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which_chick) wrote2009-11-01 08:35 pm
which_chick) wrote2009-11-01 08:35 pm
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Horse updates.
Update the first: Tractor Supply now carries the food (Purina Omolene 200) for the Ungrateful Babies, which makes my life easier -- no more bi-weekly trips to the out-of-the-way, slow-as-molasses place to buy food for them. Their food is now On The Way Home From Work, near my own human-food grocery store. Hurray!
Update the second: I have some slightly better pictures of Te. I will get them posted this week, sometime. I don't think we will include the one where she's standing on her hind legs or the one of when I laid her down at the end of a lead rope for being stupid. (Her manners improved significantly after I laid her down. It's not like I know horse ju-jitsu, either. A horse has to be behaving very badly *and* off-balance before I can lay it down using a well-timed tug on the lead rope. If I have that opportunity presented to me, though, I will use it. It tends to settle a horse's hash right quickly.) I think we'll just include some selections of "leading at the trot" that look somewhat better than the existing version.
Update the third: This week on the going-over-jumps front, we reviewed the easy crossrail. It isn't even interesting for the horses anymore. The standards are about 18" and the crossrail is about half that, probably along about a foot tall once you factor in the height of the rails. It's a teeny, inviting jump which is why we start with it. That went to an 18" vertical, no problem. Both Nick (mine) and Mariah (La's) are OK with the 18" vertical on both trot and canter approaches. The other jump was set up as an 18" vertical with the 24" vertical behind it and a foot away, so it made a bitty rising oxer, one 2' tall and 1' wide, give or take. We started that with the 18" jump in place and the standards for the 24" just sitting there. Both horses jumped that. We put up the 24" bar, so that there was a ground line, an 18" bar, and then a 24" bar.
Nick ground to a halt on her first approach to our mini oxer. That's her refusal modality. She just grinds to a halt. (She doesn't veer and run out. She used to do that and did so with increasing nastiness until I got mad and started to hit her for it. Now she grinds to a halt instead. That, I can live with. I should probably ask her for more forward when I feel her grinding to a halt, but then I'll get *urch* halting and my ass going over the fence without her. She does foreward just fine if she's comfortable, now that she's got the idea that she's supposed to jump whatever is in front of her. It's easier to fix the problem and get her comfortable enough to jump than it is to ask for more speed and push her into a nastier refusal.) She stood there in front of it. I asked her for forward. From a standstill, she jumped it, knocking the second (2') bar off. Okay. Good effort, horse. (If she hadn't even tried to jump it, I would have rebuilt it as a square oxer (which she knows how to do and is comfortable with at 18") and tried that a few times before retrying the 24" rising oxer. If that didn't work, we'd review the 24" vertical a couple of times to see if that was the problem. However, she is on board with the "jump what you are aimed at" thing, so she gave a try at jumping the jump.)
We had some bites of late-season grass and took another go. She trotted up, hesitated a bit at the last second but didn't lose foreward motion, found a takeoff spot and cleared it nicely. Good girl! So we were done for the day.
Mariah was having none of the mini-oxer. The jump was not too big for her abilities. Mariah is a good jumper. She *likes* jumping more than Nick does and she's better at it. She just was not going to do it for La, kept veering out and refusing to address the jump. It was frustrating.
I don't know if I'm giving Mariah a fair shake -- I mean, I listed some ideas for how to fix it if Nick wasn't willing to jump what was in front of her. I know what will make her more comfortable and more willing to try a given obstacle because I've been there for every step of her progress or lack thereof. About all I can do for Nick is rephrase the question or ask a simpler, related question to show her what to do, but that's still something. Though it's limited, that stuff does work for Nick because she isn't depending on me for a whole lot of support-n-guidance. She's never gotten a whole lot of support-n-guidance from me -- I don't ride well enough to give it to her on a consistent enough basis to be confidence-building.
Nick learned to jump by way of some work with ground poles and then "Here, look, it's a jump. Let's head for the jump. You figure out how to Jump what I am aiming you at and don't veer out or I'll whap you. Work it out." Any effort to get over the jump (overjumping like a pronghorn, jumping hollow-backed and head high, jumping through the jump, dragging hind legs to bust up the jump, coming to a dead halt and then jumping the jump, anything that involved straight forward progress over the jump, no matter how bad it was) was rewarded with a large amount of "Good Horse!" enthusiasm. (She never unseated me with her horrific early jumps, but she came close sometimes.)
Veering out earned whappings about the ears and a couple of rounds of "What are you, stupid?". Repeated practice got rid of the crap jumps so that what was left looked better and was smoother and more properly-sized for the jump at hand... and now we're working on adding to our skillset and firming things up at 2' which is about as tall as I feel comfortable jumping at the moment. I am hoping I improve over fences with additional exposure to them. However, in order to get sufficient exposure to fences, I first had to make a horse who jumped reliably without giving me a whole ration of shit about it. So, I did that. These days, Nick will jump 2" over known types of fences, relatively reliably and getting better every week. Now, I can work on my damn form over fences because I have a horse that will jump for me. (This is definitely a some assembly required project, here.)
What we're asking is harder for Mariah, I think. She was taught to jump by someone who gave a decent ride with support-n-guidance. She is used to competent piloting. As a result, Mariah did not ever have to get a handle on the essential basic of redneck jumping --> "jump what you are aimed at". As near as we can tell, she is expecting a lot more hand-holding than she's getting. She's got clueless idiots (us) sitting on her and asking her to go over stuff without any hand-holding at all and she is (quite reasonably) going "Hunh?" From where I sit, there are two ways to fix this problem. The first is to fix the riders so that Mariah gets what she needs from them. The second is to fix Mariah so that she will jump what she's aimed at. I don't know how to fix the riders without them getting practice going over jumps. A lot. With instruction. That's not in the budget and there's not time for it due to work schedules. However, I do think I can fix Mariah so that she is better about jumping what she is aimed at.
For Mariah, we' re going to work her on ground poles and the easy 18" jumps to solidify the "cross what you are aimed at" and "jump what you are aimed at" parts of the program. She runs out too easily and evades stuff without trying to jump it. This is not an acceptable response to a jump. She should go where she is aimed and jump what she is aimed at, handholding or no. Until that's five by five, she is not ready for anything more interesting with us aboard. For another rider, a more supportive and clueful rider, she can do a lot more, but not for us, not yet. Nick and I can do some review with Mariah and La while I work on my position and stuff. (Nick may not get a whole lot out of it, but I can use the practice on safe and easy fences.) Also, Trys wants to start coming along to the hayfield on Sunday mornings (weather permitting) to work with Jasmine. That should be fun. :)
Update the first: Tractor Supply now carries the food (Purina Omolene 200) for the Ungrateful Babies, which makes my life easier -- no more bi-weekly trips to the out-of-the-way, slow-as-molasses place to buy food for them. Their food is now On The Way Home From Work, near my own human-food grocery store. Hurray!
Update the second: I have some slightly better pictures of Te. I will get them posted this week, sometime. I don't think we will include the one where she's standing on her hind legs or the one of when I laid her down at the end of a lead rope for being stupid. (Her manners improved significantly after I laid her down. It's not like I know horse ju-jitsu, either. A horse has to be behaving very badly *and* off-balance before I can lay it down using a well-timed tug on the lead rope. If I have that opportunity presented to me, though, I will use it. It tends to settle a horse's hash right quickly.) I think we'll just include some selections of "leading at the trot" that look somewhat better than the existing version.
Update the third: This week on the going-over-jumps front, we reviewed the easy crossrail. It isn't even interesting for the horses anymore. The standards are about 18" and the crossrail is about half that, probably along about a foot tall once you factor in the height of the rails. It's a teeny, inviting jump which is why we start with it. That went to an 18" vertical, no problem. Both Nick (mine) and Mariah (La's) are OK with the 18" vertical on both trot and canter approaches. The other jump was set up as an 18" vertical with the 24" vertical behind it and a foot away, so it made a bitty rising oxer, one 2' tall and 1' wide, give or take. We started that with the 18" jump in place and the standards for the 24" just sitting there. Both horses jumped that. We put up the 24" bar, so that there was a ground line, an 18" bar, and then a 24" bar.
Nick ground to a halt on her first approach to our mini oxer. That's her refusal modality. She just grinds to a halt. (She doesn't veer and run out. She used to do that and did so with increasing nastiness until I got mad and started to hit her for it. Now she grinds to a halt instead. That, I can live with. I should probably ask her for more forward when I feel her grinding to a halt, but then I'll get *urch* halting and my ass going over the fence without her. She does foreward just fine if she's comfortable, now that she's got the idea that she's supposed to jump whatever is in front of her. It's easier to fix the problem and get her comfortable enough to jump than it is to ask for more speed and push her into a nastier refusal.) She stood there in front of it. I asked her for forward. From a standstill, she jumped it, knocking the second (2') bar off. Okay. Good effort, horse. (If she hadn't even tried to jump it, I would have rebuilt it as a square oxer (which she knows how to do and is comfortable with at 18") and tried that a few times before retrying the 24" rising oxer. If that didn't work, we'd review the 24" vertical a couple of times to see if that was the problem. However, she is on board with the "jump what you are aimed at" thing, so she gave a try at jumping the jump.)
We had some bites of late-season grass and took another go. She trotted up, hesitated a bit at the last second but didn't lose foreward motion, found a takeoff spot and cleared it nicely. Good girl! So we were done for the day.
Mariah was having none of the mini-oxer. The jump was not too big for her abilities. Mariah is a good jumper. She *likes* jumping more than Nick does and she's better at it. She just was not going to do it for La, kept veering out and refusing to address the jump. It was frustrating.
I don't know if I'm giving Mariah a fair shake -- I mean, I listed some ideas for how to fix it if Nick wasn't willing to jump what was in front of her. I know what will make her more comfortable and more willing to try a given obstacle because I've been there for every step of her progress or lack thereof. About all I can do for Nick is rephrase the question or ask a simpler, related question to show her what to do, but that's still something. Though it's limited, that stuff does work for Nick because she isn't depending on me for a whole lot of support-n-guidance. She's never gotten a whole lot of support-n-guidance from me -- I don't ride well enough to give it to her on a consistent enough basis to be confidence-building.
Nick learned to jump by way of some work with ground poles and then "Here, look, it's a jump. Let's head for the jump. You figure out how to Jump what I am aiming you at and don't veer out or I'll whap you. Work it out." Any effort to get over the jump (overjumping like a pronghorn, jumping hollow-backed and head high, jumping through the jump, dragging hind legs to bust up the jump, coming to a dead halt and then jumping the jump, anything that involved straight forward progress over the jump, no matter how bad it was) was rewarded with a large amount of "Good Horse!" enthusiasm. (She never unseated me with her horrific early jumps, but she came close sometimes.)
Veering out earned whappings about the ears and a couple of rounds of "What are you, stupid?". Repeated practice got rid of the crap jumps so that what was left looked better and was smoother and more properly-sized for the jump at hand... and now we're working on adding to our skillset and firming things up at 2' which is about as tall as I feel comfortable jumping at the moment. I am hoping I improve over fences with additional exposure to them. However, in order to get sufficient exposure to fences, I first had to make a horse who jumped reliably without giving me a whole ration of shit about it. So, I did that. These days, Nick will jump 2" over known types of fences, relatively reliably and getting better every week. Now, I can work on my damn form over fences because I have a horse that will jump for me. (This is definitely a some assembly required project, here.)
What we're asking is harder for Mariah, I think. She was taught to jump by someone who gave a decent ride with support-n-guidance. She is used to competent piloting. As a result, Mariah did not ever have to get a handle on the essential basic of redneck jumping --> "jump what you are aimed at". As near as we can tell, she is expecting a lot more hand-holding than she's getting. She's got clueless idiots (us) sitting on her and asking her to go over stuff without any hand-holding at all and she is (quite reasonably) going "Hunh?" From where I sit, there are two ways to fix this problem. The first is to fix the riders so that Mariah gets what she needs from them. The second is to fix Mariah so that she will jump what she's aimed at. I don't know how to fix the riders without them getting practice going over jumps. A lot. With instruction. That's not in the budget and there's not time for it due to work schedules. However, I do think I can fix Mariah so that she is better about jumping what she is aimed at.
For Mariah, we' re going to work her on ground poles and the easy 18" jumps to solidify the "cross what you are aimed at" and "jump what you are aimed at" parts of the program. She runs out too easily and evades stuff without trying to jump it. This is not an acceptable response to a jump. She should go where she is aimed and jump what she is aimed at, handholding or no. Until that's five by five, she is not ready for anything more interesting with us aboard. For another rider, a more supportive and clueful rider, she can do a lot more, but not for us, not yet. Nick and I can do some review with Mariah and La while I work on my position and stuff. (Nick may not get a whole lot out of it, but I can use the practice on safe and easy fences.) Also, Trys wants to start coming along to the hayfield on Sunday mornings (weather permitting) to work with Jasmine. That should be fun. :)
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Obviously, if this works, she will need to be weaned off of the guide poles.
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Mariah with the kid aboard:
Mariah overjumping* with the kid aboard:
*A horse's jump should be sized to clear the obstacle cleanly, not to soar miles above it. Overjumping is generally done by inexperienced horses -- as they get more mileage on them, they do a better job matching the jump to the size of the obstacle.