This is the story of my quest to train my three Dales Ponies for classical dressage, primarily by using Alexandra Kurland's clicker training methods, with a touch of others such as Philippe Karl and Anja Beran thrown in. I turned to clicker training because I had come up against some issues that I didn't know how to fix and because I wanted to inspire them to become enthusiatic partners. Bella and Jack are all my own work and have never been ridden by anyone else.


Bella, Grace and Jack

Bella aged 6

Bella aged 6

Treat Delivery

Jack aged 7

Jack

Monday 10 November 2008

For the last few days one of the things I've been doing with Bella and Jack, who hadn't really understood my request to lengthen their stride within a pace, is walking alongside them, taking huge, exagerated strides myself while saying 'long' as a drawn out word, and clicking them for mirroring me. They got this almost instantly, and now understand when I say 'long' when I'm riding. Jack is especially good at this and tries so hard, dropping his head and overtracking by a mile with a really earnest look on his face.

Bella and I managed our first couple of ridden steps of travers today! I sneaked a quick look at her back legs while I was giving her her treat and they looked to be in exactly the right place, so I think that it was OK. Our leg yeild is much better now as well, though the angle's still a bit steep at times.

I also found that by using both legs on the foreleg buttons I can get more swing into her trot, and medium trot is starting to feel a possibility in the not too distant future.

My OH stopped and watched us for a while. He used to ride and never says anything complimentary about Bella or Jack (he says that I rave about them enough for both of us) but, when I asked him if he'd ever seen a horse concentrate as hard or try as hard as Bella, of any age, let alone a six year old, he had to admit that he hadn't, so he must be REALLY impressed, and he was a complete clicker sceptic!

I must watch 'The Art of Riding' tapes again. I have never even seen the advanced one, because I thought that it would never apply to me and my horses. Now anything seems possible!

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I am a clicker training addict and there is no cure - thank goodness!!!