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Aug. 1st, 2010 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWaylon has decided that he would like a timed event horse. (This is La's nephew, Cass's brother, of the Percy Jackson books. He's twelve.) He more or less has a prospect (Taku) and said prospect more or less rides. So does Waylie.
It's a long road from "I can sort of walk and trot around on this horse." to "We are going to win at timed events, together." Waylie's not big enough to do all the work by himself, without adult supervision, so I'm going to be the lead helper for this project. (La, Trys, and Theron have no time. Chris (the mom) does not do horses much. It's not her thing. His sister Cass is not old enough to be lead helper.) Now, I have absolutely no freaking idea how to train a timed event horse. Not only do I have no freaking idea how to train a timed event horse, we need to navigate a lot of other obstacles (starting with "being able to catch the horse more quickly") before we can really get started on the road to Timed Event Horse.
On the plus side...
1. Kid is currently a motivated learner.
2. Kid is bright, listens to instructions, follows same. Is thrilled when instructions work.
3. Horse is not unkind or evil. Is very, very smart and exceedingly athletic with catlike agility. In hand, she can canter a six-foot-diameter circle for fifteen minutes. (Admittedly, this is while you're trying to put a saddle on her, but we'll take what we can get. She is easier to saddle if you just tie her to something.) She's the fastest horse in the field, about ten years old, big solid joints and good feet.
4. We have a year. We have poles. We have barrels. We have a field.
5. I can practice teaching stuff on my (reasonably broke) horse to see if it works before telling Waylie to do it on his (relatively green) horse.
6. There is no problem with keeping him from "going fast" before the pattern is solid. He's perfectly happy walking and trotting for the time being.
7. Horse is not inherently nervous or spooky. She's also more settled and more tolerant than Nick.
Current game plan is to get the horse out daily, groom, saddle, bridle, go for walk across the road and up the hill and down the hill (maybe even twice) and then walk-trot-walk-trot transition work and then work some figure 8's with big circles *and bending* at the walk and trot, then we walk the pole pattern a couple of times individually (non-walking person's horse eats grass and waits) while reviewing proper body position for each turn, pre-cue and rating for the big turns (the 180's around the end poles), staying close and more "straight" when weaving, proper start and finish to a run. Other stuff is thrown in as and when appropriate, plus also general horse training theory and practice.
I don't have barrels up yet. When there are barrels up, we will go over those (at the walk) too. The barrels are currently being painted so that they look realistic.
The timed events we will eventually need are barrels (looks like this), poles (looks like this), and raised-box keyhole (looks like this). I do not think too much of keyhole, but it's a state event, so what the hell.
Right now, we have poles set up. So, we will work on poles. Poles has lots of strategy and thinking. It's kind of interesting to dissect the game in a way that the 4-H aged me would never have done.
We run up the right hand side of the poles, run home on the left side of the poles. (This is the way most people do it. You are allowed to run the patterns mirror-image if your horse goes faster that way.) Therefore, the opening circle for poles is counter-clockwise. An opening circle is like your courtesy circle in over-fences classes for hunters. It's where you pick up your canter and get your horse settled and together. Also, 4-H rules for PA prohibit a running start -- your horse must not start a timed-event run before the gate is completely closed. The pissier judges expect the horse to come to a complete stop before starting the event run. If you have programmed your horse to go in, turn and face the gate, and WAIT for the opening circle, you can deal with pissier judges and not be disqualified. Having an opening circle for your horse helps set up what they do when you come in the ring. It helps the horse not-be-stupid. Everyone likes routines and plans, including timed-event horses.
The reason the opening circle for poles is counter-clockwise has to do with leads. See, the first turn you make in poles is around the end pole. It's a left. Your horse should be on the left lead for a left turn. If you make a counter-clockwise circle when you pick up the canter before starting your run, your horse (unless terminally stupid and we don't have that kind) will wind up cantering on the left lead and he or she will then be ready for the first turn you do.
Skipping over the actual run for a moment, let us consider how a run ends up. When you get to the end of your timed-event run, you are heading directly at the out gate... at a hell of a clip. You will need to do something about bringing your horse to a halt before you run into the fence (not being funny -- it has happened) or your horse tries to jump the out gate or whatever. A closing circle for your horse, so that you can wind down and come to a halt gradually, gives you a game plan for dealing with the speed. It gives your HORSE a game plan for dealing with the speed. Nobody should ever crash into the fence and nobody should be unseated by a horse screeching to a halt at the gate and nobody should have those issues if there is a proper closing circle in place. Your closing circle for barrels and poles should be counter-clockwise because the last turn in both poles and barrels is to the left and your horse will be on the left lead automatically, ready to turn left. So. Every run starts with an appropriate opening circle and ends with an appropriate closing circle. You have "how to start" and you have "how to end up" and this will never, ever change no matter how many times you practice.
Back to what you do after your opening circle is complete. You've made a nice counter-clockwise circle and you're cantering up the line of poles. (There are six poles. The poles are 21 feet apart, which is not a lot of distance when you're going lickety-split. Number the poles 1 through 6, with 1 being the first one closest to where you start, 6 being up at the far end of the arena.)
The next thing you have to do is make a 180 at pole #6. At pole #5 you need to rate ("slow down") your horse for the 180. Half halt, sit back/down, get ready. At pole #6, you bend the 180, turn head-shoulders-hips *hard*, pick up inside rein, apply outside leg to help horse bend around. And then things start to happen damn fast.
Rhythm will help, here. And practice. You weave the poles, re-aiming head-shoulders-hips, picking up new "inside" rein, every two or three strides until you get down to pole #1.
If you watch a lot of people do timed events, you will notice that most everybody falls apart at pole #1. The turn sucks, their horse loses stride/pattern/rhythm, they swing wide, it all goes to shit. I think that the 180 at pole #1 sucks because there's a shitload of stuff going on before the turn (not just standard straight running like the first 180 at pole #6) -- people are still stuck on "weaving" and don't manage the prep for the 180 like they should. They don't support for the turn like they should and the horses consequently fall apart. Also, it's a right turn and people do not do as many of those at speed as they do left turns. (Barrels, run the usual way, is two lefts and a right. Poles, run the usual way, is two lefts and a right.)
The 180's require sit back/deep, rate the horse, turn STRONG with head/shoulder/hips, pick up on inside rein, support with outside rein && outside leg. It's more than the little 'weave' turns that you do on the pole bending part. Yanking the head around is not the way to go... and it's what most people do.
Come around proper for the 180 at pole #1 and you're set up to weave back up. Blow the turn at pole #1 and your position is screwed up. Your rhythm is screwed up. It's a shitstorm of screwup. :( Weave back up, with the rhythm and whatnot. Again there's a left-ward 180 around pole #6, and then a straight run home to your closing circle.
Compared to barrels, poles has a ton of stuff going on. It's a more complicated game, one where the ability to sit deep and turn (This is a quarter horse thing. We do not ride quarter horses. We ride arabs. They do not sit down and turn. They aren't built for it. At all.) does not dominate. Yeah, there are three 180's in poles... but precision and liquidity is more important in poles than turn-n-burn. Barrels is all turn-n-burn.
It's a long road from "I can sort of walk and trot around on this horse." to "We are going to win at timed events, together." Waylie's not big enough to do all the work by himself, without adult supervision, so I'm going to be the lead helper for this project. (La, Trys, and Theron have no time. Chris (the mom) does not do horses much. It's not her thing. His sister Cass is not old enough to be lead helper.) Now, I have absolutely no freaking idea how to train a timed event horse. Not only do I have no freaking idea how to train a timed event horse, we need to navigate a lot of other obstacles (starting with "being able to catch the horse more quickly") before we can really get started on the road to Timed Event Horse.
On the plus side...
1. Kid is currently a motivated learner.
2. Kid is bright, listens to instructions, follows same. Is thrilled when instructions work.
3. Horse is not unkind or evil. Is very, very smart and exceedingly athletic with catlike agility. In hand, she can canter a six-foot-diameter circle for fifteen minutes. (Admittedly, this is while you're trying to put a saddle on her, but we'll take what we can get. She is easier to saddle if you just tie her to something.) She's the fastest horse in the field, about ten years old, big solid joints and good feet.
4. We have a year. We have poles. We have barrels. We have a field.
5. I can practice teaching stuff on my (reasonably broke) horse to see if it works before telling Waylie to do it on his (relatively green) horse.
6. There is no problem with keeping him from "going fast" before the pattern is solid. He's perfectly happy walking and trotting for the time being.
7. Horse is not inherently nervous or spooky. She's also more settled and more tolerant than Nick.
Current game plan is to get the horse out daily, groom, saddle, bridle, go for walk across the road and up the hill and down the hill (maybe even twice) and then walk-trot-walk-trot transition work and then work some figure 8's with big circles *and bending* at the walk and trot, then we walk the pole pattern a couple of times individually (non-walking person's horse eats grass and waits) while reviewing proper body position for each turn, pre-cue and rating for the big turns (the 180's around the end poles), staying close and more "straight" when weaving, proper start and finish to a run. Other stuff is thrown in as and when appropriate, plus also general horse training theory and practice.
I don't have barrels up yet. When there are barrels up, we will go over those (at the walk) too. The barrels are currently being painted so that they look realistic.
The timed events we will eventually need are barrels (looks like this), poles (looks like this), and raised-box keyhole (looks like this). I do not think too much of keyhole, but it's a state event, so what the hell.
Right now, we have poles set up. So, we will work on poles. Poles has lots of strategy and thinking. It's kind of interesting to dissect the game in a way that the 4-H aged me would never have done.
We run up the right hand side of the poles, run home on the left side of the poles. (This is the way most people do it. You are allowed to run the patterns mirror-image if your horse goes faster that way.) Therefore, the opening circle for poles is counter-clockwise. An opening circle is like your courtesy circle in over-fences classes for hunters. It's where you pick up your canter and get your horse settled and together. Also, 4-H rules for PA prohibit a running start -- your horse must not start a timed-event run before the gate is completely closed. The pissier judges expect the horse to come to a complete stop before starting the event run. If you have programmed your horse to go in, turn and face the gate, and WAIT for the opening circle, you can deal with pissier judges and not be disqualified. Having an opening circle for your horse helps set up what they do when you come in the ring. It helps the horse not-be-stupid. Everyone likes routines and plans, including timed-event horses.
The reason the opening circle for poles is counter-clockwise has to do with leads. See, the first turn you make in poles is around the end pole. It's a left. Your horse should be on the left lead for a left turn. If you make a counter-clockwise circle when you pick up the canter before starting your run, your horse (unless terminally stupid and we don't have that kind) will wind up cantering on the left lead and he or she will then be ready for the first turn you do.
Skipping over the actual run for a moment, let us consider how a run ends up. When you get to the end of your timed-event run, you are heading directly at the out gate... at a hell of a clip. You will need to do something about bringing your horse to a halt before you run into the fence (not being funny -- it has happened) or your horse tries to jump the out gate or whatever. A closing circle for your horse, so that you can wind down and come to a halt gradually, gives you a game plan for dealing with the speed. It gives your HORSE a game plan for dealing with the speed. Nobody should ever crash into the fence and nobody should be unseated by a horse screeching to a halt at the gate and nobody should have those issues if there is a proper closing circle in place. Your closing circle for barrels and poles should be counter-clockwise because the last turn in both poles and barrels is to the left and your horse will be on the left lead automatically, ready to turn left. So. Every run starts with an appropriate opening circle and ends with an appropriate closing circle. You have "how to start" and you have "how to end up" and this will never, ever change no matter how many times you practice.
Back to what you do after your opening circle is complete. You've made a nice counter-clockwise circle and you're cantering up the line of poles. (There are six poles. The poles are 21 feet apart, which is not a lot of distance when you're going lickety-split. Number the poles 1 through 6, with 1 being the first one closest to where you start, 6 being up at the far end of the arena.)
The next thing you have to do is make a 180 at pole #6. At pole #5 you need to rate ("slow down") your horse for the 180. Half halt, sit back/down, get ready. At pole #6, you bend the 180, turn head-shoulders-hips *hard*, pick up inside rein, apply outside leg to help horse bend around. And then things start to happen damn fast.
Rhythm will help, here. And practice. You weave the poles, re-aiming head-shoulders-hips, picking up new "inside" rein, every two or three strides until you get down to pole #1.
If you watch a lot of people do timed events, you will notice that most everybody falls apart at pole #1. The turn sucks, their horse loses stride/pattern/rhythm, they swing wide, it all goes to shit. I think that the 180 at pole #1 sucks because there's a shitload of stuff going on before the turn (not just standard straight running like the first 180 at pole #6) -- people are still stuck on "weaving" and don't manage the prep for the 180 like they should. They don't support for the turn like they should and the horses consequently fall apart. Also, it's a right turn and people do not do as many of those at speed as they do left turns. (Barrels, run the usual way, is two lefts and a right. Poles, run the usual way, is two lefts and a right.)
The 180's require sit back/deep, rate the horse, turn STRONG with head/shoulder/hips, pick up on inside rein, support with outside rein && outside leg. It's more than the little 'weave' turns that you do on the pole bending part. Yanking the head around is not the way to go... and it's what most people do.
Come around proper for the 180 at pole #1 and you're set up to weave back up. Blow the turn at pole #1 and your position is screwed up. Your rhythm is screwed up. It's a shitstorm of screwup. :( Weave back up, with the rhythm and whatnot. Again there's a left-ward 180 around pole #6, and then a straight run home to your closing circle.
Compared to barrels, poles has a ton of stuff going on. It's a more complicated game, one where the ability to sit deep and turn (This is a quarter horse thing. We do not ride quarter horses. We ride arabs. They do not sit down and turn. They aren't built for it. At all.) does not dominate. Yeah, there are three 180's in poles... but precision and liquidity is more important in poles than turn-n-burn. Barrels is all turn-n-burn.
