Speaking of Slow...

                By the way…for those of you just joining us, I like to watch the horse trainers on RFD TV.  I think they’re all pretty darn good.  I’m a “beginner all over again”, and right now, I’m using Clinton Anderson’s methods on my first horse ever.  I’m hoping he can train me on how to handle Max.  Take a look at a couple of my first entries to see how Max and I got to this point.

Back to speaking of slow…

I began working on the Sending exercise a few days ago.  I don’t know if it’s my signals or what but he’s about to go to sleep walking in front of me.  Also, he doesn’t go all the way across the gap between the fence and me.  He goes about half-way and turns and yields his hindquarters.  Help!

I’ll be studying that segment of the dvd tomorrow morning before I go out.

He’s trying though.  He’s looking at me and really paying attention.  My actions must not be clear.

Next Day:

I watched Yielding Forequarters again.  There’s something I’m not doing right for it to take so long for Max to go all the way around.  And I got it. 

I’m not being forceful enough driving him back when he goes forward instead of stepping across.  I’ve only been backing him a couple of steps, gently.  I’m not aggressively driving him back so he’ll remember the mistake.  Clinton Anderson says it’ll take forever if you do it like I’ve been doing it. 

He’s right.  Now I get it. 

Sometimes I have to re-watch the segment.  After I get the basic idea down of how to teach it, I have to re-watch so I can pick up all the “little” things that I don’t do at the beginning.  I watch the segment a couple of times.  I go out and introduce the skill to Max.   

Then, I come back and re-watch the segment, sometimes a few times, looking for answers to the questions I had while I was out doing the introductory lesson with Max.  So far, I’ve always found the answers right there in Clinton Anderson’s lesson.  Then, I go out to teach the skill to Max again, fully armed with the knowledge I need for Max to be successful. 

It’s normal.  It’s difficult to absorb everything after watching a lesson segment one or two times. 

And it helps to go out and do it, then come back in with particular answers to look for while re-watching.

Also, at the end of the segment he says don’t worry if it’s not perfect right now. The rest of the exercises will help this along.

Get across the main idea of crossing that front foot over the other one for at least one good step.

I’m also going to re-watch the Sending exercise segment.

Next Day:

            I re-watched Sending.  There must be something I’m missing.  I kept the pressure on as he crossed through the gap, and when he sped up I released it.  He was starting to trot, but was not really at a trot.  I want him to take off with some energy at a trot and continue to trot through the gap till I signal him to yield his hindquarters.

           

I’ll re-watch the segment.  I think I’ll also widen the gap.  Maybe he needs a little more space right now. 

He’s still trying…

Have good ride,

Greenhorn