Longer Sessions...

            See how Max and I got to this point using Clinton Anderson's methods by reading the first few posts.


LONGER SESSIONS...

             Max and I had a good, long session on Saturday.  On groundwork, we’re well into Clinton Anderson’s Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground-Series 2. 

We worked on backing with me lifting the clip under his chin and him backing.  He’s doing well with it.  We also backed with the touch and rub on the nose exercise.  He’s doing well with that one, too.  They’ll both require steady practice to get near perfect, but we’ll do the practice and make the grade.

We did changing eyes, we lunged a little.  We practiced side-passing slowly, slowly along the fence all the way down, then the other side all the way back.  (My arms were killing me half-way down the fence line.)  Again, it’s not perfect, but it’s a start.    

We practiced the touch and rub on the ground.  I’ve got it now.  I’m glad I stuck with it.  I was feeling so awkward in the beginning with this exercise.  No wonder Max wasn’t getting it.  But I’ve got it now and we’ve made great progress.

Our groundwork session lasted a litttle more than an hour.

Then, we had an hour-long ride.  It doesn’t sound very long, but it was for us.  I’m trying to slowly increase our training time both on the ground and in the saddle.  It'll take us a while to get into better shape and do really long sessions.  When under saddle, Max has a tendency to want to stop before I’m ready to stop, so we’re going to have to get over that.  And right now I'm thinking slowly increasing riding time is the way to work on that.

We practiced trotting and posting, we cantered and we practiced backing. 

We also yielded hindquarters at the standstill.  Since we’ve been doing the touch and rub at the hindquarters on the ground, we’re making much better progress with it in the saddle.  It's definitely worth doing on the ground.  The connection from the ground to the saddle is happening. 

While he usually gets it to the left, he doesn’t want to yield his hindquarters to the right when I’m in the saddle.  He tosses his head like crazy.  (It’s a bit unsettling.)  I’m not exactly sure what’s causing him to toss his head so much.  I try to make my signals clear and direct so there’s no confusion about what he’s expected to do.  I’m hoping this is just one of those examples of, “sometimes it gets worse before it gets better.” 

We both could use more long sessions…

Have a good ride

Greenhorn 

More Time To Work...

If you're new, click back to the first few posts to see how Max, my first horse, and I came to use Clinton Anderson's methods so I could get control on the ground and re-gain my lost confidence in the saddle after an incident last autumn.

MORE TIME TO WORK...

Yes!  Today we made more progress on the ground and good progress in the saddle.  Our groundwork is coming from Clinton Anderson's Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground-Series 2.  Our work in the saddle is from Riding With Confidence-Series 1.

We had quite a workout on the ground first.  We backed.  We yielded forequarters.  To the right we’re doing great.  To the left…still not so great.   We lunged just a few circles each way.  (We’re still not ready for Lungeing for Respect-Stage 2.)  Then, we sidepassed all the way down the fence, turned around and sidepassed back.  It’s still rocky.  But we’re getting there…slowly.

In the saddle, we backed, trotted and posted and cantered. 

We also yielded hindquarters at the standstill.  I had forgotten to practice this on the ground today, so I really wasn’t expecting much in the way of Max remembering our practice yesterday. 

But he did remember. 

We yielded a couple of steps on both sides.  Good Boy!  This was major for me because, if you remember, I’ve had such an issue with the teaching of it on the ground.  My problem with it was that I was slow to catch on to the movements I needed to do to teach it, which made it confusing for Max.

I guess it just goes to show, when I got over myself and just did it exactly like Clinton Anderson said to do it, it works.  Anyway, now that I have these small results, I’ll be practicing it consistently until we’ve got it down.

We definitely need to get back to more nice, long workouts…

Have a good ride

Greenhorn

Things To Remember...

Make sure your signals are black and white, no gray areas.  Don’t nag.  Success is usually right around the corner.  The problem is that most people quit right before the turn.  Sometimes things get worse before they get better.  Reward the slightest try.  These are all things Clinton Anderson says when discussing horse training.

These are all concrete instructions to remember as I’m working with Max. 

Today we made new progress in two areas.  First, the touch and rub exercise continues to improve.  We got two steps with Max crossing that hind foot over.  We kept at it for quite some time today and it was worth it.  We’ll try for three steps tomorrow.

We did a lot of backing today.  He’s backing much better in his new halter.  We practiced the four methods of backing, plus we practiced touch and rub on his nose.  He was reluctant at first, but got the hang of it.  He tried tossing his head and lowering it to get rid of my pressure on the halter knots, but I stuck with him, and we were successful.

We also practiced sidepassing on the fence.  This is out of order according to the presentation of the exercises in Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground-Series2, but I wanted him to cross those front feet over in a new exercise.  And he knew both the steps involved in the exercise.  There was no nagging.  No gray areas.  He’s not perfect at it, but we worked our way slowly down the pasture fence line.  Both ways.   The slightest try was rewarded.  And it showed up again that he was not as fond of crossing his feet over to the left.  But we kept it up anyway.

We had a short ride again.  We mainly practiced backing, trotting and posting and cantering.  It went well, just brief.  After practicing touch and rub on the ground, I flat forgot to practice yielding hindquarters in the saddle.

I’m going to work on increasing our riding time little by little.  We both need longer rides…

All of the above…worth remembering…

Have a good ride

Greenhorn