Quiting too Soon

Yesterday, my sister rode Ana, and Ana was getting frustrated with the trot, stop, and back up. She reared. It was a very pretty rear though. After having Ana stop one more time, my sister was done riding. I didn't want her to quit even though she had been riding for two hours already. I told my sister that it would teach Ana that when she was bad she wouldn't have to work. Today my sister rode Ana again, and sure enough in the first fifteen minutes of riding Ana reared. My point was made. Ana learned that if she reared she didn't have to work. Horses are too smart for their own good. It only took Ana one time of getting away with something to try it again.

Obstacles With the Horses

Yesterday my sister and I set up a little obstacle course for Misstack and Ana. We set up four barrels in a row, flat on their sides, for them to jump over, and we put some logs on the ground for them to step over. The first thing we did was take the horses into the round pen and had them yield their hindquarters to turn and face us, then change directions. I'll put a video of this up later.

The next thing we did was take them over the logs we put down. If you don't have logs, just use anything that your horse can step over without having to jump. One of our "logs" was actually a rolled up carpet. You will have to have a long lead rope and a manageable whip. When you send them across the logs at a trot you have to watch how much rope you give out so they don't go on the far side or the side you are on. You will also have to walk with your horse so they go across all the logs. So while your horse is going across he logs you are still behind your horses driveline but walking alongside the logs as your horse goes across. To get them to change directions we used the yeilding hindquarters to face us then change directions. To do this you "step towards their tail", bring the whip down towards their hindquarters, and pull their head towards you.

The last thing we did was the barrels. We had them lunge around it a few times and then we trotted them up to it to jump. With Misstack it didn't go so well. She did not want to jump it. Part of it was my fault because I wasn't far enough away from the barrels to keep her from going around them while still letting enough line out so that she could face the jump to jump. what ended up happening was that she nocked the furthest barrel ot of place and she jumped the gap it created. After that it only took a few more tries and getting enough momentum up for her to jump it. And then Ana tried it and she did it right away. But she has a little bit of an advantage over Misstack. When she was one and two years old a foreign exchange student worked with her, and she put little jumps up for Ana to go over. Ana still didn't do it all the time though, but that was mostly operator error.

Round pen with Misstack

A few days ago I took Misstack out to our little back pen and worked on changing direction to the inside. If she wanted to change directions without me telling her too I would send her back the original way. It was a little muddy that day and she actually fell, but she got right back up and I told her to start running again. You really don't accomplish anything by fretting over your horse when he falls down. If your horse does fall just get him going right away and watch for signs of injury. If your horse is hurt he'll let you know. I also worked on getting her to yield her hindquarters, back up, and yield her shoulders.

Feeding time!

I have found that the best time to teach your horse a little respect is during feeding time. They want their food and you aren't getting out of their way fast enough. They get pushy and get in your bubble space. I feed my horses in their stalls. This is nice because then I don't have to worry about more than one horse. When I give them their food their immediate reaction is to go for the food right away. What I do is right when I step in the pen I get my horse to stand away from me and the food. I put the food in their bucket, and they try to eat. I shoo them back away and just stand there for a little while. Not for long, just so that they know that you can keep them away from their food. You can also use your hand to bump their nose if they keep trying top put it in the feed bucket when you're still standing there. Eventually your horse will stand in their stall patiently waiting until you leave their stall so that they can go eat. I suggest that you bring a crop with you until you are absolutely sure that your horse will be good.

Woot, Woot, Go Ana!

For the last couple weeks, riding about four times, my sister has been working with Ana getting her to stop, back up, and stand still. My sister would first start out cantering Ana, which takes about half an hour, until her head dropped. Then she would do that routine of stopping, backing up, and standing still. I rode Ana today, and I am really happy, because she was calm and never tried to go faster than a walk. I didn't canter her for 30 minutes either. She actually hadn't been ridden since Friday. But she was awesome. When I walked her out to the paddock it took me two times of moving her hindquarters to get her to stand still when I put my foot in the stirrup. I was actually pleasantly surprised because it was amazing how quickly she responded to the reigns when I asked her to stop. I didn't have to use a lot of pressure on the reigns. When I asked her to back up she would go six steps and stop. I just asked her to go further than that. I also did flexing. Flexing is when you bring the horses's nose to their stomach. What she normally does when you flex her is the moment you let her head go back to its normal position she starts walking again. The first time I flexed her she moved a step. I backed her up and flexed her again. This time she didn't move. I did the same with the other side, and she didn't move. I did it again later, flexing her side to side at least six times. She did not move the entire time.

"Working With His Breaks On" and Light Bit Pressure

Today my sister rode Ana and worked on "working with his breaks on" with her again. The only thing that changed was that when my sister started to canter Ana she started out slower. Oh, and when my sis went to get on Ana she only had to make Ana's hindquarters move twice before Ana stood still so that she could mount.

I rode Misstack. That was fun. I was walking her and I was using a snaffle bit with her and she was just really responsive to a light pull on the reigns. I moved up to a trot and she was good with the bit there too. I started cantering her and she was awesome. While she was cantering I would pick random places in the paddock to turn her. Sometimes it was along the fence other times it was just anywhere in the pen. She was switching leads and turning and and points even doing small rollbacks. To get her this way I would canter, trot, or walk and any way she wanted to go I would go another direction. When you canter, trot or walk just ask your horse to turn at random spots in the pen. Eventually your horse will become lighter on the bit and start listening to you more. I did this with barrels. I would start her out doing the barrel racing pattern and then when she started going around that barrel i would turn her away from it.

A good place to find really good horse training is http://www.downunderhorsemanship.tv/
Some of the stuff on here is from this website.

Results for "Working With His Brakes On"

I tried this method with Ana, and I was really pleased with the results. After cantering Ana for a good 30 minutes just to get her to drop her head and keep it there, we worked on walk/stop/back/hold/sit. When she started out she was almost jumping out of a stand still to walk when we clucked to her, and her walk was very fast and energetic. She also didn't want to stand still for very long. At the end of the session she didn't jump at the sound of a cluck, her walk was slower and less urgent, and she stayed still just a little bit longer. Granted all this took about 2 and a half hours, so when you do this be willing to put time into it, and be patient. With Ana the more you jerk and pull the more frustrated and unresponsive she gets. If you're gentle and patient with her she will do everything you ask to the best of her abilities. We are not done yet though. We still have to get Ana to do this consistently. I have no idea how long that will take, but we will do it. After she is awesome at doing it at the walk we will work on the trot, then the canter. I do have some videos of this so when I have time I'll put them on here.