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 Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:37 pm
December 17, 2006: Okay, here's a little history...
I started working with Joy about a year ago. When I first started working with her, she was so spastic, spooky, and headshy you couldn't even put a halter on her. She also bucked and reared when ridden, and threw 2 or 3 people who tried to ride her.
Now, I am working on Joy's Western skills. I started her in Dressage, but soon realized it was just NOT her calling. So now, we are working on slowing down our brisk trot into a relaxed jog, as well as keeping the head in the 'long and low' set.
Her canter needs more work, but that's something that I will address in a later post. Right now, the jog is what we're working on!
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------COMMENTS WELCOME.
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:00 pm
TUES, DEC 19, 2006:
I got to ride a little Arab gelding named Baskin out on trail yesterday. I don't really have a horse to ride when I'm home in Northern Illinois, so people kind of 'loan' me their horses. rofl
Well it was all going really good, he spooked a couple little times, but nothing huge. Then, right when we were ALMOST back on the barn property, we have to cross this little ditch thingy (like you know on the side of roads, they're only 3 or 4 feet deep?), and the melted snow had made it so there was about an inch of water in the ditch.
My sister and her friend crossed it (even though I asked to go first. They aren't the most considerate riders rolleyes ), then my horse started getting nervous he was going to get left behind, but refused to pass through the little bit of water.
Well, he finally got both front feet into the water, then reached down and grabbed a mouthful of grass. So I thought he was fine, with both front feet in and grazing. Yeah, I was wrong.
I clucked to him and cued to him to SLOWLY walk the rest of the way. Instead, he LAUNCHED HIMSELF INTO THE AIR and landed like 3 yards away on the other side of the ditch.
I WAS SO MAD. Oh my god I wanted to just crack him over the head. He did it because I TOLD him not to. He's really a contrary horse, his owner lets him get away with murder. And he disobeyed me JUST to disobey me.
It makes me grateful for Joy, in any case. And I made him work his little nasty butt off all the way back to the barn. He was so tired when we got back. rofl
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:05 pm
Uhhh Comments or no comments?
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:54 pm
MustangDragon Uhhh Comments or no comments?
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:38 am
Darkeenya TUES, DEC 19, 2006:
I got to ride a little Arab gelding named Baskin out on trail yesterday. I don't really have a horse to ride when I'm home in Northern Illinois, so people kind of 'loan' me their horses. rofl
Well it was all going really good, he spooked a couple little times, but nothing huge. Then, right when we were ALMOST back on the barn property, we have to cross this little ditch thingy (like you know on the side of roads, they're only 3 or 4 feet deep?), and the melted snow had made it so there was about an inch of water in the ditch.
My sister and her friend crossed it (even though I asked to go first. They aren't the most considerate riders rolleyes ), then my horse started getting nervous he was going to get left behind, but refused to pass through the little bit of water.
Well, he finally got both front feet into the water, then reached down and grabbed a mouthful of grass. So I thought he was fine, with both front feet in and grazing. Yeah, I was wrong.
I clucked to him and cued to him to SLOWLY walk the rest of the way. Instead, he LAUNCHED HIMSELF INTO THE AIR and landed like 3 yards away on the other side of the ditch.
I WAS SO MAD. Oh my god I wanted to just crack him over the head. He did it because I TOLD him not to. He's really a contrary horse, his owner lets him get away with murder. And he disobeyed me JUST to disobey me.
It makes me grateful for Joy, in any case. And I made him work his little nasty butt off all the way back to the barn. He was so tired when we got back. rofl Lots of horses will do this with water until they get used to it. First, they may be unfamiliar with water in their pastures, so never learned to deal with it. Or, not having a human telling them what to do, dealt with water anyway they wanted, and many horses do not like to step in foreign water. I think his grabbing a bit of grass was to comfort himself. He was *not* relaxed at that point, he was thinking. "Turn tail and run, or get the heck over that as big as possible." Then there is the reflection problem. Water can reflect light in strange ways, and especially if the horse changes his head position (grabbing the grass then moving his head back) the light in the water changes. DANGER! So the horse suddenly decides the best option is to avoid that water as best he can, and way overjumps it. I don't think the horse was misbehaving. He was dealing with a situation for which he has not been trained, and which carried some fear for him. I've had many horses green to water do this. I hate it when I'm with rude riders (or ignorant) who don't understand the situation and refuse to patiently wait till I've dealt with the horse. My way of dealing with it is to cross the water over and over. Ideally, if not alone, I would have at least one horse standing on each side of the water, so my horse would not feel left behind in either direction. I would cross the water over and over until the horse was crossing it the way I wanted. For a wide stretch of water not too deep, I'd want the horse to walk through it with no splashing of the front feet (precursor to lying down in the water). For a wide and deep stretch, I'd want the horse to walk into it and swim through it (not as hard as it sounds, but be damn sure to remove any martingale first, as a horse must raise it's head high to swim). For a narrow bit of water, like this ditch, a simple hop over would be the goal. I have taken horses through wide, shallow water (knee high) where there were branches and rocks unseen, and the horse had to very carefully place a front hoof to feel for safe footing. It can be done. I have to say that I am one of those idiots who use her voice a lot. "You can do it, good girl, one more step..." etc. I see the horse's ears flicking back to listen, so I know it is doing something... encouraging the horse, or making the horse wish I would shut the hell up so it could concentrate. LOL I would *not* lean forward... this can make the horse move backward rapidly. Keep your weight in the center of the horse. If you drop your weight back, you are encouraging the horse to make that big leap. My opinions anyway.
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Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 5:04 pm
Stang; It's not my horse and I only ride him on rare occasions, so training him is beyond my control. He actually has a lot of trail experience, but was always allowed to jump the water. Not a habit I particularly enjoy. rolleyes
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Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:49 pm
TUES, JAN 2, 2007:
So, I got a new saddle for Christmas. Yay. whee It's a Thorowgood Griffin All-Purpose, X-Wide. I found out my Wintec no longer fit her, and could not find another saddle that was wide enough for Joy.
Well, I brought this one out to the barn on Saturday, and it fit like a glove. FINALLY. rofl
This is the sixth saddle I've tried on her. The first to truly fit. It's about time. gonk
She was a very good girl for the ride, as well. She was patient as I was getting used to the saddle (I'm so familiar with Dressage, riding in anything but that is foreign territory), and I actually jumped her over a 1ft jump. She was really good, not real graceful, but dang is she brave.
I can't wait to go out again and try the new saddle once again. In the meantime I'm trying to SELL my Wintec. Wish me luck. xp
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Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 5:48 pm
FRI, JAN 26, 2007:
It was really nice out today, so I definitely had to go out to the barn and ride.
We lunged for a good and long while, she was full of herself. Tossing her head, snorting, being a dork. She threw out a couple of bucks when I asked for the canter, but overall wasn't bad. When cantering she was leaning a TON to the inside, so I think eventually I might put a siderein just on the outside to kind of help her straighten herself out. I'm going to give her some time first though, to see if she can center herself without a siderein.
Afterwards we rode for a bit, she was pretty tired from the lunging so it was just walk with a bit of trot here and there. She was pretty good, and gave some really nice sitting trots.
So, we're going to keep working on the longe. I think it's going to help a lot. :3
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Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:52 pm
SAT, JAN 27, 2007:
Went out to the barn today again and just kinda goofed off with Joy. We did a little bit of ground-driving, but not really serious. Joy was in a halter, and all I was using was a longe line. rofl
She can actually ground drive fairly well, but I figured out today she needs the longe whip to help get her going and to move out. She gets kind of confused otherwise, because I'm behind her. When I've got the whip, I give her a tap on the top of the butt, and that's her cue to pick up the next gait (ie, halt to walk, walk to trot). So without the whip, she was kinda confused. xp
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:08 am
WED, JAN 31, 2007:
Yesterday night I went out to the barn to brave the elements. With windchill it was aboout -10F. Not real warm. xd
To stay warm I decided to ride bareback, and I wrapped Joy's legs with polos in front and boots in back to stay warm. All we did was walk, but I didn't want her to pull something just because it was so cold.
Well, I wanted just this leisurely, lazy ride. But I didn't get that. The trainer at the barn's son was out, and he decided to do some VAULTING EXERCISES on the horse he was working on. While I was riding. gonk
So, here I am, sitting on my chub-horse bareback, while this guy is STANDING ontop of the horse, then does a BACKFLIP off of the horse's butt and lands on the ground behind him.
Joy was like, "WHAT. THE. F*CK." rofl
And then some girl came in and was trying to do Parelli with her horse. Only she was just flailing her overpriced orange lunge whip at the horse, while yanking on its overpriced rope halter at the same time. neutral
So it wasn't a very good environment for Joy. We rode for like 5 minutes, then called it a night. xp
(I gave her some hot beet pulp as a treat though. She loved it. x3 )
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:05 am
Darkeenya WED, JAN 31, 2007:
Yesterday night I went out to the barn to brave the elements. With windchill it was aboout -10F. Not real warm. xd
To stay warm I decided to ride bareback, and I wrapped Joy's legs with polos in front and boots in back to stay warm. All we did was walk, but I didn't want her to pull something just because it was so cold.
Well, I wanted just this leisurely, lazy ride. But I didn't get that. The trainer at the barn's son was out, and he decided to do some VAULTING EXERCISES on the horse he was working on. While I was riding. gonk
So, here I am, sitting on my chub-horse bareback, while this guy is STANDING ontop of the horse, then does a BACKFLIP off of the horse's butt and lands on the ground behind him.
Joy was like, "WHAT. THE. F*CK." rofl
And then some girl came in and was trying to do Parelli with her horse. Only she was just flailing her overpriced orange lunge whip at the horse, while yanking on its overpriced rope halter at the same time. neutral
So it wasn't a very good environment for Joy. We rode for like 5 minutes, then called it a night. xp
(I gave her some hot beet pulp as a treat though. She loved it. x3 ) Oh, Wow, I bet that was pretty distracting xp When I ride, there isn't alot or any people in the ring, since it's on a sunday and no one really comes on a sunday. xd
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:43 pm
Silver Moon Kitsune; Yeah, I usually try and avoid riding when there's other folks around (I like having the arena to myself xp ), but that night it couldn't be avoided. Bx
FEBRUARY 12, 2007:
Soooo Joy's a bit lame. It's been really cold here, and I think while I had her in the indoor loose, she was playing and bucking and running around like a nut, and might've twisted something. It's definitely in her hocks, I know that much. She is at least improving, but she just needs some time to recuperate. So we're taking a week off of riding, and will slowly get back into the saddle from then. sweatdrop
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:40 pm
FEBRUARY 27TH, 2007;
So, little update. Joy can basically neckrein now, she occasionally needs a little reminding bump with the direct rein when she's not paying attention. But for about 3 or 4 days, I rode every ride with one hand the ENTIRE ride. I can't remember the last time I did that. My arm was tired by the end, because I have to kind of exaggerate the cues so they're really clear for her. rofl
Oh, and I'm just casually considering taking Joy out of bits period. She does extremely well in bitless setups of basically any kind, and really she's light and sensitive enough that it almost feels like any kind of bit is overkill with her. Why should I bother with a bit if she does just as well without one?
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:21 pm
MARCH 6, 2007;
So Joy's really starting to develop into an actual western horse now, I'm so proud of her. 4laugh
Now we're learning how to work on a loose rein. Which is a lot more challenging than it sounds, because she's a really forward horse. When I first started working with her, if you gave her any slack in the reins, she would just go faster and faster until you're basically hand-galloping around the ring. gonk
So the other day, I decided to be daring and see if I could trot her on a loose rein. So I carefully cued for the trot, with one hand on the reins and the other hovering above my bucking strap, bracing myself for a bolt. lol
But she was actually REALLY good. Her first 4 strides or so were REALLY fast, like almost picking up the canter, but when she figured out I was just gonna sit there and not react, she downshifted into this REALLY nice, slow, relaxed jog. It was one of the best jogs I have ever gotten out of her. eek
We worked on that more today, but she wasn't QUITE as good. She was a bit quick today, and didn't want to pay attention. I blame today I rode bitless (she's got a little cut on her lip, I didn't want to break it open), and it was feeding time. Durh, Joy the pig. xp
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:34 pm
SEPTEMBER 9, 2007:
Woooo, longggg time since I've updated this. Been too busy riding my girl! 4laugh
A quick update, Joy has really embraced the whole 'western' thing. She has an amazing jog now that is quite consistant, and can be done on cue. She also can move out into a very brisk trot when asked as well, so her speed control has really gotten nice.
We're still working on the canter, but getting better every try. We still have a few issues with bucking, but they're GRADUALLY getting a little bit better. She's gotten a lot better with her leads, and has even corrected herself a few times by doing a flying lead change, without me even asking.
I know also ride in a mech hack, which gives her a lot more freedom, and she seems to like it. It makes me trust her a lot more too, not having a bit to rely on. smile
EDIT; Oh, almost forgot! Joy is now ridden on a loose rein 24-7, at all gaits. I'm still learning to not panic when cantering on a loose rein, but she's doing just fine. xd
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