Aug 24: Worked with Amigo again today. I did a little ground work with him first because I'm ready to really start working on lateral exercises. So the ground work consisted of asking him to do turn on the forehand both directions using a short dressage whip to act as a leg cue. He has this down pretty good and steps under with his inside foot every time now so today I started asking him to leg yield. That didn't go too badly but of course he had no clue and we ended up moving the front end, then the back end, then the front end, etc. I just asked for a few steps each direction and gave lots of pets when he got it even sort of right...But mostly we just did crooked sidepasses. Oh well it's a start. Then I went to hop on and today he had to move away from the mounting block so I picked up the block and made him circle until he asked to stop. He stood still then and when I got on he didn't take a step so we just stood there for a while and I petted him. ( He's sooooo pettable with his big ole arching neck and a mane that falls on both sides) Anyway then we walked off and I started doing spiral in and out both directions which we haven't done before but he still did them reasonably well. We walked all over the arena, practiced halting off my seat which he did every time today....yea! And then we attempted leg yields in both directions.....he was able to give me a decent leg yield off my left leg, going to the right but he isn't very responsive to my right leg so his yield to the left didn't actually work....at all. So I can see he needs a lot more ground work on that side. And practice practice practice. But here's the deal.....this horse is soooooo good! And he tries like crazy. He's smart, willing, and sensible. Every time I ride him we make progress. Very often something I started teaching with the last ride will be almost perfect by the next ride! So he thinks about what I'm teaching. Sometimes he doesn't understand and he is very clear telling me he's confused. Sometimes he understands but doesn't want to do it.....that's when I have to firm up. We seem to be developing a pretty good line of communication now so that I have a better idea when to firm up and when to step back and get more clear or take smaller steps. Amigo is starting to trust me too which in turn makes me more relaxed and trusting of him. Unless I am waaayyyy wrong I think this horse is going to be fabulous. I only have one dilema now regarding his training progress...he seems to be gaited in that he will do a real fast walk, almost an amble at liberty and on the lunge line. I have been trying to encourage it and he has gotten better at being able to do it for longer....half a circle rather than only a few steps. However if push to go faster or if he just wants to go faster, he trots. His trot is very smooth, actually he has a beautiful trot.....would be great for dressage. My dilema is do I limit his trotting while I work on developing the amble and take a chance on suppressing what is now a beautiful trot, or do I let him develop his trot and take a chance that he will then choose to only trot and lose the amble.....sigh decisions decisions. I have a feeling he will make the final decision.
Aug 25: Case in point regarding Amigo's ability to think about his lessons. Yesterday I started lateral ground exercises with him, trying to get him to leg yield, and all I could get was a crooked sort of a sidepass. This morning he did a perfect leg yield to the right, first time! To the left he was nearly perfect! He had to do it one step at a time and really think about each step but it was clear he has the general idea and gave it his best shot....and all with just the lightest tap with the whip. I even experimented some with seeing if he could understand that a touch farther back means move your rear feet and a touch farther forward means move your front feet. That confused him but he was able to guess right a couple of times! I'll repeat this lesson a bunch in the halter. Once he seems pretty clear, I'll put him in the bridle. Once he can get it in the bridle I'll put his saddle on and cue him with a stirrup (from the ground). Then he should be able to transfer all that to me being in the saddle and cueing him. I just cannot believe how quickly he is progressing with this training!!! Wow it sure makes a difference when you don't have to undo a bunch of crappy training first. Woohoo!
Aug 26: A quick note.....just ground work today....working on that leg yield.....today Amigo seemed to just want to go forward and was bothered by my tapping him to move his rear leg under and over. I tried a couple of times on both sides and he just seemed to get more and more bothered. I think I am asking for too much right now. I decided to see if he was as bothered if I asked him to just go sideways. He was fine with that on both sides. Now I know if I ask for sideways without the forward he's likely to start crossing his inside rear behind the outside rear, or stepping the outside foot over first which doesn't accomplish anything, and the inside front will cross over the outside, putting him in a bind. So what I did was ask for a sideways movement but allowed him to step forward at the same time when he needed to. That worked pretty well. I only asked for one or two steps each time too and that helped also. I also think that under saddle I need to continue to work on turn on the forehand but also add turn on the haunches so that he learns to separate the front from the back.
Riding Lex in the forest today with 3 other riders. Just got back from my ride and Lex couldn't have been better! He was relaxed the whole time even at the beginning, he listened to me, he was able to lead and follow and he gaited when I asked and slowed down when I asked, even when following a horse that likes to go fast. At first when that horse took off Lex thought he needed to canter so I let him go for a few steps but then he realized we weren't going to go that fast so he dropped to a nice even run walk and was willing to slow to a walk even though the horse in front was still trotting away. He was super. He only shied once as we were on the road back to the trailers and that was a squat shy....done and over with, easy to ride and he settled down immediately. Yea! He's starting to act like a real trail horse!
Aug 27: I did something different with Amigo today. I have an old circle y saddle that I don't use because it's not comfortable for me but the tree fits Amigo like a glove. So I put that saddle on him today with a nice thick pad, attached my clippers, put him in a rope halter with a 15ft lead and way we went for a walk in the forest. Amigo grew up on 150 acres that was partly wooded so I didn't expect him to get concerned and he didn't dissappoint! He walked when I walked, stopped when I stopped, grabbed a bite of grass while I was trimming the trail and generally was a super trail trimming buddy. He only tried to get ahead of me twice and I just told him he had to stay behind and put him back in his place. Once he nibbled at my butt while I was bent over cutting down a beauty berry. He got a swift smack in the nose with the lead rope....had quite the look of surprise on his face! I don't think he was trying to bite, just curious, but still horsey lips don't belong on the human. I had the saddle on him so that when we went through the thick overgrown parts of the trail the bushes would catch on the stirrups. He needs to get used to that as well as having brambles and bushes brushing his sides. He never had a problem. I walked him over fallen logs, some of them so big I could barely climb over them and he navigated like a champ. He is going to be one super trail horse! Next goal, trotting or gaiting, I think at this point I'll let him pick whichever is easiest for him. The object will be to just get his feet moving a little faster and teach him he can move out with a rider and nothing bad will happen but he also needs to stop when I tell him. I think when the time comes the transition from arena to trail will be easy....hope so anyway.
aug 28: I debated writing about this but decided I have to record the bad as well as the good....training horses doesn't always proceed smoothly. Today Amigo was terrible! He was not listening to me, he pushed through the bit every time I asked for a halt, he walked off as I was getting on, he was rushy and tense and just plain awful. He seemed to be mad and acted like a 2 yr old throwing a tantrum. Having said that, and having thought about this all afternoon trying to figure out why he should suddenly be such a butt head,I've decided that I may have set him up to some extent. I did no pre ride ground work, I had no one in the arena with me, there was a shower coming through so a cool wind and some rain..... So in the future I will not be skipping the ground work and Lew will continue to sit in the viewing stand. But still.....Amigo has been doing little things lately, like not wanting to stand still at the mounting block, stepping off when I get on him, and not halting to my seat. I think he is testing boundries. Given his previous reaction to correction, I think if I get fairly firm with him and continue to not let him get away with these things, he'll eventually give it up. He has improved with the mounting block and all I did was follow him in circle until he decided circling was too much work and stood still. I grew up with the mindset that you make horses do stuff....if they won't stop you'd get a bigger bit. It's hard to change that mindset.....not so much when things are rocking along all nice nice, but when things go bad, it's very easy to fall back to old habits. So far I think I've done pretty well but still, sometimes I'm not sure I'm handling things the right way. Today my first instinct was.....I need a curb bit!!! Instead, I reminded myself it's not about the bit it's about the training. So after whining to Vickie and getting reassurance from her, I will be taking Amigo back a few steps and concentrate on what he knows for now. I think I was giving him too much new stuff and his behavior today was partly him telling me to slow down! Maybe. Anyway no more lateral stuff for now. We'll concentrate on bending, walking the whole arena and halting. Maybe some backing. And concentrate on relaxation the whole time. I am anxious to see how he goes tomorrow.
Aug 29: Ok so maybe I'm anthropomorphizing somewhat but if it makes me feel better...... This morning after Amigo finished his little breakfast and while I was sitting on the top rail of the arena waiting for the rest of the herd to finish, Amigo sidled up to me and stood right next to me so that I could pet and scratch his face and neck. He has never done that before....never! He usually doesn't particularly like his face petted....REALLY not fond of kisses. Today it was like he wanted me to pet him! Personally I think he was apologizing for yesterday. Who knows? But I got the distinct impression he was going to be a good boy today for his lesson and sure enough this afternoon when I rode him he was better than he's been in awhile! He stood stock still at the mounting block and after I got on he didn't move until I told him to. His attention stayed pretty much with me and the couple of times he left, it was to check out the drainage area where a piece of tarp was flapping....no big deal, and his attention came right back to me when I lifted the opposite rein. I did do a bit of pre ride lunging and really worked on getting him to amble and halt to my voice. His amble is getting better in that he can do a whole circle now to the left. To the right he still either wants to drop to a walk or go up to a trot but we're working on it. So when I got on all we did was walk the whole arena, did Vickie's bending pattern all the way through once, and then back on the rail going both directions. I practiced halting every so often and he was stopping off my seat real nice and dropping his head every time I asked. So on one long side I tried asking him to speed up his walk. He did and it was a very fast walk, very smooth but not quite an amble. Still he did it and didn't get worried so that was good. It was a good ride.
And I took Dodah out in the forest, just me and him, to do some trail trimming. We went out about 2 miles after I got tired of triming beauty berries, and when we turned onto the perimeter trail to head home Dodah put it in high and took off gaiting. Of course I told him to slow it down, I never let them go fast toward home, but he wasn't having it. He got so collected for a little bit I thought he was going to do something really bad like rear but he didn't and so I decided to let him go. He forgets that once we make that turn onto the perimeter trail we still have 2 miles to go to get home! Ha! So when he started getting tired I made him keep gaiting and when we got to our property I made him keep going until we got to the logging trail where we made a big loop....another 2 miles before we got back home again. By that time he was more than willing to walk! Boy that collected gait was fun! And I learned he has no trouble gaiting up to a log and then jumping over, he does not need to canter to set up just fine for a jump.....and he loves to jump! It was a fun ride. I plan to do more solo rides now and I may even get some of the trails trimmed too!
Aug 30: Rode Lex in the forest today and he got nuts when we started home sort of like Dodah did yesterday but not quite so rushy. So I did the 5 mile circle/figure 8 like I did yesterday and by the end he walked up to the arena on a loose rein. So then I put him in the arena and did a bunch of canter work. His canter is getting real nice, on both leads. He's finally starting to use his back. I may be able to start collecting him soon.
Then I rode Amigo. He was a good boy again today, stood for mounting etc. We did a lot of bending and walking the rail and when he really relaxed, I asked him to walk faster. At this point he has no clue what I'm asking so when he finally guessed right and sped up I let him go a few strides then let him halt and petted. I repeated this several times until he offered a few strides of actual gait!!! Wowsa! Boy did he get the pets! We repeated that a couple of times and he seemed to start understanding that all that leg thumping and clucking means to move his feet and he just naturally chose to go into that amble. At one point during the ride he spooked at something. All he did was kind of jump forward a step or two and stopped as soon as I picked up the reins and he settled right down after. So now I know I can ride him through a spook and he's not likely to take off in a dead run in that arena. I'm getting a lot more confident with him for sure.
Aug 31: Amigo was on his high horse today, not bad exactly but ready to go and pushing through the bit when I asked for a halt.....forget halting off my seat today! So we walked and did bending and practiced halting. My confidence is getting such that I can now ride him when he feels full of it and I don't worry about him breaking in half. I started getting more demanding with the halt....first ask nice and then when he ignored me I cranked on those reins and held them until he gave his head. I don't like getting so strong with him but he has shown me that sometimes he doesn't want to respond to "please". By the end of the ride his halt was back to being good. The bending is getting much better....I 've discovered all I need to do is just lay my inside leg against his side, and then time my rein cue with his inside front leg and he just bends so nice and I even got a couple of walking turn on forehand this way. So no need to actually bump him with that inside leg.....the boy is proving to be more sensitive than I thought. I did not ask for a fast walk or gait today because he was already wanting to walk pretty fast and tending to blow off my cues to halt. I don't want to do too much speeding up until I'm sure we have that halt each and every time, no questions asked! By the end of the ride he was paying attention better and was generally more relaxed. It sure feels good to have the confidence now to ride him through his bratty days. I think this will allow us to make more progress as now I can let him test boundries and correct as needed.