Ana in the summer of 2011... I think...
Aleythia is riding Ana in this video. Ana has two gaits. Canter and Trot. I think we got her desire to canter out of the way so now she just wants to trot. And now she has one more. WOAH!!! It's great.
I'll get another video on this post, but I just wanted to see if the video worked.
Finally. Here it is!
I'll get another video on this post, but I just wanted to see if the video worked.
Finally. Here it is!
I see vast improvements in her standing still. However, there are two areas of improvement that are present in both videos. Her movements are very robotic, meaning she doesn't flex through her turns. Often this is what we see in young horses who haven't been shown how to lead from the nose, shoulder, and hips separately.
ReplyDeleteThat flexion that you are doing at the stand still is the first step actually. Now that she understands lead by her nose, I would nudge her with my outside heel up high in her shoulder. Then ask her to stand again. Doing this several times on each side over several days will be how she starts learning to lead by the shoulder. After she's mastered this, throw in circles where you lightly bump on the inside rein, use downward pressure (not to be confused with pressing against her side) on your outside stirrup to drive her into a nice large circle. She doesn't turn until she flexes at the poll, thus leads with her nose, and her shoulder follows. If done properly you'll see round circles.
After that's mastered, ask her to walk straight along the rail, with her nose turned into the rail. We don't want her to curve her body into the rail though, it needs to be straight, so use her legs to keep her body straight and her hands to keep her poll flexed.
The second area of improvement that I noticed would be her attention. I know she's a high strung breed, but regardless she should pay attention to you. She doesn't listen to the rider until they ask something of her. Her ears are off, and her eyes are alert and she sight sees while she's being ridden. I'd put a headset on her, and ask her to bring her head down every time she's sight seeing- as it's just not ok. I like horses that are eagerly listening for cues, not those that listen once you cue. When I'm riding my horse should be thinking "What does she want next?" not "Oh I suppose she wants this now" Does that make sense? I'd fix up these two areas, and then you should see dramatic improvement in her calmness as well. I hope that was helpful!
She definetley does need to listen while riding. Actually right before I took the video we were backing her up to get her attention. After that she stood still when ground tied and she stood still for saddling and bridling. She was relaxed even.
DeleteI don't quite understand where I should put my heel or why. (your second paragraph) What is supposed to happen?
I do want to get her to walk, trot, and canter on a loose rein at the speed I say before we start working on flexing through turns. I do think that getting her attention while riding should be fixed as soon as possible and I will start doing that. Can you clarify what you mean by bringing her head down? Do you mean having her flex at the poll?