Well yesterday was eventful! I got stepped on my toe (read: STOOD ON), by Calypso. She was afraid of the bag on the lawn mower.... I had thought she's of moved, but she just stood there until I smacked her.
Oi, let's just say that I need to get to the barn earlier for trimming appointments so I can longe her, and pick her feet out and Onyx's feet out. @____@ Dawn thinks Onyx will be sound for light work in a few weeks! YAY! Also, they may be 24/7 pastured now, including rain. Monica isn't very fond of the idea, but I think Debbie is coming around. I just hope Monica won't feel resentful or ursurped by Dawn or anyone. o.o ANYWHO, I found out they were fine out there. They would take shelter when they felt like it, and get wet when they felt like it. Monica did bring them in at 1 PM to relieve them a bit, but apparently Onyx spent most of the time kicking at his stall door so he and Calypso went back out at 5 PM. I don't think Calypso cares either way, she just wants to be with Onyx. =3 Even a bit of play between Calypso and Daphne the Belgian occured, though they were smart enough to keep things to a walk.
Working On: Transitions as per usual, leg aids, focal ques.
Progress: We had trouble on the longe for one particular side. There were more than a few riders in the ring, which is new, and this is her "bad side" to begind with. Every other second it was "may I come in now?" "I want to come in now!" "How about now?" "NOW??" and each time it was NO GO AWAY. Geez, that was annoying. Eventually I got sick of it and so to finish on a "positive" note we switched to her better side and ended at that. Then we spent the rest of the day in the arena with others just "chilling" after I got her used to the longe whip (she suddenly developed a phobia! I think it may have been the excitement of the day, she hasn't been afraid of the whip in months! Just the other day she had walked and trotted over it no problem... maybe it was because it wasn't "my" whip, but another? Oh well, tough cookies). So we hung out watching the lessons. I made sure she was standing by the mounting block (her other little "phobia") while I just sat there. I had planned for that day to just be a day without riding. I had already baby dolled her mane and partially her tail, but you know, watching everyone ride and us just sit there got boring for the both of us. So boring in fact that we passed the time chewing on a crop and I was teaching her to wave it around (we had to stop though, she kept trying to swallow it xD).
One GREAT thing though, was that a repeat incident happened. The same rider on the same horse fell off after a jump and the horse spooked and took off. We just watched quite placidly as if it happened every day. She made no hesitation, didn't even pay any mind. She didn't even move until I got up to walk up the the prancy horse who was trotting about. I think it helped I had Calypso with me, as he wanted to flirt with her. The rider was for the most part okay, luckily, and they continued their lesson.
Eventually I got on her with the rope halter and got no head tossing. I planned to get her a different bit (I have one in mind), but now I'll be getting one sooner than later.
Next time: I'd like to work on extending that walk a bit more, but I believe I need to refound the moving off of pressure exercises.
To Remember: When you AND the horse are bored, do something different.
As a note on the previous blog, I did add some poles to add variety and she did very nicely. She's also doing cone weaving on the ground and bareback.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
STOOF
Working On: Walking on the longeline. She responds well in her regular halter, but I just put the rope halter on and she responds much faster/better.
Progress: I can't remember much about this day, I didn't take notes like a good girl. Just what we're working on, not really how it went. It wasn't too terrible though, although I believe that was the day we took a bit of a step back again in trust. Without a small enough space (or at least a place where there aren't jumps around to take her attention away from me), it is hard to train. I don't want to use the longe exclusively, because it is harder on her legs than a larger area where she can bend to her choosing. I also don't get the respect-type responses from her on the longe. =/
Again, not much is "known" about this day. xD
Progress: I can't remember much about this day, I didn't take notes like a good girl. Just what we're working on, not really how it went. It wasn't too terrible though, although I believe that was the day we took a bit of a step back again in trust. Without a small enough space (or at least a place where there aren't jumps around to take her attention away from me), it is hard to train. I don't want to use the longe exclusively, because it is harder on her legs than a larger area where she can bend to her choosing. I also don't get the respect-type responses from her on the longe. =/
Again, not much is "known" about this day. xD
Monday, April 21, 2008
Calypso and Onyx Progress
Working On: Transitions from halt to walk and back. Turning, adding speed, and moving off the leg. Standing. Leading.
Performance: Getting good at the walk, not a rusher or a star gazer (like some think her conformation suggests). She attempted to trot for half a second (in retrospect, I believe I was actually getting a half second of gaiting- yay!), but did not feel balanced enough so she went back to a brisk walk. Her transition was seemless, I wouldn't have noticed had it not being for her passing objects by faster (and after feeling her trot afterwards, that was not a walk-trot transition!). Ever since she's had her last lesson she's developed the habit of head tossing because she'd rather walk than stand still. I've mostly nipped it. I tried going against my normal "ways" and trying someone else's technique of being a bit more heavy handed and demanding and then rewarding her with a light aid, but that method doesn't work for either of our learning styles and almost put us back a step. Thus, I went back to "my way" and she's doing quite nicely. Towards the end she was standing still for longer periods of time, so that's progress. I think it is clear she is comfortable with how things are going. She is in need of work for standing for mounting, but at least she no longer spooks at the mounting block, just impatience. I've trained standing in greenies before, but that method too requires a heavier hand which just would not work for her style of learning. She is very good at turning, and I think she will be ready to learn the makings of a side pass soon (within 5-7 lessons). I don't think it will be hard to encourage her rack, she's already able to out-walk a jog. She's back nicely as well, her leading from the ground is perfect, so I've decided on a routine.
1. Take out of pasture and put into stall (so she gets all her poops out, this barn is strict about poo management)
2. Groom (mostly picking out hooves unless I feel like having a girl-girl-bonding-grooming session)
3. Leave for a few minutes while taking equipment down to arena (there's also a policy on putting tack away, and she's left in her stall to, as mentioned, get the poos out).
4. Take out of stall and down to arena
5. Longe for 2-10 minutes each side if needed ((right now I'm training her to know the work come, so we usually spend two minutes each side, we're also working on not going faster than a walk on the longe.))
Order and use of depends on what's up:
6. Get on
7. Designated lesson
8. Untack (if I'm in a rope halter and bareback like I sometimes am, this is basically skipped, lol)
9. Put longeline on and practice leading (I use the longeline to give her plenty of room behind me to decide to follow)
10. After satisfied, take off longeline and practice leading.
11. Turn out.
Yes, there is a cool down process (although the whole thing is cooling down since all we really do is walk. xD)
Next time: We're working on standing under saddle, a bit more work on transitions, and maybe some poles for variety.
Things to remember: A horse stops one hoof at a time, focus on each hoof.
Additional: Debbie feels that Calypso is looking much more relaxed and agrees that she's rounding nicely. she keeps hinting at me about using a saddle. I'm not 100% sure why, but I have some theories. Perhaps she doesn't think Calypso can handle a saddle ( though I repeated say I've had one on her and have left her with it on and no problem). Or maybe she thinks I can't handle her faster than a walk. I'm not bothered considering that I've done it before. Just two-three lessons ago another horse dropped his rider over a jump and spooked again at that and another jump being knocked down (by him, of course). He proceeded to gallop around and since I had plenty (for me) of time to think I decide to stay on her and see what happened. She was a calm onlooker until he, headed right for us, knocked over a cross rail he had jumped and spooked yet again. She balked and reared, tried to spin about, but I didn't let her. I believe she crow-hopped (which feels a lot different bareback), and then she proceeded a speedy back. Calmed her down, wasn't thrown, and that was that. So I'm assured I can handle the trot. ^.~
Maybe not a posting trot, but otherwise fine. x3 I am still debating if I'll use the saddle for her first canter. The chance of her trantioning into a gallop out of excitement or what have you makes stirrups seem like a plus. However, she won't even be advancing past a walk until we both feel that she responds properly and quickly to the halt and halt-halt. So with that theory, I really don't think it will be a concern.
She is not at all a star gazer under saddle, no matter how she moves at liberty. I am confident I can change that under muscling with proper work!
****************************************************
Onyx is doing nicely, although he seems to be assassinating his boots! Over. and OVER. and OOOOVER again. xD He is soooo much happier here. BOY I can tell you the difference an extra 16 hours makes for this horse... and his boots.
Horse= the heels have been able to be trimmed back, getting rid of toe, better strides, happier disposition
Boots= *asplode*
I found out just how bored C and O got at Doc's during "bad weather." Calypso so so "spacey" because she had to spend her time in that disgusting stall. To cope, she developed a way of seclusion. She just inverted into her own little world I suppose. She's much more alert now though, and reasonable.
Onyx took to stall kicking to express his angst. D= At least he didn't crib, right?
Performance: Getting good at the walk, not a rusher or a star gazer (like some think her conformation suggests). She attempted to trot for half a second (in retrospect, I believe I was actually getting a half second of gaiting- yay!), but did not feel balanced enough so she went back to a brisk walk. Her transition was seemless, I wouldn't have noticed had it not being for her passing objects by faster (and after feeling her trot afterwards, that was not a walk-trot transition!). Ever since she's had her last lesson she's developed the habit of head tossing because she'd rather walk than stand still. I've mostly nipped it. I tried going against my normal "ways" and trying someone else's technique of being a bit more heavy handed and demanding and then rewarding her with a light aid, but that method doesn't work for either of our learning styles and almost put us back a step. Thus, I went back to "my way" and she's doing quite nicely. Towards the end she was standing still for longer periods of time, so that's progress. I think it is clear she is comfortable with how things are going. She is in need of work for standing for mounting, but at least she no longer spooks at the mounting block, just impatience. I've trained standing in greenies before, but that method too requires a heavier hand which just would not work for her style of learning. She is very good at turning, and I think she will be ready to learn the makings of a side pass soon (within 5-7 lessons). I don't think it will be hard to encourage her rack, she's already able to out-walk a jog. She's back nicely as well, her leading from the ground is perfect, so I've decided on a routine.
1. Take out of pasture and put into stall (so she gets all her poops out, this barn is strict about poo management)
2. Groom (mostly picking out hooves unless I feel like having a girl-girl-bonding-grooming session)
3. Leave for a few minutes while taking equipment down to arena (there's also a policy on putting tack away, and she's left in her stall to, as mentioned, get the poos out).
4. Take out of stall and down to arena
5. Longe for 2-10 minutes each side if needed ((right now I'm training her to know the work come, so we usually spend two minutes each side, we're also working on not going faster than a walk on the longe.))
Order and use of depends on what's up:
6. Get on
7. Designated lesson
8. Untack (if I'm in a rope halter and bareback like I sometimes am, this is basically skipped, lol)
9. Put longeline on and practice leading (I use the longeline to give her plenty of room behind me to decide to follow)
10. After satisfied, take off longeline and practice leading.
11. Turn out.
Yes, there is a cool down process (although the whole thing is cooling down since all we really do is walk. xD)
Next time: We're working on standing under saddle, a bit more work on transitions, and maybe some poles for variety.
Things to remember: A horse stops one hoof at a time, focus on each hoof.
Additional: Debbie feels that Calypso is looking much more relaxed and agrees that she's rounding nicely. she keeps hinting at me about using a saddle. I'm not 100% sure why, but I have some theories. Perhaps she doesn't think Calypso can handle a saddle ( though I repeated say I've had one on her and have left her with it on and no problem). Or maybe she thinks I can't handle her faster than a walk. I'm not bothered considering that I've done it before. Just two-three lessons ago another horse dropped his rider over a jump and spooked again at that and another jump being knocked down (by him, of course). He proceeded to gallop around and since I had plenty (for me) of time to think I decide to stay on her and see what happened. She was a calm onlooker until he, headed right for us, knocked over a cross rail he had jumped and spooked yet again. She balked and reared, tried to spin about, but I didn't let her. I believe she crow-hopped (which feels a lot different bareback), and then she proceeded a speedy back. Calmed her down, wasn't thrown, and that was that. So I'm assured I can handle the trot. ^.~
Maybe not a posting trot, but otherwise fine. x3 I am still debating if I'll use the saddle for her first canter. The chance of her trantioning into a gallop out of excitement or what have you makes stirrups seem like a plus. However, she won't even be advancing past a walk until we both feel that she responds properly and quickly to the halt and halt-halt. So with that theory, I really don't think it will be a concern.
She is not at all a star gazer under saddle, no matter how she moves at liberty. I am confident I can change that under muscling with proper work!
****************************************************
Onyx is doing nicely, although he seems to be assassinating his boots! Over. and OVER. and OOOOVER again. xD He is soooo much happier here. BOY I can tell you the difference an extra 16 hours makes for this horse... and his boots.
Horse= the heels have been able to be trimmed back, getting rid of toe, better strides, happier disposition
Boots= *asplode*
I found out just how bored C and O got at Doc's during "bad weather." Calypso so so "spacey" because she had to spend her time in that disgusting stall. To cope, she developed a way of seclusion. She just inverted into her own little world I suppose. She's much more alert now though, and reasonable.
Onyx took to stall kicking to express his angst. D= At least he didn't crib, right?
Saturday, April 12, 2008
My Little Arabian
Right, so she's not really little. Almost 16hh. xD
Well, I refrained from posting here just because I wasn't sure how things would go, but I am so excited now that I need somewhere to share and this seems most relevant.
In the last three days I've advanced in training my mare to the point where I started putting weight on her back. My mom held her the first time and I just practiced with her. Nudging her back from the mounting block, throwing legs over a couple time. Leaning on her with on leg with most of my weight on the leg still on the mounting block. She seemed fine with it so I hopped on. It was great, she didn't do a thing. On the down side, she didn't do a thing. xD She didn't know how to move or anything, but I figured I'd just get on and off about three more times to make sure she was fine. Then I put her away to think about it, as she was very good. The next night I took her out again while some other boarders were around and got on her inside our "training paddock" and again she was fine. I hopped off instead of easing myself back onto the little object I used and she was perfectly still, so I did the same thing again- though that time she took a few tentative steps and decided weight felt weird and stood splay footed. Shortly after I got off since she was doing just fine and I'd managed to get on one more time than yesterday. And today was marvelous. I got on her two times in a row, and the last time decided to see how she'd react to me asking her to move. She was grand, started walking very carefully at first. One of the boarders reckoned it to her carrying a child. I think it could have been her being careful of me since we now have a strong bond, but I think it was mostly her not used to weight. xD So we continued and she was walking around quite nicely, I steered her and decided to see how she'd respond to leg aids. Turned like a dream, it was almost like riding an old pro, only this was her first real ride. xD We got to the point where all I had to do was look in the direction I wanted to go and she'd smoothly turn that was (and this was so amazing for me because I've ridden the kinds of horses that prefer to ignore their riders wishes most of the time xD). I think we're going to be great together. =3
Granted, I was pretty reckless for only riding in a rope halter and lead rope bareback, but I did have a brain bucket to protect my *stooopid* evil genes (don't worry, I won't pass them on). =D
So yeah, the most exciting part of my project. xD Feel free to waggle your finger or something, or give me some tips to work on things. I guess I did bite off more than I could chew and then chewed it. ^^
While we're at it, does anyone have any trailer loading TIPs? We're switching barns and I'd like to be prepared. o.o Also, she has issues being left tied to posts (like when I go to tack). She's perfect if I leave her with a rope over her neck and just walk away (yay, another thing I taught her lol), but that is because she can see me and others. =/
NOTE FROM THE FUTURE! =O
The barn I am at now has a completely different atmosphere. I'm not afraid to train in front of people, even if they think my methods are nutty. xD
Well, I refrained from posting here just because I wasn't sure how things would go, but I am so excited now that I need somewhere to share and this seems most relevant.
In the last three days I've advanced in training my mare to the point where I started putting weight on her back. My mom held her the first time and I just practiced with her. Nudging her back from the mounting block, throwing legs over a couple time. Leaning on her with on leg with most of my weight on the leg still on the mounting block. She seemed fine with it so I hopped on. It was great, she didn't do a thing. On the down side, she didn't do a thing. xD She didn't know how to move or anything, but I figured I'd just get on and off about three more times to make sure she was fine. Then I put her away to think about it, as she was very good. The next night I took her out again while some other boarders were around and got on her inside our "training paddock" and again she was fine. I hopped off instead of easing myself back onto the little object I used and she was perfectly still, so I did the same thing again- though that time she took a few tentative steps and decided weight felt weird and stood splay footed. Shortly after I got off since she was doing just fine and I'd managed to get on one more time than yesterday. And today was marvelous. I got on her two times in a row, and the last time decided to see how she'd react to me asking her to move. She was grand, started walking very carefully at first. One of the boarders reckoned it to her carrying a child. I think it could have been her being careful of me since we now have a strong bond, but I think it was mostly her not used to weight. xD So we continued and she was walking around quite nicely, I steered her and decided to see how she'd respond to leg aids. Turned like a dream, it was almost like riding an old pro, only this was her first real ride. xD We got to the point where all I had to do was look in the direction I wanted to go and she'd smoothly turn that was (and this was so amazing for me because I've ridden the kinds of horses that prefer to ignore their riders wishes most of the time xD). I think we're going to be great together. =3
Granted, I was pretty reckless for only riding in a rope halter and lead rope bareback, but I did have a brain bucket to protect my *stooopid* evil genes (don't worry, I won't pass them on). =D
So yeah, the most exciting part of my project. xD Feel free to waggle your finger or something, or give me some tips to work on things. I guess I did bite off more than I could chew and then chewed it. ^^
While we're at it, does anyone have any trailer loading TIPs? We're switching barns and I'd like to be prepared. o.o Also, she has issues being left tied to posts (like when I go to tack). She's perfect if I leave her with a rope over her neck and just walk away (yay, another thing I taught her lol), but that is because she can see me and others. =/
NOTE FROM THE FUTURE! =O
The barn I am at now has a completely different atmosphere. I'm not afraid to train in front of people, even if they think my methods are nutty. xD
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
P Squared
edit
I actually got an A. 26/28.... o.o This doesn't encourage me to work hard. xD Oh well! Mind you, this is an international program that is very time consuming and challenging.
I
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