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Apr. 9th, 2013 07:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickSo the ungrateful babies have been upgraded to "canter under saddle". I took advantage of the really nice weather today to get that checked off the list.
I try to stack the deck in my favor. Hot weather while ponies are still wearing their winter coats means that ponies will be hot and sweaty and not terribly interested in being vigorous. If they're going to bust a move, at least they'll do it in a sedate, sweaty manner.
So, each ungrateful in turn (one at a time), we went out over the hill past the pear tree and down into the hollow and up the hill to the buckwheat field.
Riding them one after the other was a pretty neat experience because I can compare the two very clearly in my mind now. Peake is forward and reasonably confident. Keeping her going is not particularly a challenge. (Stopping, though...) She's automatically going-forward and kind of offers more all the time. Peake does not stand still patiently and needs more practice at the halt.
Te is not forward or as stable-feeling as Peake. She still has baby-looking musculature, like she's not done growing yet. I am hoping that this will improve with additional hill work to build her up to where she feels more comfortable toting a person around. Te is not forward and she's still kind of nervous about the whole riding thing. Not in a spooky or bad way, more in a liquid poop way. (When horses are nervous, their poop gets runnier and they poop more often. How much your horse is splatter-pooping is a pretty good indicator of her mood.) She does GO forward, when asked, but her tendency is to drift to a halt unless otherwise directed. It takes a fair amount of forward seat to keep her moving appropriately. Te is happy to stand still, has good patience.
Anyway, we went down the hill (it's a pretty big hill) and then up a different road, whereupon I inquired about cantering. Te was like "Ok" and gave me four or five strides of canter and then broke back to the trot. I was OK with this -- it was seventy degrees and she's kind of puny yet covered with 2" fur. I asked her again, later, and still she was like "Ok" and gave me maybe eight strides. Fine, fine. Given that she's for sale to someone who thinks "black" is an important criteria for purchase, drifting to a lower gear unless pushed is a FANTASTIC skill. I'm all about the lack-of-forward,here. (Generally speaking, color buyers are dumb as shit and completely fail to understand what is important about a horse.)
Peake didn't get to the first hill -- because she is more solid on her pins and more forward and not-covered-in-so-much-fur, we did some trotting on uneven ground along the bottom of the hill. Horses that are comfortable carrying a rider don't get too strange about trotting on uneven ground. Uphill, downhill, it's all the same to them. They just keep on trucking... so I was checking Peake out on that. All systems go. Er. And she offered me a canter going up one of the little rises because we were trotting pretty solid and I leaned forward a bit. (My bad, Peake.) I hadn't actually cued for it, but she offered and I took her back to the trot. It is not appropriate to canter when I haven't asked for it, just as it is not appropriate to trot when I have not asked for it. When I actually asked for a canter, she went into it and ditty-bopped halfway up the hill at a fine and steady clip, whereupon I inquired about the halt. :) Let's not get carried away, here.
And that was that -- some halts, some backing-ups, some bend-to-a-halts and I also did one-sided-leg-pressure-means-sideways-motion with Peake on the long climb back up out of the hollow because I didn't figure she needed another round of "Oh, pretty please, canter for me" seeing as how she was so enthusiastic about the first round.
I ask for the canter a little later in becoming-a-broke-horse than some folks. I like to get about ten, fifteen rides on the critters, make sure stop and go and turn and brakes all work as they are supposed to work before going all yee-haw. After ten or fifteen rides, you have some idea of the mentality of the critter, how it works, and what is likely to go wrong. Also, if the critter is truly inclined to buck with you, it will hopefully have happened sometime before the first canter ride.
I also, as mentioned, stack the deck for success. Pick a warm day, make sure horse is thoroughly warmed up and feeling sensible (that's what the hill climb is for), aim horse pretty solidly uphill (harder to buck effectively when going uphill and also horses would prefer to canter rather than trot uphill if that's offered as an option), and inquire about cantering. The hill should be fairly big, so that the horse will be inclined (see what I did there? Of course you did.) to stop before running out of hill. And so you've set the horse up for success.
I'm not saying that it never fails, but thus far I'm four for four on this method. Callie, Whims, Peake, and Te. Peake and Te need additional rides to solidify their knowledge and firm up their responses. But mostly, they're broke enough for a moderately experienced rider to handle them. What we have now is the two or three year journey from "green broke" to "solid riding horse". Really, the only thing missing here is time under the saddle, with someone halfway clueful aboard... and I wish there were some way to make it happen faster, but honestly time-being-ridden is what makes a solid horse.
I try to stack the deck in my favor. Hot weather while ponies are still wearing their winter coats means that ponies will be hot and sweaty and not terribly interested in being vigorous. If they're going to bust a move, at least they'll do it in a sedate, sweaty manner.
So, each ungrateful in turn (one at a time), we went out over the hill past the pear tree and down into the hollow and up the hill to the buckwheat field.
Riding them one after the other was a pretty neat experience because I can compare the two very clearly in my mind now. Peake is forward and reasonably confident. Keeping her going is not particularly a challenge. (Stopping, though...) She's automatically going-forward and kind of offers more all the time. Peake does not stand still patiently and needs more practice at the halt.
Te is not forward or as stable-feeling as Peake. She still has baby-looking musculature, like she's not done growing yet. I am hoping that this will improve with additional hill work to build her up to where she feels more comfortable toting a person around. Te is not forward and she's still kind of nervous about the whole riding thing. Not in a spooky or bad way, more in a liquid poop way. (When horses are nervous, their poop gets runnier and they poop more often. How much your horse is splatter-pooping is a pretty good indicator of her mood.) She does GO forward, when asked, but her tendency is to drift to a halt unless otherwise directed. It takes a fair amount of forward seat to keep her moving appropriately. Te is happy to stand still, has good patience.
Anyway, we went down the hill (it's a pretty big hill) and then up a different road, whereupon I inquired about cantering. Te was like "Ok" and gave me four or five strides of canter and then broke back to the trot. I was OK with this -- it was seventy degrees and she's kind of puny yet covered with 2" fur. I asked her again, later, and still she was like "Ok" and gave me maybe eight strides. Fine, fine. Given that she's for sale to someone who thinks "black" is an important criteria for purchase, drifting to a lower gear unless pushed is a FANTASTIC skill. I'm all about the lack-of-forward,here. (Generally speaking, color buyers are dumb as shit and completely fail to understand what is important about a horse.)
Peake didn't get to the first hill -- because she is more solid on her pins and more forward and not-covered-in-so-much-fur, we did some trotting on uneven ground along the bottom of the hill. Horses that are comfortable carrying a rider don't get too strange about trotting on uneven ground. Uphill, downhill, it's all the same to them. They just keep on trucking... so I was checking Peake out on that. All systems go. Er. And she offered me a canter going up one of the little rises because we were trotting pretty solid and I leaned forward a bit. (My bad, Peake.) I hadn't actually cued for it, but she offered and I took her back to the trot. It is not appropriate to canter when I haven't asked for it, just as it is not appropriate to trot when I have not asked for it. When I actually asked for a canter, she went into it and ditty-bopped halfway up the hill at a fine and steady clip, whereupon I inquired about the halt. :) Let's not get carried away, here.
And that was that -- some halts, some backing-ups, some bend-to-a-halts and I also did one-sided-leg-pressure-means-sideways-motion with Peake on the long climb back up out of the hollow because I didn't figure she needed another round of "Oh, pretty please, canter for me" seeing as how she was so enthusiastic about the first round.
I ask for the canter a little later in becoming-a-broke-horse than some folks. I like to get about ten, fifteen rides on the critters, make sure stop and go and turn and brakes all work as they are supposed to work before going all yee-haw. After ten or fifteen rides, you have some idea of the mentality of the critter, how it works, and what is likely to go wrong. Also, if the critter is truly inclined to buck with you, it will hopefully have happened sometime before the first canter ride.
I also, as mentioned, stack the deck for success. Pick a warm day, make sure horse is thoroughly warmed up and feeling sensible (that's what the hill climb is for), aim horse pretty solidly uphill (harder to buck effectively when going uphill and also horses would prefer to canter rather than trot uphill if that's offered as an option), and inquire about cantering. The hill should be fairly big, so that the horse will be inclined (see what I did there? Of course you did.) to stop before running out of hill. And so you've set the horse up for success.
I'm not saying that it never fails, but thus far I'm four for four on this method. Callie, Whims, Peake, and Te. Peake and Te need additional rides to solidify their knowledge and firm up their responses. But mostly, they're broke enough for a moderately experienced rider to handle them. What we have now is the two or three year journey from "green broke" to "solid riding horse". Really, the only thing missing here is time under the saddle, with someone halfway clueful aboard... and I wish there were some way to make it happen faster, but honestly time-being-ridden is what makes a solid horse.
