February 24, 2011 - A cautious bravery

Last week I longed Rory a bit without messing with the rope side reins.  Rory was his usual pretty good self.  I had set the camera up to take photos, but somehow the exposure got set wrong and everything was a blur of white.  I tired to take photos again today, but the angle was wrong and I got a load of pics of Rory's legs.  Oh well, at least with digital it doesn't cost anything to find out the pics failed.

Today I didn't bother with the saddle.  I took Rory out to the arena and let him run for a few minutes.  We haven't had a great winter this year - too many warm days and not enough snow has made for poor footing outside.  The boys don't run as much when it's icy so Rory is happy to get the chance to stretch his legs inside.

After his run we had a quick longe refresher, and then I started with bit pressure again.  Today I snapped a lead rope to the bit on the left side and applied a little pressure out and back - a leading rein aid. When Rory turned his head, even a little bit I dropped the pressure and gave him a bit of carrot and a rub on his neck.  He was listening to the noises outside the arena again, but they weren't as distracting as the last time we tried this exercise.  As Rory got quicker and turning in response to the bit pressure I asked him to turn a little further before releasing and rewarding.  A couple of times he moved his feet instead of his head, but I just walked with him as he swung his body around and waited until I got the response I wanted.  He was definitely getting the idea today.

Food!

The weather was fairly warm, and we hadn't spent much time in the arena so I decided to walk Rory back to the barn by the long way around.  At the beginning of the week we'd gotten a giant square bale of hay to feed to a few of the outside horses.  The bale was sitting outside the paddock, covered by a bright blue tarp, which was naturally flapping in the breeze.  When we walked around the end of the arena Rory jumped, and then stopped and stared at the monster suspiciously.  He's curious, and brave enough - if cautious about new things.  I didn't have to encourage him too much to walk over to the monster.  The last few steps were a little harder for him to take, but once he realized there was food involved he just about stuck his head underneath the end of the tarp to reach the hay.  To complete the tour of interesting objects we visited the Christmas horse before going back to the barn.

Christmas horse and Rory nose to nose

February 11, 2011 - Introducing side reins

Clips from today's video

I still haven't gotten around to digging out my side reins and taking them out to the barn, but I did feel it was time to introduce the concept to Rory so I used a matched pair of lead ropes today.  They were quite long and I clipped them to his halter.  In his one bouncing fit of the day he barely hit the end of the ropes when he flung his head right up.  Rory was pretty good for the most part today, but he was just distracted enough that whoa was not getting through to him.  I actually had to use the walls a couple of times to stop him.  Rory wasn't running or anything, he just kept walking when I asked him to whoa.  I don't like to ask for something too many times without getting a response as that is training the non-response.  Overall it was a good basic session today.  Rory was very good standing on the crossties for the grooming and tacking up.  He does tend to want to stick his nose on everything in sight when I take the cross ties off so I can put the bridle on.

February 7, 2011 Review, remind, reinforce and introduce something new

I gave Rory a quick grooming and saddled him up.  He was very good about bridling today. 

The arena roof was covered in snow today after Sunday's fall, and the sun was shining.  I knew we'd probably be hearing the snow sliding off the roof.  We started with reviewing the basic longe lessons of walk, trot, halt and out.  When he got to trot, Rory was reluctant to come back to walk and I actually had to use the wall to help.  Rory spooked once, but otherwise the snow slides didn't bother him at all.  After he'd settled and was listening well I stretched the circle into an oval and asked him to lengthen his trot.  A couple of times he really stretched out and went forward.  I found it a little harder to judge where I needed to be on the long sides in order to keep him out and moving forward, but Rory told me when I got it wrong.  At the end I halted him against the wall so he wouldn't swing his haunches out and face me.  Going right he halts and stays straight, but going left he tends to face me.

The new lesson today was to introduce bit action.  Rory's been wearing his bridle while I work him for quite a while, but I've never put any bit pressure on him.  After longeing I stood beside him and hooked a finger tip into the left bit ring and put a little pressure on his mouth.  As soon as he turned his head even a little I let go and gave him a carrot.  Unfortunately it was a bit windy and the noises from the arena and outside were distracting and Rory took a little while to start to get the idea, but he was turning more quickly at the end of the lesson.  As we walked back to the barn I thought this lesson might be easier to introduce in the barn aisle where Rory is less concerned about what's going on outside.

February 4, 2011 Small signs of progress

I didn't do much with Rory today.  After he ran about with Totyo I brought him into the barn and gave him a good grooming.  He doesn't need very many carrots to persuade him to stand still now.  It's such a pleasure to have a horse who stands quietly and relaxed on cross ties while I do my fussing over him.  Some days we still have a discussion about picking feet up, but they're pretty mild on both sides of the arguement.  It was only as I was finishing up that I realized just how well he was behaving.  The good manners seem to sneak up and one day I turn around and there's this super polite horse standing on the crossties, and I can't quite put my finger on when it stopped being a training session about standing still.

January 31, 2011 Make haste slowly

Rory checking out the bag of bedding pellets

Today I decided to set up two cavaletti nine feet apart for Rory's longe lesson.  I didn't tack him up, so he got to run loose while I set the cavalettis and video camera up.  He didn't seem too interested in running today and followed me back and forth. While I was trying to angle the camera for the best view Rory found the open bag of bedding pellets.  He nosed at it, grabbed it, pulled and spooked himself when it moved.  It was only a few seconds before he came back to start the process again.  He managed to pick it up on the third attempt, naturally by the torn open top corner, which promptly tore away from the rest of the bag allowing it to thump onto the ground at Rory's feet.  He had a little spook, but I think it was more in play than actually being startled.

Once I had the camera in place and running, I collected Rory, attached the longeline and took him out into the middle of the arena.  He wanted to check out the cavaletti again so I allowed him to walk over them before starting the longeing.  I made a mistake today.  Rory kept pulling towards the cavaletti, and I allowed him to go over them instead of moving the circle away and keeping it small while we practised the known lessons of walk, trot, whoa, and out.  The cavaletti were distracting and he jumped or cantered or stopped depending on how the approach went.  He did have several creditable passes over the cavaletti but overall it was not a particularly good session as he was not really listening to me.  I did manage to push him along the wall to make more of an oval than a circle several times as well and he did quite well given it was the first time we've done that.

It was a reminder lesson for me more than Rory. Review, remind, reinforce, and then introduce something new.  Rory is smart and he picks things up quickly, especially when food is involved, but he's still green and just because he got something right today doesn't mean he's going to remember it when the situation changes and a new distraction appears.