GOT IT...

I watched Leading Behind again.  We practiced it at a walk.  The trot wasn’t happening for us. 

Soooooo, I took that as a starting point and we practiced LB at the walk for two days.

To get the trot, Clinton Anderson says to move their feet in a circle then just turn and start jogging and let him come out of the circle behind your jog while his feet are still moving.

We walked with LB then I leaned forward and jogged – no trot from Max, so I spun around and moved him off into a lunge then changed directions, then changed directions again – then while his feet were moving I jogged off.  He stopped. 

Right away I moved him into a lunge, changed directions, then changed directions again. While his feet were still moving I turned and jogged off and lo and behold he trotted right behind me!  Hallelujah!  I kept trotting so he would get the idea that this is what I wanted then we stopped and rested. (I more than he.)

We rubbed and Good Boyed! 

Then, we did it again – Hallelujah! He trotted behind me.  We kept it up.  Whenever I led him around we practiced first walking then trotting. 

WE GOT IT!

Just let me tell you right now – If you weren’t in shape before you started teaching this exercise, you’ll be in shape after a few days of the LB exercise.  It is definitely exercise. 

I rode for an hour.  We trotted and posted lots, and cantered several times.  He got a little snarky and tried to get all crazy and show me he was ready to stop.  So I ORS-ed him and then turned him in circles one way then the other –then rode for 15 more minutes.  It was the best ride I’ve had since the new year!!  GID-DEE-UP!!

Have a good ride,

Greenhorn

Leading Behind...

We're Back!  Click back to the first few posts to see how I came to use Clinton Anderson's DownUnder Horsemanship method in order to train me to handle Max on the ground and to gain confidence in the saddle.

Leading Behind…

Max and I kept practicing through the holidays.  Yesterday we started on the Leading Behind lesson.  Max is fine with the walking and stopping, but he is refusing to trot when I jog.  At first I tried bump, bump, bumping the rope (This is not what I learned on CA’s dvd.)  I don’t know why I did it.  It didn’t work.

I abandoned the trotting part and went back to reinforcing the walking and stopping part.  He did very well.

Then, we practiced side-passing down the fence line.

Moving down the fence to the right (left foot crossing over right foot) he did pretty well.  Moving down the fence to the left (right foot over left foot) was not smooth or pretty.  We had lots of corrections to make all down the fence.  We practiced each way a few times.  It did get better each way with practice.

Max is now doing Lungeing for Respect Stage 2 pretty darn well.  We have come a long way on this one.

I need to work on getting him to roll back on his hind feet and make that 180 degree turn.  He’s almost there but he keeps trying to come forward about halfway through the change of direction.  I’ll watch that LFR-2 segment again this week.

But tonight I’m watching that Leading Behind segment again...

Have a good ride,

Greenhorn

Last Post of the Year Unless...

**********Click back to the first few posts in August to see how Max and I came to use Clinton Anderson’s Downunder Horsemanship method to train me in handling Max on the ground and to regain my confidence in the saddle.

LAST POST OF THE YEAR UNLESS... 

            We’re still practicing Lungeing for Respect – Stage 2.  We’re getting pretty good at it.  Max understands what to do.  He turns better when changing from clockwise to counter-clockwise.  He is reluctant to make a smooth turn and change to going clockwise.  We keep working on it.

            We’re also still practicing side-passing.  Here again, he’s better at it going to the left than going to the right.  We’ll keep working.

            Due to weather and Christmas activities, I haven’t ridden much.  I’m still getting in at least one ride a week.  That isn’t helping me in making progress in the saddle, but it keeps my confidence up.

            Max and I will keep practicing our groundwork until after January first, and then start making progress again.

            So, this will be the last post of the year unless….........we somehow make big progress between now and January 1st…

            Have a good ride

            Greenhorn

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

How Did We Get to This Point...?

New Post coming later this week...

Meanwhile...

To read how Max and I got to this point in our training with Clinton Anderson's Downunder Horsemanship method click back to the first few posts...

Back to Short Sessions...

***Click back to the first few posts to read how Max and I started using RFD TV’s Clinton Anderson and his Downunder Horsemanship training method.  We've made great progress! 

BACK TO SHORT SESSIONS…

For the last couple of days I’ve returned to short sessions for my training.  Like I mentioned in the last post, Max and I are still on Clinton Anderson’s Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground – Series 2 – disc four.  We have three more exercises to go in this series:  leading behind, leading beside and turn and go.

We’ve been practicing side-passing and lungeing for respect-stage 2 in the afternoons this week.  We’ve had short sessions each day of 30 minutes to an hour.  It seems to work well for us like this. 

I’ve only had one ride this week though.  That won’t do.  I like to ride four to six days a week.

This week Max was reluctant to begin lungeing when I pointed and clucked, especially to the right for some reason.  So, we worked on it.  It took many tries, over a period of a few days for him to remember to "go" when I point and cluck.  But we’re getting it now about 90-95% of the time.  The other 5-10% of the time he gets it with slight encouragement.  So, that’s progress.

Clinton Anderson says you probably shouldn’t be doing lungeing for respect-stage 2 if your horse doesn’t “go” when you point and cluck in stage 1.  Max used to “go” when I pointed and clucked.  He just needs a refresher.  We had that couple of weeks in which we weren’t able to work, so he got a bit rusty.

We are working, slowly but steadily, on lungeing for respect-stage 2.  We’re really sloppy at it, but we’re correcting mistakes as they happen, then trying again. 

For example, Max and I are having a hard time with when we want to change direction, him stopping and getting his front end around quickly enough.  He wants to ignore me and the whole quick change of direction thing, so he keeps on in the same direction just trotting a little bit slower, and looking at me the whole time like he knows what I want, but wants to see if I’ll do it his way this time.  

Of course, I won’t, so I stop him, back him up by wiggling the rope because by this time he’s moved in closer to me, yield his hindquarters and start him in the other direction while keeping his shoulder out and away from me.

Like I said, we’re really sloppy, but we’ll keep practicing.  We’ve both got the time. 

Side-passing is going a little more smoothly than before.  We’re still on the fence and he’s still moving up to the fence frequently so that we have to back up and then continue the side-passing to the right.  To the left, he’s doing quite well.  Again, we’ll practice a little everyday.

I need to watch disc 4 to see how to do the last three exercises.  Hopefully, we can start those next week.

The short sessions are working for us again…

Have a good ride

Greenhorn

Training Takes a Back Seat...

** To read how Max and I came to use Clinton Anderson’s Downunder Horsemanship training methods click back to the first few posts…

TRAINING TAKES A BACK SEAT...

For the last three weeks other commitments have moved to the front of my activities forcing mine and Max’s training to take a back seat.

Looks like my plans for longer training sessions won’t be realized until after Christmas.  Until then, I’ll be doing short training sessions to keep Max and me in practice.  We’ll learn some new skills along the way, but our progress will probably not be very fast paced. 

We still need to complete disc four of Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground-Series 2.  We were there three weeks ago when other activities began to take my time. 

Since then, I haven’t had many rides, so no progress in the saddle.  We haven’t progressed on the ground either.  But we are doing just enough groundwork so we don’t get totally out of practice.

We’re going to begin working on the exercises on disc four of GRCG-2 next Monday. 

We’re experiencing some snags in lungeing for respect – stage 2.  Max is not rotating around on those hind feet and taking off in the other direction.  But we’re working on it. 

Hopefully, training will be taking a back seat for only a few more days…

Have a good ride

Greenhorn