eight pattern
I then saddled, and again today I used Smarty’s saddle seen as everything went so well using this yesterday.
Today we started with riding the rail of the round pen, and there was no impulsion problems at all it was amazing. I don’t think I actually used the reins at all today, only my energy and the CS and she was brilliant. We done lots of trot and I also added in lots of transitions to really keep her focused on my energy and I really couldn’t fault her!!
Well I am sure you have guessed I had a brilliant day, so because we were having so much fun I played for longer than normal which was great for Blossom but it meant I ran out of time for Smarty today. So he had a little day off.
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