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Nov. 4th, 2012 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickTook Te out for a spin today. It's been a while since I did stuff with her, so there was cranky head shaking and random accellerations into the jog. *sigh* She still feels pretty squirrely under saddle but then again this is ride #3 for her, and ride #2 across the road by herself. A little squirrely is probably allowed at this point.
Te is very green, yes. She's very new to the under-saddle world. At this stage of the game, the primary tool a rider has to solve any issue with the horse is the one-rein stop. (Te knows how to do this -- it's one of the very first skills we do aboard a horse, repeated until the rider is bored as hell and the horse knows how to relax into it.) With more-advanced horses, a rider can distract the horse or ask for other, lateral or "thinky" movements or otherwise channel energy. But with a totally green horse, the only tool in the box is the One Rein Stop, hereafter abbreviated ORS.
Te is pissy by nature. She reacts very poorly (and in a non-thinking way) to forceful handling. It's like her mind goes off-line as soon as she starts to fight. So, the rider has to avoid the fight, or fight in a way she can't/won't brace against. This is where the ORS comes in.
So, we're going along across the road and there's head-shaking. It's that nose in the air head shaking defiant bullshit that says "I don't WANNA". We circle and ORS and halt calmly and go forward on cue. About fifteen or twenty steps and then there's head shaking again. Lather, rinse, repeat. The ORS's are very sedate and calm, smooth and not-jerking. There is complete halting at the end, soft and bent. Then there is straightening out the neck, standing still, and waiting for the move-off request. If Te moves forward without cue, it's another ORS for her. No forward motion without honoring the halt. No accellerating into a trot without being asked. No shaking head and acting pissy. If Te can't walk kindly and softly forward on a loose rein, then she can ORS until she's dizzy.
Finally we got to where we were going and made some circles and figures of eight. I worked on bending and arcs and leading rein and trying to have all my ducks clearly in a row so that Te could figure out the game plan. (She's stiff/locked in her neck on the right, won't turn loose as well. Needs more practice.)
And then we turned for home. Accellerate into trot, ORS, yadda yadda. There was a lot of ORS on the way home... but every bit of forward progress was soft and quiet and at the walk on a loose rein, or Te got to do it again with some ORS's in there. It's rewarding to see the progress happening, here.
The bigger problem is not the circling or the ORS or whatever. It's that this is not building a horse for "regular" people to ride. This is building a horse for me to ride and I don't want or need this horse as I have a nicer one standing in the field. I don't know how to build a horse for "regular" people to ride. I can barely watch some "regular" people ride because their horses are so damn miserable. I don't know how to make a horse "tolerant". I don't know how to make a horse "forgiving". What happens when a horse like this gets sold to someone who does not ride the way we ride?
*sigh* Mileage will help. Exposure will help. Building patience into the horse will help. But I don't know how to make packer horses that put up with shit. I just don't know how to do that.
Te is very green, yes. She's very new to the under-saddle world. At this stage of the game, the primary tool a rider has to solve any issue with the horse is the one-rein stop. (Te knows how to do this -- it's one of the very first skills we do aboard a horse, repeated until the rider is bored as hell and the horse knows how to relax into it.) With more-advanced horses, a rider can distract the horse or ask for other, lateral or "thinky" movements or otherwise channel energy. But with a totally green horse, the only tool in the box is the One Rein Stop, hereafter abbreviated ORS.
Te is pissy by nature. She reacts very poorly (and in a non-thinking way) to forceful handling. It's like her mind goes off-line as soon as she starts to fight. So, the rider has to avoid the fight, or fight in a way she can't/won't brace against. This is where the ORS comes in.
So, we're going along across the road and there's head-shaking. It's that nose in the air head shaking defiant bullshit that says "I don't WANNA". We circle and ORS and halt calmly and go forward on cue. About fifteen or twenty steps and then there's head shaking again. Lather, rinse, repeat. The ORS's are very sedate and calm, smooth and not-jerking. There is complete halting at the end, soft and bent. Then there is straightening out the neck, standing still, and waiting for the move-off request. If Te moves forward without cue, it's another ORS for her. No forward motion without honoring the halt. No accellerating into a trot without being asked. No shaking head and acting pissy. If Te can't walk kindly and softly forward on a loose rein, then she can ORS until she's dizzy.
Finally we got to where we were going and made some circles and figures of eight. I worked on bending and arcs and leading rein and trying to have all my ducks clearly in a row so that Te could figure out the game plan. (She's stiff/locked in her neck on the right, won't turn loose as well. Needs more practice.)
And then we turned for home. Accellerate into trot, ORS, yadda yadda. There was a lot of ORS on the way home... but every bit of forward progress was soft and quiet and at the walk on a loose rein, or Te got to do it again with some ORS's in there. It's rewarding to see the progress happening, here.
The bigger problem is not the circling or the ORS or whatever. It's that this is not building a horse for "regular" people to ride. This is building a horse for me to ride and I don't want or need this horse as I have a nicer one standing in the field. I don't know how to build a horse for "regular" people to ride. I can barely watch some "regular" people ride because their horses are so damn miserable. I don't know how to make a horse "tolerant". I don't know how to make a horse "forgiving". What happens when a horse like this gets sold to someone who does not ride the way we ride?
*sigh* Mileage will help. Exposure will help. Building patience into the horse will help. But I don't know how to make packer horses that put up with shit. I just don't know how to do that.
