What I did do was sort out a different bridle for him as his new bits arrived in the post. Will stay with the snaffle for the one rein riding and then go onto the lozenge one that has a french link action for two reins later on. Hope he likes them, they're much lighter to carry and are warm and nice to hold, won't bash his teeth with them and hopefully this will help with bridling from now on.
Cold but sunny today so grabbed my coat, saddle and equipment and went out to play with Sol. He caught me very quickly today, it started with him looking up with me at the first gate and he never really took his eyes off me after that. It takes about 5 mins to walk to the playfield with me carrying the saddle and all the equipment and he just stood there watching me ;-) I put the saddle down on a barrel and he came over and wanted scratches and hugs so he got those.
I haltered him making sure I use the 45' line and firstly did some circling. He couldn't stay in gait at all today so everytime he went from trot to walk I did a change of direction (COD), this got him working harder and after a few times of this he did stay in gait to the left for 3 circles. I stopped him when it was going well and rested for a while and then went onto the right and had to do COD twice and he stayed in gait for the 3 circles to the right. COD really helped him keep his responsibility.
Next I asked for sideways without a fence and got very specific again about not going forwards and stay straight, I went really slowly and stopped after he did 4 steps eachway nicely. Then I did a bit of something new for him, this is a backup, turn the forehand, backup manoeuver. I call it the Cowboy turn as I've seen cowboys do this when teaching horses cutting moves. It's very good for getting the horse on his HQ's. He did it quite well for a first attempt. Will build this up until I can do it ridden ;-) I then ask him to put his foot in the car tyre which he did. He still tenses a bit and tends to get his foot stuck in the tyre but he's learned to shake it off, jump out of the way and I make sure he turns and faces what's worrying him, so it's not as worrying as before and I know he'll get used to it and relax when his foot goes in if I just not worry about it and let him figure it out ;-)
Then I ask him to circle me and put in some jumps, the barrels, cross bars across barrels and the logs which I've put together to make a double with a few strides between. He did them all well and didn't try to dodge the double at all.
When rested I drove him from Z3-4 to the pedastal, he really was focussed on it and knew I was going to ask him to get up on it and he got up on it well from a distance with front feet. I then spent a little time asking him to put his back feet up today and hey presto he did it.
I left him standing there for about 2 minutes (ages when you're just standing about) but it was worth it, he started licking and chewing a lot and I think this is what it needed for him to think of this as a comfort zone. Will see if he does it tomorrow! lol.
After letting him graze for a bit for being such a good boy I saddled up and then did another new thing. I took him in-hand and driving from Z2/3 went around the perimeter of the playfield, one day I want to ride the rail with this but there are a few 'scary' bits in it. The River Shee runs along one side f the field and it's very noisy and often it's like he's in the wind where he can't make out other sounds so is a bit sceptical about things. Driving him online was a good idea. I made sure we had some focus points to stop at every now and then along the fence, things like: a gate, a fence post, a tree, another tree, two feet up on pedastal, a working telegraph pole, a jump and a wooden stile. This really worked and made the whole fenceline much easier to tackle in small bits. I will do this for the next 7 sessions with him too so that it becomes a good habit.
After this I worked a bit on getting Sol to sidle up to the wooden stile to the right so that I could mount. He's very good at just giving his left side but today I took some time out to teach him to come the other way and I will do this everytime for a while so again this becomes a good habit too.
I started the ridden fun with backups and turns on the FQ and HQ. He went well and so I went into trotting circles and asking for sideways on those circles. He moves lovely to the side when on a circle, it's basically a leg yield but working off a circle gets the body in a good rounded shape to do this easily. Then I see the cross jump and just go for it, he and I jump it well and it feels good to just do something for the fun of it.
Next I work with transitions of w/t/backup around the 50' roundpen, making sure I get my body into a good position for him to use his HQ's more. I've been working on this on the ground with him and am now transferring what I've learned about how to be in my body, but in the saddle. Really focussed on getting better transitions. I ask for a short canter to the mounting block to dismount, had a bit of trouble getting the canter today so must work on that again.
Finally I take him on his walk, this is the 5th day in a row we've walked about the forest and although it started slowly he didn't really have any major issues today. I was very focussed and a strong leader for him, we did transitions down the hill, he stepped closer and further down the gully to the stream and then on the last 1/2 mile before home I mounted up and in a good 'pushing passenger' position I ride him home, nearly get home too but just about 100yds from home his head went up and he didn't go forward, I backed him up and tried again but he stopped so I jump off and lead him in-hand the last bit home. I'm very pleased about the amount we rode and it was good to feel I could save our confidence on the last bit.
Today I spent all morning rearranging the playfield. I did this for two reasons, one, so that the horses can now eat the grass down where the arenas have been and two, to bring the arena's to a slightly safer place so that I can ride Solly more and canter. Where the big arena was there was a large area of marsh grass, long and with pheasants hiding it it! eek.
This afternoon I managed to get time to go out and walk Solly around the forest track again. I wanted to keep up the walking and to make a good routine out of it. I did some play first, backup, energy exercises and circling and then just went out on the walk.
Sol was a bit put out really, I never play with the horses this late (3.30pm) and he was probably thinking he was going to miss his dinner! lol. SO starting down the track he was a bit slow and hesitant. But I stayed close to him and allowed his thresholds to build his confidence and then when we got walking I put a lot of energy into my body to give him confidence in me that I was confident about going out at this time of day.
He slowly got the idea that to stay with me was good, I knew what I was doing and this was just a walk out and he was keeping me company. He really didn't bat an eyelid at anything, I made sure I watched his eyes to see if he was going introverted and at one point he was a bit so we stopped and I waited for him to 'come back'. I also played extreme friendly a lot of the walk up and down, thrashing my stick and string about and making sure I didn't react to any pheasants that flew up from me doing it. Solly didn't seem to worry and I made sure I played friendly over his back often to keep him with me.
Up at the top I just asked him to follow me, he didn't have any issues so I didn't ask him to sideways but all the way down I put a lot of energy into walk, trot, backups and kept him just thinking of being responsive and calm. This was the quickest walk we've ever done and he did very well.
Next I decided that whilst playing with Solly that I will ask him to wear his bridle and bit. This seemed to change a few things for him, not least of all his face pulling. I feel awful that he might feel I've let him down, he goes so well in the rope hackamore but I also feel that with the way I'm doing things his memories of being in a bit will be overwritten with good memories of me and the bit and I will do this by making sure I do everything with the bit 'for him' rather than 'to him' and also with the best savvy I have.
He couldn't put 4 feet up on the pedastal again today so I just asked for him to squeeze over it a few times so that he knew he could walk up and over it!
Working with about 20 feet of the 45' line we do some energy transitions w/t/bkup which went well. I then ask for figure of eights and today he had a few problems coming to the right again, maybe because of the changes of bridle and different rope? So I work on that one until he's softer and lighter again. Then I ask for straighter and faster backup which goes well. Next I ask for a bit of Rolling Rock which is good but I make sure to be a bit more specific about DHQ's and for him not to step forward.
Sideways over log had a bit of trouble. I start asking in Z3 but move to Z1 and ask from there as he doesn't seem to be focussing on me, maybe he's focussing on the bit and bridle more today...will be interesting to see what 7 days of wearing the bridle at play will do?
So, next, after another rest I do some sideways around the small roundpen asking for more speed and straighter. Trying to be a bit more specific with everything now. I also then ask for some driving in walk and trot from Z3-4 around the roundpen. He does this well but is wary about going forward a bit but I sort this out before moving on. Everything is going well so I go and take the bridle/bit off and saddle up.
Today I start with fig 8's around the barrels in the 100' roundpen. He is very light and I'm delighted with his responses to my aids. I then ask for backup and turns to the left and right using the savvy sting around his neck. Again he is very light.
Next I go out of the pen and do some Finesse weaving, using the suspension rein for close weaving and also doing larger rounder moves around the cones later. He goes very well with Finesse. I then ask for something new which is to weave one set of 4 cones backwards...he does this incredibly well ;-) So I move on to see if I can move his feet individually which I can. So then I ask for a half circle turn on the haunches left, then right. And then I ask for a turn on the forehand to the left and then the right. He's very good with these lateral manouevers and we rest for a long time before I dismount and take him out for his 3rd day walking out.
Walking out went well, he had a few stops on the way up the hill but he's decided he quite likes the rough grazing on the road edges which is good. At the top I ask for some circles to left and right with COD now and then to keep his attention. Start of decent I ask for a few steps of good sideways both ways and then I do the energy exercises for focus, walk/trot/walk/trot, walk/backups, trot/backups, and some footfalls of slow, medium and fast walk. This all went very well and the footfalls was cool as we've not done this before but he mirrored me very well.
I then take him to look and sniff the water down the ditch again, he had a bit of trouble but I just waited for him to get confident and then moved on, I was going to get on at the same place I got on yesterday but it was very windy and starting to snow so decided to just walk it again today.
After a nice grazing rest I asked him to fig 8 around two cones and he did this beautifully. I finally have this task down well with him and it feels lovely. So after this good play I groomed him and saddled up.
First task was to go into the 100' roundpen where I have placed two barrels to fig 8 around on a loose rein. I asked that he do one side in walk and the other side in trot which after a couple of circuits he got VERY well. I am very pleased with this as freestyle isn't his strong point. I rest him to graze in the middle and then I ask for him to trot the whole pattern a few times. He does very well and soon realises that a good trot fig 8 gets him back to the centre to graze again ;-) I make sure that everytime I stop now I do 2-6 steps of good backup and his backup is very light and with a nice rounded neck, feels great. This is a huge thing for Solly as the hardest thing for him since buying him is backup! Now it's like dancing with him.
I next go out of the pen and ask him to fig 8 in walk and trot around the two pens. Then I ask for a few strides of canter on each rein. I'm not doing much canter at the moment as there has been a lot of stormy winds here and this really gets Sol's blood up a bit so I've gone back to doing a little only in canter until I feel he's more settled.
Then I ask for a few strides of sideways without a fence both ways, this was hard to start with but I persisted quietly and he got it. I then put the sideways to a purpose by using it on a circle, he did this very very well and almost flowed away from my inside leg. Nice movement, a bit stiffer on one side but something to work on as we go. From this we rested a bit and then did some weaving around cones with concentrated reins using a suspension rein for the turn. He did this well and I think he is going to be very light and responsive in Finesse. I have just ordered him some white polyurethene bits to see if this works for him to start with as he still objects big time to metal and to be honest I can't blame him, it's cold and with his big tushes it could bang on his teeth. Also with his undershot set of molars the metal could get stuck there, I feel that maybe plastic would be softer and nicer for him! We'll see ;-)
So. After such a good play session and ride I decide to backup the walk we did yesterday out on the hill. I'm much more confident about handling him out there and this will be a test for us as we'll be doing it alone today. Going away from home he stopped a couple of times to just see where the herd were, not a problem. Going onto the forest track he lowered his head a bit and I decided to continue but to go real slow for him to get his confidence up. Once his confidence was up I stepped up the pace as he was following my lead and I wasn't afraid. I kept a close eye on him and also the surrounding grassland for ANYTHING that might spook him. Half way up the hill there is a bank full of orange bracken and it moves a lot with the thousands of pheasants here on the estate. I stop him, back him up and then point to the pheasants as they move so that he knew that I was aware they were there. I think this helped him quite a lot and I made sure I didn't push him through any thresholds again.
At the top he was much better than yesterday but I asked him for sideways left and right from the top just to make sure he knew we could do it softly and not just use this as a strategy to get him re-focussed on me everytime. He did the sideways very well.
Next, like yesterday, I kept his focus by doing transitions all the way down the hill. First walk/backup, then trot/backup, then walk/trot with 10 steps each, then walk/trot with 6 steps of each. He managed to keep up with me very well and our energy focus is getting strong. Near the bottom of the hill there is a small stream and I tested my leadership by asking Sol to go into the small stream for a drink, it was down a small bank but there was a large bank the other side so it was quite a squeeze for him to walk calmly down to the water. I was very proud of him. He drank a mouthful and then came right out. At this point I was confident so mounted up and rode him to the bottom of the hill. I made sure I kept his focus but doing walk/backup transitions all the way. At the bottom we were on a small road, large stone wall one side, smaller stone wall the other, LOTS of long grasses and lots of potential for pheasants or ducks to 'attack' us. lol. So to save my confidence and Sol's in me I got off and walked home. Going home I asked Sol to squeeze through quite a few big puddles which was fun.
I'm glad I went out, had a great play/ride session and a confident walk/ride out. I will try to do this all week and hopefully I will feel better about going out on Solly after doing so.
Here Holly (the herd leader) is telling Sol to move away! Sol is licking and chewing and focussed on me and not really awknowledging Holly! lol
SO, Holly TELLS him to move and by golly I'm glad I wasn't riding him as he did a wonderful cutting horse move to the right that could unseat a rider if they weren't paying attention! lol. It was cool to see him move so well though and reminded me why I wasn't riding him out that day! ;-)
The last bit of walking went well. It is a smaller road, a bit cobbly and rough but Sol was totally tuned into my energy as I was walking calmly and asking him to walk/trot/walk/backup with a very very very light phase 1. Very very cool. This is a great way of riding whilst walking. If I can manage this when riding then he is going to become very light to ride.
Then just on the last pathway to home I drove Sol from Z4 & 5 and he did wonderfully, even sniffed and pushed around an old bicycle near the bins without worrying about it. Very LB and very nice to be around.
I will endeavour to take Sol out on this walk/ride over the next 7 days I play with him to reinforce what we did today. Hopefully this will bring my confidence up about riding him out in this place. I just have to be very careful about the pheasants up there as this is near where I fell off in May and that does play on my mind a bit. I think when I start being confident about riding him out and about the body protector will go back on. Better safe than sorry!
Sol caught me well and I walked about doing some liberty but then the other herd members got the wind under their tails and he ran over to them to play a bit. So, I just went and got him to catch me again and I put him online. Usual games, friendly, yo-yo, DHQ, turn FQ, backup from Z3, sideways along a pole and along bales of hay and then without a fence at all. Circling around in trot across the tarp, more canter circles, small jumps. Everything working well, with confidence and calmness.
I let him have a long rest on the pedastal and then we moseyed on over to the barrels where he squeeze jumps them both ways with a long rest afterwards. He's playing well today and his canter circles are getting better and better. To start with I was cantering ALL the time with him but I'm learning to do it more just 'in my body' rather than physically.
At near the end of the session we go and stand watching Kris doing liberty with Tara in the 100' roundpen and I take Sol's halter off. Then I ask him to stick to me at walk and trot around the roundpen both ways and then I ask for backup around a quarter of the roundpen. He did all of this very willingly and without much asking. He had a lovely calm, peaceful look in his eye today and so I took a picture of him, gave him a big hug and then turned him loose to graze and go back to the herd. Good session ;-)
We started with friendly, y0-yo's, put your foot in tyre, jump, circles with good disengagements and standing on the pedastal with front feet. I tried for a while for all four feet but he didn't actually do it, got three feet on it and left it on a good note to be tried again another day.
Next I tried a few new things like walk on tarp, stop and then back up. He did this well and we did it a few times to reinforce what I'd asked. Then I backed him up to the barrels so that Z5 was next to them, he couldn't quite get right next to them but he was only about 6" away from them so that was very good.
Then I worked on cantering circles. He's done bits of canter transitions on circles but today I wanted him to canter in the send of the circle. I only asked for half a circle of canter and then game over and he did very well, took a few times to really get a good canter send but now he knows what I was asking I just have to build on the half circle and a good send. Very pleased with this, he didn't try to kick out or anything so our relationship really is getting better.
After all this excercise I drove him from Z3/4 to the barrels and sat down with him for a while, he grazed peacefully. Then I took his halter off and asked him to jump the barrels at liberty for a finale. He jumped them really calmly and so that was a good mornings play, I hang out with him for a while as he grazed and then sloped off for some lunch.
In the afternoon I went back out with saddle and stuff for riding. Played a bit, groomed, saddled up and girthed in three stages as normal. I then went into the 100' roundpen to ride the rail and also do some figure of 8's around the two barrels I've set up there. BUT after just a couple of mins the men came back around this field to shoot.....I had to dismount and untack him then open the gate so that the horses could get out of the field closest to the shooting. Arghh. Now I may get to ride Sol on Sunday as I'm out tomorrow, there is shooting on Friday and Saturday and we need to find a new home where there is peace for me to train in ;-)
First we play friendly with the tyre, this is great. I make a plan of not allowing him to graze unless he's being friendly with the tyre with his nose or with his foot on/in it. This works well and he tries lots of things for me to see which one I want. Nose in tyre, foot on tyre, foot over tyre, foot by tyre, nose by tyres. Eventually he tries the foot IN tyre and all pressure is taken off while he thinks about it!
He grazes while his foot is in the tyre and then he manages to take it out without panicking so it comes off cleanly. I then ask him to do it one more time, which he does and then I let him rest.
After he's grazed a while and I've taken the halter/rope off him, he stays with me SO I decide to do a few bits of liberty in the field with him. He is really good at liberty in the field, he finds it interesting and not being on line really works for him. So, I ask him to jump the small jump of tyres, squeeze and come back. Does it without a problem. Then I ask him to walk at my side and back up from Z3. Not a problem. Then I really test our partnership by asking him to change direction at trot with the figure of 8 pattern around two cones. He does it so well I can't believe it. Normally he has trouble going to the left cone, not drawing or changing direction online but at liberty he flows...beautiful. So proud of him. Now hopefully I can introduce the 45' line more with our play and into L3 we go! yeeha.
When I started popping it open fully he was a bit worried so we did lots of retreat, retreat, retreat and he started getting curious about it. After a while I could play friendly on his face, neck and shoulders with it open and I didn't want to push it so I dropped it on the floor and asked him to sniff it. This he did after a couple of seconds deciding whether it was safe to sniff.
Today though was the first shoot of the season. We live on a shooting estate where they shoot pheasants and ducks and today there was a lot of people with guns about. Luckily they weren't doing one particular run by the horses field so we could put them all into the playfield where there was plenty of flat ground to run if they needed and plenty of grass to distract them. This worked really well.
Mark and I went down morning and afternoon to be with them, interact in the herd and I played music on the mp3 on my phone and actually all of them were pretty calm. The boys (3) mostly grazed, it was interesting to see it was the mares (3) who kept a look out and watched most of what was going on. When the guns were going off they kept their distance but when the people started moving and going back to their cars (which were closer to the playfield) they all practically ran to the fence to see them! it was very interesting watching them and their reactions to people in their other field.
Solly in the playfield looking good
Solly taking a rest while the shooters had lunch
Later in the afternoon the shoot finished and we let the horses out to come to the house to be fed. Then they got split up again and the 4 healthy horses went to a top hill pasture where there is lots of untouched grass to graze and Solly with Tara came back down to the pond field where it's flatter so that Solly doesn't hurt his leg again. Tara keeps him company and she doesn't need extra grazing being a very good doer.
Whilst moving them I realised that Solly's dominance had been left unchecked for the last 10 days and I had to really use a lot of phase 4 again to stop him trying to run in front of me whilst being led. SO, lameness or no I have to still get out there and ask for some respect from him, using backup's and sideways in walk. I won't circle him or trot, just little bits of respect and then I think he'll not get those independent ideas when with me again. I don't like it when he gets on his toes and dominant, this is the mode that he's liable to kick out to get his own way. Back to the play and it was a good lesson to me that even though he may be lame his brain is still VERY active! lol ;-)
He has been grazing and moving more, he doesnt' seem so lame today. Also he must have felt more secure as he went and lay down on the straw. This will be good for his bad leg and I'm glad he felt safe enough to lie down with Tara to watching over him.
Neill also flexed his back legs/hips and his left side was not as flexible as the other side, he didn't rotate his hip around this side so Neil worked on that for him too. He couldn't say why he gets a sweat patch on his right shoulder, there was no pain or stiffness or blockages there at all. It could be something to do with what he sorted out or it could be an emotional sweating!
My dear Tara had a lot more stiffness and blockages in her shoulders but she's on the mend now too.
Went out today all ready to play and ride, weather not too bad but Sol came up lame. His front left leg is slightly filled so no playing today. Will rest him and see how it goes, he and Stormy play a lot and he probably landed badly after a play with him. I'll leave Sol today and tomorrow and play with Stormy instead for a bit.
Friday and Saturday I am taking him and Tara to Fife to have an expert Equine Touch and Cranial Sacrial man look at them both. Hopefully he will be able to tell me what Sollys sweat patch on his right shoulder is. Will let you know what I learn.
