Keeping Up...

 ***Click back to the first few posts in August to read how Max and I came to use Clinton Anderson's Downunder Horsemanship method to train me to work with Max on the ground and to help me regain confidence in the saddle...

KEEPING UP...

I’m way behind.  Thanksgiving and Christmas activities are tops on my list until the new year, so I’m working in short sessions with Max when possible.  Most days we can get in a bit of practice.  We’re not learning new skills, but we’re practicing the ones we know.  And…we can both use the practice.

            We’ve had some interesting sessions practicing lungeing for respect-stage 2 this week.  Some days I think he’s got it, then we go out the next day, and we’re all but starting over.  Other days he seems to remember right away what we’re trying to do.  I think that’s a product of just flat not having long enough sessions to practice doing it the right way after the concept is gotten.  But… we’ll get it, eventually, even through our short sessions.

            I have not watched disc 4 in Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground–Series 2 yet.  I’m really shootin’ for watching that this weekend.  If I get to it, fine.  If not, that’s okay, too.  We’ll just keep improving on our previously learned skills.

            We’ve also been practicing side-passing down the fence.  Again, we’re coming along slowly.  But there’s small improvement week to week. 

            I’ve only gotten in one ride this week.  I plan to ride a couple more times before the end of the week.  It was a good ride.  We didn’t do anything but walk and trot.  He acted like he’d forgotten how to back up.  So, we worked on that a little.  He remembered.  It was only about a forty-five minute ride. 

            If I can watch the last disc on GRCG-2 this coming weekend, we’ll be able to add  some new skills to work on before the end of the year.

           

If not, we’ll be just practicing our skills and keeping up…

Have a good ride,

Greenhorn

Good, Long Session...

If you're new, click back to the first few posts to see how Max and I came to use Clinton Anderson's training methods.


GOOD, LONG SESSION...

As of today we’ve made it to disc 4 of Clinton Anderson’s Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground-Series 2.  There are only four more exercises in this series, so we’ll be starting Series 3 soon.  YEE-HA!!

We flew through desensitizing with the plastic bag, body, face and head.  We had no problem with throwing the rope to stop either.  It only took a couple of times throwing the rope and he stopped.  I totally forgot about see-sawing the rope.  We’ll work on that another day.

We practiced side-passing.  Max is getting pretty good.  Not perfect, but okay so far.  He tends to keep moving a little bit forward while side-passing so that he’s right up to the fence after a few steps.  I need to watch the segment again on side-passing to see what the correct correction is for that.  He’s really trying though.

We also worked on Lungeing for Respect – Stage 2.  CA is right about getting the steps down before you try this with the horse trotting or cantering around.  He’s also right about taking your time between each step until you get them down.  I took it really slowly at first.  It helped tremendously.  After a few slow times I sped it up just a little.  Here again, Max and I aren’t perfect with this exercise.  He’s not rotating around on his hind feet like Clinton Anderson wants them to.  But… he kind of does, sometimes.  We’re working on it.

We ended our groundwork with a walk through the woods.  We walked back and forth down a short trail about three times.  He did great.  No spook.

We worked about three hours today.  It was a good, long session…

Have a good ride

Greenhorn