Sunday
I rode Harry today! I worked with him the whole time, since we didn't have a whole lot of time. I woke up late...I couldn't help it!
He was a good little boy today. He wasn't pulling any tricks or anything. He was super energetic on the longe and I flexed him on the ground before I got on, just in case. Nick broke my carrot stick...so as soon as I order a new one I want to get back into Parelli stuff, especially because I will be staying here for the next three years. Yep, I'm staying here for law school, which I guess is nice, because then I won't have to stop riding and improving myself and the horses.
He was kind of poopy and kind of pacey riding, but I tried my best to connect with his energy and sit deep, urging him on with my seat and my legs while trying to relax his head through checking and circling rather than holding it down. He settled into it eventually. I just feel like now we're back at square two with him. Not square one, because his attitude has definitely improved, but square two, because he isn't performing as well as I know he can. Maybe I'll see how he does at this show next week and then decide whether or not to take him off of the calming supplement. The key is to get him relaxed but not so relaxed that he's a bump on a log, and that's a difficult balance to get right now.
His largo is pretty pacey again...so I can't really make a huge difference in speed between corto and largo in show without him pacing or getting anxious. I hope that doesn't prevent us from placing. It just kind of agitates me that I can't figure out, after a year off of shows, what to do with him to make him super performance ready. I'm really satisfied with how his attitude has come out and how he trusts us (to an extent. still hates the tarp and big ball), but now I need to get his spirit and confidence up to perform. Despite this feeling, I just have to remember that I'm making progress.
Showing posts with label relaxing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label relaxing. Show all posts
Monday, April 22, 2013
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Day 224
Every time I get disheartened with Harry, I have to remember how far I've come.
So you may remember that he is in a bit of a slump performance-wise lately. He's just not very enthusiastic about gaiting and not doing nearly as well as he was in April or so and I can't figure out why. He just got his shoes done last weekend, so I figured that this weekend there might be a little bit of a change. He's just not having it. He's very stretched out and not collected and despite the huge amount of circlework that we're doing, it just doesn't seem to be helping. He isn't tap-dancing anymore, so that's a plus, but his corto has definitely extended and his largo is more pace than gait. If we make it to the next show, that means I only have five more practice days with him, and I'm not so sure that I can accomplish this big of a goal in only five days, especially when I don't even know where to start tackling the problem.
But I do have to admit, I'm proud of how relaxed he's gotten, even if it seems to be making him a little bit lazy. His whole problem with the tap dancing was because of all this pent up energy and anxiety that he had and now that he's let that go, it's like he has no real steam to fuel his engine, the little train that he is (or was). But today before I rode, I did some more Parelli Games. He let me swish the rope all around him today without continuing to turn so that he was still facing me. He let me twirl the rope like a helicopter and he wasn't even phased by it. He even let me swing the rope over him in an arc from one side to the other without getting scared of seeing it or hearing the hum that it was making through the air! I played the Porcupine Game with him a bit today and he was really good at it. I didn't have to put pressure on either his shoulders or his hinds for very long before he got the idea to pivot away from it. So yeah, our performance might be suffering a little bit, but I would rather be gaining his trust and having him calm down so that he's a sociable animal than being a great performance and absolutely skittish of everything. Now I just need to find a way to combine the two.
After our somewhat depressing ride (only because he was pokey), we went outside with Samantha and Tobacco. I'm so proud of my little Harry! He has been scared of the pond in back for the longest time, and two weeks ago we went out and I lead him around it on foot and we got really close to the water's edge. Well today when we were riding outside, we were able to calmly walk next to it without the fear of being eaten up by the sea demons! In fact, the entire ride outside was wonderful. He's turning into being a great trail horse, but I do still have hope for finding a happy medium between super anxious but good performance and really calm but very pokey. Tomorrow, we're trying the fruit basket.
So you may remember that he is in a bit of a slump performance-wise lately. He's just not very enthusiastic about gaiting and not doing nearly as well as he was in April or so and I can't figure out why. He just got his shoes done last weekend, so I figured that this weekend there might be a little bit of a change. He's just not having it. He's very stretched out and not collected and despite the huge amount of circlework that we're doing, it just doesn't seem to be helping. He isn't tap-dancing anymore, so that's a plus, but his corto has definitely extended and his largo is more pace than gait. If we make it to the next show, that means I only have five more practice days with him, and I'm not so sure that I can accomplish this big of a goal in only five days, especially when I don't even know where to start tackling the problem.
But I do have to admit, I'm proud of how relaxed he's gotten, even if it seems to be making him a little bit lazy. His whole problem with the tap dancing was because of all this pent up energy and anxiety that he had and now that he's let that go, it's like he has no real steam to fuel his engine, the little train that he is (or was). But today before I rode, I did some more Parelli Games. He let me swish the rope all around him today without continuing to turn so that he was still facing me. He let me twirl the rope like a helicopter and he wasn't even phased by it. He even let me swing the rope over him in an arc from one side to the other without getting scared of seeing it or hearing the hum that it was making through the air! I played the Porcupine Game with him a bit today and he was really good at it. I didn't have to put pressure on either his shoulders or his hinds for very long before he got the idea to pivot away from it. So yeah, our performance might be suffering a little bit, but I would rather be gaining his trust and having him calm down so that he's a sociable animal than being a great performance and absolutely skittish of everything. Now I just need to find a way to combine the two.
After our somewhat depressing ride (only because he was pokey), we went outside with Samantha and Tobacco. I'm so proud of my little Harry! He has been scared of the pond in back for the longest time, and two weeks ago we went out and I lead him around it on foot and we got really close to the water's edge. Well today when we were riding outside, we were able to calmly walk next to it without the fear of being eaten up by the sea demons! In fact, the entire ride outside was wonderful. He's turning into being a great trail horse, but I do still have hope for finding a happy medium between super anxious but good performance and really calm but very pokey. Tomorrow, we're trying the fruit basket.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Day 191
Last post of 2011! Of course I spent the last day with my lovely horses. I couldn't help but have that "holiday" feel while I rode them though -- like even though I was riding, it was a break.
I rode Harry for the longest. As usual, Saturday isn't his best day, but we're getting better at longeing. I think it's partially because Paco is longeing him whenever he gets the chance now, which I appreciate. He wanted to go a bit fast today, so I let him. I wasn't really worried about keeping him in a collected corto as opposed to a relaxed corto. I think he's finally getting comfortable and confident with himself.
My mom, on the other hand, who rode him after I did, said that she was having a hard time. I couldn't really notice because I was trying to keep Brie from flying away with me. Not saying that she was bad, she was just very hyper today. If there was ever a day that Brie wasn't hyper, I would have to be seriously worried about her!
After, we wished them a Happy New Year and said we wouldn't see them until next year. It's so weird saying that, it feels like such a long time, but I can't wait to go out and ride this weekend. It's back to school for me on Tuesday (ugh), so I know I'll need the break!
I rode Harry for the longest. As usual, Saturday isn't his best day, but we're getting better at longeing. I think it's partially because Paco is longeing him whenever he gets the chance now, which I appreciate. He wanted to go a bit fast today, so I let him. I wasn't really worried about keeping him in a collected corto as opposed to a relaxed corto. I think he's finally getting comfortable and confident with himself.
My mom, on the other hand, who rode him after I did, said that she was having a hard time. I couldn't really notice because I was trying to keep Brie from flying away with me. Not saying that she was bad, she was just very hyper today. If there was ever a day that Brie wasn't hyper, I would have to be seriously worried about her!
After, we wished them a Happy New Year and said we wouldn't see them until next year. It's so weird saying that, it feels like such a long time, but I can't wait to go out and ride this weekend. It's back to school for me on Tuesday (ugh), so I know I'll need the break!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Day 128
I didn't go out yesterday because I went to the dog show! Yayyyy doggies!!
Today. Was. FABULOUS.
Mainly because Colin came out today and Ray wasn't there. We chatted and he showed us three new stallions that he brought up from Florida. The poor things are so skinny! We're determined to get some weight and muscles on them. He promised to let me ride one, Cache, once he's settled in and has a bit more weight on. I'm super excited, Cache looks like a train coming down a track. So much power! I know I can be bad about getting pictures and videos up, but I promise I'll get a video of me riding Cache up as soon as I do!
So we rode all together and when he was done riding Cache, Colin came back in the arena to watch my brother and I ride. He immediately took to my brother and pretty much gave him an hour long lesson on Nina, giving him tips and tricks on how to ride her better so that she's more relaxed, more balanced, and gaits tighter. Unfortunately I didn't hear any of those comments because I was working on warming up Brie. I got around the arena a couple of times before my mom demanded a switch with me so that I would ride Harry.
What a handful. I know that I should be light on his mouth, but it's just so hard when he pulls and tries to take off! So, like a bad owner, Colin saw me struggling with Harry today. As soon as he was done working with my brother, he asked if he could ride Harry, and I obliged. First thing he pointed out was that Harry has a really unnecessary fear of the wall and we're going at it the wrong way. We use our inside leg to apply pressure and the outside rein to try to get him over to the wall, while Colin said that we should just not fight with him like that, just make him go straight, and instead of reversing into the arena, we should reverse onto the wall. Another pointer that he had regarding my fighting with Harry was instead of pulling on his bit constantly trying to get him to slow down is to just turn him into a wall or a corner and he'll have no choice but to stop.
Colin set a few goals for us with Harry:
1. Extinguish the fear of the wall.
2. Get him to relax while not wanting to take off.
3. Make him STOP when we want him to stop.
I think I've mentioned before that Harry has a tendency to tap-dance when he gets nervous. We've been told lots of different things to stop this and none of them have really worked. Colin suggested just keeping pressure on him at all sides when he starts tapping until he stops and then immediately release pressure and he'll start to get the message. It's worth a try.
He also mentioned that trotting is a good thing for the horses. We're all so concerned with gaiting all the time that they never get the chance to relax, and he said that giving them an opportunity to lapse into a natural trot is relaxing for them, and that when we ask them to gait from a trot, they'll have relaxed and then be ready to work really well in a gait. We can give that a try too, though I'm a bit skeptical about that. All we can do is wait and see.
But now Colin will be around more often, or so he says. I really am looking forward to having him around. It's nice to get some new pointers and tricks every once in a while, because thinking of ways to deal with issues gets a little exhausting on your own!
Today. Was. FABULOUS.
Mainly because Colin came out today and Ray wasn't there. We chatted and he showed us three new stallions that he brought up from Florida. The poor things are so skinny! We're determined to get some weight and muscles on them. He promised to let me ride one, Cache, once he's settled in and has a bit more weight on. I'm super excited, Cache looks like a train coming down a track. So much power! I know I can be bad about getting pictures and videos up, but I promise I'll get a video of me riding Cache up as soon as I do!
So we rode all together and when he was done riding Cache, Colin came back in the arena to watch my brother and I ride. He immediately took to my brother and pretty much gave him an hour long lesson on Nina, giving him tips and tricks on how to ride her better so that she's more relaxed, more balanced, and gaits tighter. Unfortunately I didn't hear any of those comments because I was working on warming up Brie. I got around the arena a couple of times before my mom demanded a switch with me so that I would ride Harry.
What a handful. I know that I should be light on his mouth, but it's just so hard when he pulls and tries to take off! So, like a bad owner, Colin saw me struggling with Harry today. As soon as he was done working with my brother, he asked if he could ride Harry, and I obliged. First thing he pointed out was that Harry has a really unnecessary fear of the wall and we're going at it the wrong way. We use our inside leg to apply pressure and the outside rein to try to get him over to the wall, while Colin said that we should just not fight with him like that, just make him go straight, and instead of reversing into the arena, we should reverse onto the wall. Another pointer that he had regarding my fighting with Harry was instead of pulling on his bit constantly trying to get him to slow down is to just turn him into a wall or a corner and he'll have no choice but to stop.
Colin set a few goals for us with Harry:
1. Extinguish the fear of the wall.
2. Get him to relax while not wanting to take off.
3. Make him STOP when we want him to stop.
I think I've mentioned before that Harry has a tendency to tap-dance when he gets nervous. We've been told lots of different things to stop this and none of them have really worked. Colin suggested just keeping pressure on him at all sides when he starts tapping until he stops and then immediately release pressure and he'll start to get the message. It's worth a try.
He also mentioned that trotting is a good thing for the horses. We're all so concerned with gaiting all the time that they never get the chance to relax, and he said that giving them an opportunity to lapse into a natural trot is relaxing for them, and that when we ask them to gait from a trot, they'll have relaxed and then be ready to work really well in a gait. We can give that a try too, though I'm a bit skeptical about that. All we can do is wait and see.
But now Colin will be around more often, or so he says. I really am looking forward to having him around. It's nice to get some new pointers and tricks every once in a while, because thinking of ways to deal with issues gets a little exhausting on your own!
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