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Aug. 2nd, 2010 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickDay two of Timed Event Horse training with Waylie and Taku. I got something in my eye at work today (grain of plaster sand, I think) and so did all of this with one eye tearing up and weeping unhappily. Joy, joy.
Waylie had Taku caught when I got there. He saddled her (mostly). I bridled her to commentary like "You're better at that than my dad is!" and Waylie got aboard his horse. We're going to have to go over bridling one of these days as a discrete skill for Taku... she's really pretty damn bad at it. I hopped on Goof (whom I can catch, groom, and tack up while Waylie is saddling his horse), and we were off. Until we passed the house, whereupon Waylie is like "I probably ought to go pee before we head out." Oh, well, patience is a virtue for horses and Taku isn't a loon to mount. She's solid on that skill, so we waited in the drive.
We walked the hill twice. It's a steep hill. We walk the hill to take any starch out of the horses. Some people longe. We walk the hill. Hill work at the walk builds butt muscles. It works up a little sweat on the horses and warms them up without killing their joints. Because it's at the walk, it relaxes the kid and the horse -- both green -- enough to do flat work in a wide open field with very little risk of disaster. Yay for hills. I don't know what people who live in the flat country do, but we do hills.
We did some trot work coming up out of the hollow. Trot work is essential to building the kid's seat. Right now, we are jogging at a very sedate pace. Taku is rough as ten miles of bad road (like her mother before her) and sitting her trot is a lot like work even for someone who has a good seat. I want Waylie comfortable (insofar as that is possible) at her "jog" and I want HER comfortable at her "jog" before we play with adjust-a-trot skills. He's not ready or steady enough for adjust-a-trot but Taku could probably manage it with a more together rider. No matter. Taku can still benefit from more time doing "stay at a steady, relaxed jogging speed" practice while Waylie gets a seat. Right now we do trot -- walk -- trot -- walk, practice transitioning up and down, getting our trotting in smallish amounts, maybe forty strides at a time. It's long enough that the kid has to work at it but not so long that he falls apart. We'll be increasing the amount of trotting as time goes by, as kid gets more comfortable, as horse gets more confident, steady, and rhythmic.
Aside from hill walking and trotting, we also reviewed "move forehand to either side" and "back up" -- these are at-the-halt maneuvers that hopefully will help teach Waylon how very little is really required to get his horse to do stuff. Also, I'd like it if they help him understand the concepts of release-as-reward and of how slow you have to go to teach things to a horse. Finally, the lateral stuff will help Taku learn to move off Waylie's legs. Lateral work will come into play with poles and it is never too soon to start to work on that stuff anyway.
Right now, he asks for "move forehand sideways one step" and does release-reward at that point. Taku is quite bright and she does well at this, both directions. But one step is what we are asking for at the moment. She'll get two weeks of ask-for-one-step before he is allowed to ask for two steps. Same with backing up. One step is all he can ask for before rewarding.
Today we worked specifically on how to ask a horse to back: "Gather up the reins gently, softly, slowly. See how little you have to do before she starts to go backward." He usually starts off with too firm of a pull, taking up the slack before Taku has time to really think about what he's asking. She's a beginner, too -- the soft and gentle gathering up gives her time to figure out what she is supposed to be doing -- and when he does it that way, she backs up really light and pretty, beautiful diagonal pair of legs going backward, head stays level and relaxed.
Also we're walking the pole pattern -- counter-clockwise opening circle, walk (or jog) straight up the line of poles, half-halt at pole 5, sit back, pick up inside rein, apply outside leg, turn head/shoulder/hip *hard* for the 180, weave (at the walk) and, while weaving, work on evenly changing from bend-right to bend-left to bend-right, making hand/head/shoulder/hip/outside leg all work together as the proper cues for the bends. Sit back, pick up inside rein, apply outside leg, turn head/shoulder/hip and use outside leg to get the 180. Weave back up, do final 180, walk (or jog) home, do counter-clockwise closing circle. All this stuff has to be right at the walk because speed cannot happen before correctness. Correctness has to happen first. It's muscle memory and it has to be built by practice. Lots of practice. Correct practice. Practicing shit just gets you more shit. You have to practice as correctly as you can.
Maybe I need an instructional video...
Waylie had Taku caught when I got there. He saddled her (mostly). I bridled her to commentary like "You're better at that than my dad is!" and Waylie got aboard his horse. We're going to have to go over bridling one of these days as a discrete skill for Taku... she's really pretty damn bad at it. I hopped on Goof (whom I can catch, groom, and tack up while Waylie is saddling his horse), and we were off. Until we passed the house, whereupon Waylie is like "I probably ought to go pee before we head out." Oh, well, patience is a virtue for horses and Taku isn't a loon to mount. She's solid on that skill, so we waited in the drive.
We walked the hill twice. It's a steep hill. We walk the hill to take any starch out of the horses. Some people longe. We walk the hill. Hill work at the walk builds butt muscles. It works up a little sweat on the horses and warms them up without killing their joints. Because it's at the walk, it relaxes the kid and the horse -- both green -- enough to do flat work in a wide open field with very little risk of disaster. Yay for hills. I don't know what people who live in the flat country do, but we do hills.
We did some trot work coming up out of the hollow. Trot work is essential to building the kid's seat. Right now, we are jogging at a very sedate pace. Taku is rough as ten miles of bad road (like her mother before her) and sitting her trot is a lot like work even for someone who has a good seat. I want Waylie comfortable (insofar as that is possible) at her "jog" and I want HER comfortable at her "jog" before we play with adjust-a-trot skills. He's not ready or steady enough for adjust-a-trot but Taku could probably manage it with a more together rider. No matter. Taku can still benefit from more time doing "stay at a steady, relaxed jogging speed" practice while Waylie gets a seat. Right now we do trot -- walk -- trot -- walk, practice transitioning up and down, getting our trotting in smallish amounts, maybe forty strides at a time. It's long enough that the kid has to work at it but not so long that he falls apart. We'll be increasing the amount of trotting as time goes by, as kid gets more comfortable, as horse gets more confident, steady, and rhythmic.
Aside from hill walking and trotting, we also reviewed "move forehand to either side" and "back up" -- these are at-the-halt maneuvers that hopefully will help teach Waylon how very little is really required to get his horse to do stuff. Also, I'd like it if they help him understand the concepts of release-as-reward and of how slow you have to go to teach things to a horse. Finally, the lateral stuff will help Taku learn to move off Waylie's legs. Lateral work will come into play with poles and it is never too soon to start to work on that stuff anyway.
Right now, he asks for "move forehand sideways one step" and does release-reward at that point. Taku is quite bright and she does well at this, both directions. But one step is what we are asking for at the moment. She'll get two weeks of ask-for-one-step before he is allowed to ask for two steps. Same with backing up. One step is all he can ask for before rewarding.
Today we worked specifically on how to ask a horse to back: "Gather up the reins gently, softly, slowly. See how little you have to do before she starts to go backward." He usually starts off with too firm of a pull, taking up the slack before Taku has time to really think about what he's asking. She's a beginner, too -- the soft and gentle gathering up gives her time to figure out what she is supposed to be doing -- and when he does it that way, she backs up really light and pretty, beautiful diagonal pair of legs going backward, head stays level and relaxed.
Also we're walking the pole pattern -- counter-clockwise opening circle, walk (or jog) straight up the line of poles, half-halt at pole 5, sit back, pick up inside rein, apply outside leg, turn head/shoulder/hip *hard* for the 180, weave (at the walk) and, while weaving, work on evenly changing from bend-right to bend-left to bend-right, making hand/head/shoulder/hip/outside leg all work together as the proper cues for the bends. Sit back, pick up inside rein, apply outside leg, turn head/shoulder/hip and use outside leg to get the 180. Weave back up, do final 180, walk (or jog) home, do counter-clockwise closing circle. All this stuff has to be right at the walk because speed cannot happen before correctness. Correctness has to happen first. It's muscle memory and it has to be built by practice. Lots of practice. Correct practice. Practicing shit just gets you more shit. You have to practice as correctly as you can.
Maybe I need an instructional video...
