The last day of summer... awwww!! Progress report.

[Elaine]

Can't believe its Aug 31, the last day of summer (some would say that's July but I'd argue the point!!) Anyway, I just thought it'd be nice to write how we got on over the summer with our horsey activities. Here's my ramble!!!!

We turned a bit of a corner last summer when I had 3 months in Tipperary & worked with him every day. He got more confidence, he got more relaxed, I rewarded much smaller things, I got WAAAYY more particular and he seemed to 'get it' a lot more (or to the point, I realised I had to take the time to make sure he 'got it'), which meant he turned into a weekend horse - I could pull him out of the field after a few weeks off, hop into the saddle straight away and we'd have a nice ride.

Lessons of summer 2010:

• Control each foot. Start off with moving only 1 foot 1 step forward or backwards.
  
  
• Take the time to get it right. Quality is what counts.
  
  
• Know what picture you want to achieve. I got this from riding Kola in Australia. I want Oz to be as gorgeous to ride as Kola. So I have a definite goal (well a long list) of all the things I want to be able to do with Oz, and also - HOW to do them.
  

In Australia this spring, one of the huge things which has helped me bring on Oz was getting to ride Steve's Kola again. Riding a horse of that level, gives you physical proof of what you can train a horse to do, and a very detailed picture embedded into your head of what you'd love your own horse to be able to do.

This summer was like standing on a launch pad. We had many different things we could work on. We had really nice foundations in and our only limits would be to always do things in Oz's time, and my imagination. This summer it was weekends only riding, as I work in Dublin but we've progressed as fast as 3 months fulltime riding from last year, if not further.

• Always start with softness. A BIGGIE. If I ask Oz to do any more, without asking for softness first, it's not good. Softness at the start of a ridden manouvre is like having the key to unlock a treasure chest. It's THAT big. Having it changes everything.
  
  
• Lots of praise and rests. There's got to be something in it for the horse. My horse in particular seems to not be too bothered about 'getting along', and he's fairly opinionated so by really working on the rewards, rests, praise, and fun aspects of riding, I got a more settled, relaxed, willing horse.
  
  
• A relaxed confident horse. This is up there with softness. To get nice ridden moves, you're cues are so small so your horse has to be listening to you. If he's anyway distracted or worried his muscles will be likely to be more tense along with his mind, and you will never get soft ridden work.
  
  
• Attention - a biggie, for a lot of people I'd suspect. You can get your horse up to 'advanced' levels in terms of the moves they do, but without their attention you've got the moves but not the quality. You need the horse with you - mind and body. Oz was a great teacher for this. Some horses attention stray and it doesnt really impact you as a rider too much. Oz's attentions strays and within about 5 steps I could have a messy situation to try & sort out!! So he's taught him to never zone out while riding, and to always focus & listen to him, which means I caught more of his questions (which are non-stop) and can answer more = better result in the saddle and a stronger relationship.
  
  
• Being particular - this was one of those things that really helps me unlock Oz's mind. You want your horse to walk in a straight line. At step four he hangs to the left a bit. First you have to be looking for this detail, secondly you have to have a plan to correct it, and thirdly you have to give him a rest after to think it through. Practically this was one of the keys to greatly improving Ozs ridden work
  
  
• Never give up - You can only fail if you give up.
  

The horse I have today is a completely different horse from 12 months ago. A few things he used to get stuck on in his mind seems to have disappeared along the line, he had an energy and enthuasim for working with me that still seems to be growing, and his lateral work nearly reduced me to tears again last weekend. He has moments of softness from me adjusting my weight in the saddle, that just blow me away.

Its been a wonderful summer, and once the weather turns bad he'll be off for a few months to chill out. When you are bringing on a horse, there are always challenges. Someone said to me a while back that the joy you get once things start to come together make all the challenging times worthwhile. They were right.

[mjffey]

Wow Elaine. you did a lot this summer.

Here weather was just to bad to do anything. Only nice month was April. When it rains we can't use our exercise area because it's to muddy.

I had such big plans at the beginning of summer.

Today I did an hour with Darcy. It was very windy and his ears were all over the place and he was very pushy. And a pushiong giant is very impressive.

Hindquarter yiels was ok, Forequarter yield was a big no no. jojo was ok too. I used the carrot with sling over his head and around his body and that was ok too.

Something that I never managed before worked today. I had Darcy in the circling game! Never ever got him there before. I used the carrot stick with the string. First at head level and when he stepped forward, I moved to his hindquarters. Once he was circling I stopped with the carrot stick and only used it when Darcy stopped or slowed down.

In between we stopped all the time. Darcy has to put on his "denkpetje". Literally translated it means "think hat" and digest everything, so we had cuddles.
I think for Darcy cuddles is enough but I told him that I want more out of our relationship than only cuddles

I've seperated the boys now, and if the weather stays fine, I'll do another session with Darvcy tomorrow.

tada for now.