Bella, Grace and Jack
Bella aged 6
Bella aged 6
Treat Delivery
Jack aged 7
Jack
Friday, 5 June 2009
Saturday, 21 March 2009
In Memory.
I don't know if I can continue this blog as my life has changed forever in the last week. My ponies still look the same but I no longer recognise myself from those photographs. I am so much older, sadder and wiser now, but I'm also a kinder, stronger, more sociable person too, than I was a few weeks ago.
I have moved mountains in the last fortnight and found that there is not much I can't make happen if I care enough and am motivated enough. Unfortunately the one thing that I wanted the most was impossible to achieve but it was never for want of trying.
I was lucky enough to be able to say, and to hear said, the things that many never have the chance to say before their journey together comes to an end, especially when it's been a long one.
I have been far more lucky for the last twenty eight years than I ever deserved and only realised it when it was nearly too late.
In memory of one of the kindest, sweetest, most generous and friendly people ever born. He had no idea how devastating the loss of his friendship would be to so many.
I have moved mountains in the last fortnight and found that there is not much I can't make happen if I care enough and am motivated enough. Unfortunately the one thing that I wanted the most was impossible to achieve but it was never for want of trying.
I was lucky enough to be able to say, and to hear said, the things that many never have the chance to say before their journey together comes to an end, especially when it's been a long one.
I have been far more lucky for the last twenty eight years than I ever deserved and only realised it when it was nearly too late.
In memory of one of the kindest, sweetest, most generous and friendly people ever born. He had no idea how devastating the loss of his friendship would be to so many.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Paul Belasik - Impulsion, Engagement and Collection.
Paul Belasik is a follower of the Austro-Hungarian School and has little time for Baucher, although he doesn't, as Philippe Karl would say, 'reject him out of hand because it is fashionable to do so, preferably without having studied him!' Paul Belasik has studied all the great masters in great detail.
This means that, when it gets to practical details, some of his 'means' do not really belong on the path which I'm trying to forge for myself, but I'm finding his very clear explanations of what the 'ends' should be, very helpful indeed.
Although he studied with Nuno Oliviera for a while, Paul Belasik says that, in his opinion, although riding on a slack rein is the ultimate aim of training, actually training a horse on a slack or semi-slack rein, and developing true impulsion, engagement and collection, is only possible for great artists like Oliviera. I'm hoping that the added motivation and precision made possible by clicker training can make it possible for this very ordinary rider to train a horse successfully without 'full' rein contact, as that's really the only way I want to ride, but time will tell!!!!!
Paul Belasik, on the 'Campaign School I' audio-tape of the 'An Interview with Paul Belasik' series, begins by defining impulsion, engagement and collection. He says:
"Impulsion is not just the raw force or power of the stride - it's not just the tendon/ligamentous movement of the horse across ground - but that the muscles actively flex and extend joints so that we have a gymnastic striding going on. Impulsion refers to this quality of how the muscles interact with the movement and that one sees the amount of strength in the step itself.
Engagement is the swing under of the hind limbs and how far they go under - the travel of the hind limbs under the body.
Collection is the compression of the hind limb joints in the stride which is engaged. That COMPRESSION, along with the extension of the neck, is what lightens the horse."
The term engagement is not enough to describe all the different phenomena that people try to make it cover - it doesn't cover the specifics and qualities - one must use more words."
He says that if a trainer just shouts "engagement, engagement" at a pupil, then pretty soon that pupil is going to ask what EXACTLY it is that the trainer wants.
He says:
"If, when you ride, in your mind engagement is this catch-all word for all the different things that happen when you are introducing collection, then how is the horse going to know what it IS that you want... The horse is going to ask you "what specifically DO you want? Do you want me to sink down more? Do you want me to thrust more? Do you want me to go more forward? Do you want me to go more vertical?" I think that the horse will entertain this same amount of confusion if you, the rider/trainer, don't have it in your mind what it is that you are after.
If YOU think that the term engagement is good enough to answer all the questions.. - it ISN'T good enough! You MUST analyse the movement more carefully and must decide, in each particular horse you are training, what it is that you are after.
You must develop language to describe.... vocal language, for me to describe it to you, or tactile language, for you to describe it to your horse. It's a complex communication that must go on and one word is not going to surfice; saying 'engagement' over and over again, or using your spurs on the horse - it's the same thing - that is NOT going to get you all the nuances of movement you are after as you head towards High School."
Explaining nuances of movement to the horse - sounds like an ideal job for the clicker to me!!!!!!!
This means that, when it gets to practical details, some of his 'means' do not really belong on the path which I'm trying to forge for myself, but I'm finding his very clear explanations of what the 'ends' should be, very helpful indeed.
Although he studied with Nuno Oliviera for a while, Paul Belasik says that, in his opinion, although riding on a slack rein is the ultimate aim of training, actually training a horse on a slack or semi-slack rein, and developing true impulsion, engagement and collection, is only possible for great artists like Oliviera. I'm hoping that the added motivation and precision made possible by clicker training can make it possible for this very ordinary rider to train a horse successfully without 'full' rein contact, as that's really the only way I want to ride, but time will tell!!!!!
Paul Belasik, on the 'Campaign School I' audio-tape of the 'An Interview with Paul Belasik' series, begins by defining impulsion, engagement and collection. He says:
"Impulsion is not just the raw force or power of the stride - it's not just the tendon/ligamentous movement of the horse across ground - but that the muscles actively flex and extend joints so that we have a gymnastic striding going on. Impulsion refers to this quality of how the muscles interact with the movement and that one sees the amount of strength in the step itself.
Engagement is the swing under of the hind limbs and how far they go under - the travel of the hind limbs under the body.
Collection is the compression of the hind limb joints in the stride which is engaged. That COMPRESSION, along with the extension of the neck, is what lightens the horse."
The term engagement is not enough to describe all the different phenomena that people try to make it cover - it doesn't cover the specifics and qualities - one must use more words."
He says that if a trainer just shouts "engagement, engagement" at a pupil, then pretty soon that pupil is going to ask what EXACTLY it is that the trainer wants.
He says:
"If, when you ride, in your mind engagement is this catch-all word for all the different things that happen when you are introducing collection, then how is the horse going to know what it IS that you want... The horse is going to ask you "what specifically DO you want? Do you want me to sink down more? Do you want me to thrust more? Do you want me to go more forward? Do you want me to go more vertical?" I think that the horse will entertain this same amount of confusion if you, the rider/trainer, don't have it in your mind what it is that you are after.
If YOU think that the term engagement is good enough to answer all the questions.. - it ISN'T good enough! You MUST analyse the movement more carefully and must decide, in each particular horse you are training, what it is that you are after.
You must develop language to describe.... vocal language, for me to describe it to you, or tactile language, for you to describe it to your horse. It's a complex communication that must go on and one word is not going to surfice; saying 'engagement' over and over again, or using your spurs on the horse - it's the same thing - that is NOT going to get you all the nuances of movement you are after as you head towards High School."
Explaining nuances of movement to the horse - sounds like an ideal job for the clicker to me!!!!!!!
Monday, 23 February 2009
Paul Belasik - Contact and Connection.
The third audio tape 'An Interview with Paul Belasik, an Overview of the Classical Principles Behind the Training of a Horse and Rider is entitled 'Calm, Forward Riding'.
Paul Belasik speaks of the need to first insist that the horse respects and yields to pressure from the bit by, as Alexandra Kurland would say, the rider becoming a 'post': resisting any pull from the horse but never actively pulling back. As soon as respect has been established he says the following;
"Contact has to be merely a connection and I would use this analogy - the same as, if you would imagine, the reins were live wire, and when you touch the rein you would instantly make contact - you would make an electrical circuit. Now, if you're on the business end of that that circuitry, no matter how carefully the reins are touched, you're going to get a jolt.
I think one has to approach the reins in that way - that contact is not always something that can be measured in pounds of pressure, but it is really a connection, a completion of a circuitry, from your body, through the reins to the horse's mouth, and if you think of it like that you get the idea of the rein as, I love this phrase, the 'live' rein. You get the feeling that life, or a certain amount of energy, goes through that rein the moment you touch it."
He goes on to say, in answer to questions about riding a horse 'through':
"Every horse has an inherent rhythm and you have to find that rhythm - the inherent rhythm that the horse is comfortable with. Go ahead and take a horse that has such and such a tempo and advance it a few beats faster and watch what happens - the horse gets more and more nervous. Take one and ride it continually under power all the time and the horse gets sluggish, distracted, starts looking around.
Each horse has, within itself, an inherent tempo, or an inherent rhythm within a tempo, and it's up to you to find that heartbeat, that sound, that musicality that will relax the horse and all work HAS to begin with relaxation.....
You're always trying to develop this connection, this bow of energy - the hind leg engaging, putting in a certain amount of power and thrust, coming up through the round, full back - a strong resilient back - and out through an extended neck. If the horse extends its neck in an arch, that physical process...... when the neck is in proper extension, the musculature is drawn out, it's in a relaxed but a strong arch. When the horse is making a cresting gesture it pulls against the spinal processes of the withers and draws the back up. You must make the equation work at the back end. The hind legs ... must come under the horse and when it does that it has an equal draw, lifting the horse, so then you get to that old concept of a ring of muscle - the ring is continuous around the horse - the neck is arching, the back comes up, the hind legs come under and there's this beautiful, rolling, continuous ring - circuitry again coming into play.
If you inhibit the back you WILL NOT GET access to the back legs! When the neck is curved in such a position there is a lift in the back which will allow the back to swing. If you want to get access to the back legs - the power source - and want it to come 'through', it must start with engagement of the hind legs, but you MUST NOT impede it anywhere along that chain. If you shorten the neck you depress the back. If you depress the back you cut off access to the back legs. You must get the horse to come up in the back and meet your seat, so that you have access to the back legs."
He emphasises that all these things - the arched, extended neck, raised withers and back - are not just for aesthetics, just because they look nice, but because they are scientifically and bio mechanically necessary to produce engagement and collection.
I love the way he explains these things and you can hear the passion, conviction and enthusiasm in his voice, as the words spill out at times. All of this made perfect sense to me and also reinforced everything I believe that I have been trying to achieve by following Alexandra Kurland's 'Riding with the Clicker'.
Paul Belasik speaks of the need to first insist that the horse respects and yields to pressure from the bit by, as Alexandra Kurland would say, the rider becoming a 'post': resisting any pull from the horse but never actively pulling back. As soon as respect has been established he says the following;
"Contact has to be merely a connection and I would use this analogy - the same as, if you would imagine, the reins were live wire, and when you touch the rein you would instantly make contact - you would make an electrical circuit. Now, if you're on the business end of that that circuitry, no matter how carefully the reins are touched, you're going to get a jolt.
I think one has to approach the reins in that way - that contact is not always something that can be measured in pounds of pressure, but it is really a connection, a completion of a circuitry, from your body, through the reins to the horse's mouth, and if you think of it like that you get the idea of the rein as, I love this phrase, the 'live' rein. You get the feeling that life, or a certain amount of energy, goes through that rein the moment you touch it."
He goes on to say, in answer to questions about riding a horse 'through':
"Every horse has an inherent rhythm and you have to find that rhythm - the inherent rhythm that the horse is comfortable with. Go ahead and take a horse that has such and such a tempo and advance it a few beats faster and watch what happens - the horse gets more and more nervous. Take one and ride it continually under power all the time and the horse gets sluggish, distracted, starts looking around.
Each horse has, within itself, an inherent tempo, or an inherent rhythm within a tempo, and it's up to you to find that heartbeat, that sound, that musicality that will relax the horse and all work HAS to begin with relaxation.....
You're always trying to develop this connection, this bow of energy - the hind leg engaging, putting in a certain amount of power and thrust, coming up through the round, full back - a strong resilient back - and out through an extended neck. If the horse extends its neck in an arch, that physical process...... when the neck is in proper extension, the musculature is drawn out, it's in a relaxed but a strong arch. When the horse is making a cresting gesture it pulls against the spinal processes of the withers and draws the back up. You must make the equation work at the back end. The hind legs ... must come under the horse and when it does that it has an equal draw, lifting the horse, so then you get to that old concept of a ring of muscle - the ring is continuous around the horse - the neck is arching, the back comes up, the hind legs come under and there's this beautiful, rolling, continuous ring - circuitry again coming into play.
If you inhibit the back you WILL NOT GET access to the back legs! When the neck is curved in such a position there is a lift in the back which will allow the back to swing. If you want to get access to the back legs - the power source - and want it to come 'through', it must start with engagement of the hind legs, but you MUST NOT impede it anywhere along that chain. If you shorten the neck you depress the back. If you depress the back you cut off access to the back legs. You must get the horse to come up in the back and meet your seat, so that you have access to the back legs."
He emphasises that all these things - the arched, extended neck, raised withers and back - are not just for aesthetics, just because they look nice, but because they are scientifically and bio mechanically necessary to produce engagement and collection.
I love the way he explains these things and you can hear the passion, conviction and enthusiasm in his voice, as the words spill out at times. All of this made perfect sense to me and also reinforced everything I believe that I have been trying to achieve by following Alexandra Kurland's 'Riding with the Clicker'.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Paul Belasik - The Seat and Hara.
I've managed to get hold of a set of 'An Interview with Paul Belasik - an overview of the classical principles behind the training of horse and rider' audio tapes. I've been listening to them while mucking out and I've been riveted and captivated. I keep having to rewind and press 'pause' while I absorb things.
I'm on the 2nd tape 'The Rider's Seat and Position'. Paul Belasik says that the PRIMARY method of giving and receiving information to and from the horse is through the rider's seat - from the horse's back to the rider's back. He says that is why the novice should be taught on the lunge, without reins or stirrups, because if the rider is taught first to influence the horse with their extremities (hands and from the knee down) they will always revert to these habits.
He says that when you put a two legged on top of a four legged they very quickly discover that they can get away with murder in terms of balance, compared with standing on their own two feet, but "unfortunately, while they're getting away with murder, it's the horse they are murdering, because he's the one who has to compensate for their lack of balance."
He says that in the East the centre of gravity and of balance is referred to as the 'hara', but hara means much more than that. It's not just a physical thing but has a strong mental element too; it is a centering and balancing of the individual, with psychological and spiritual elements.
He says that there is far too much emphasis (generally) on the rider's calf and lower leg, and that really excellent riders can generate impulsion and produce exemplary work from the horse without ever using their lower leg at all. They do so by projecting their centre of gravity forward, towards the pommel of the saddle. He says:
"One of the magical things about seeing the really good riders is that they can generate impulsion from the back, from the seat; they don't GO to the lower leg.
The seat is where the emphasis should be - not in the calf, not in the spur. Learn about generating impulsion by first mastering your centre of gravity, your centre of balance - the hara - and THEN you will be able to make the horse impulsive by projecting it, or restraining it, or holding it steady, and so on. Too much talk of the lower leg is just chatter as opposed to the importance of the upper leg and how it connects with the seat."
There is a quote by Karlfried Graf Durckheim, from his book 'Hara, The Vital Center of Man' read out on the tape:
"One rides with hara. Only with hara does that flexible and yet firm and relaxed posture, which keeps the rider balanced and which gives him that unforced control over his horse, release that action and non action to which the horse willingly submits.
The good rider sits erect but without tension. In form but without rigidity. Rider and horse form a unity - a unity of symbolic significance. The horse adapt itself to the rider because the rider has adapted himself to the horse. They feel each other, as it were, from centre to centre, and whatever the rider demands is achieved; not by his conscious will but by the force of hara, which produces it, as it were, involuntarily".
I'm on the 2nd tape 'The Rider's Seat and Position'. Paul Belasik says that the PRIMARY method of giving and receiving information to and from the horse is through the rider's seat - from the horse's back to the rider's back. He says that is why the novice should be taught on the lunge, without reins or stirrups, because if the rider is taught first to influence the horse with their extremities (hands and from the knee down) they will always revert to these habits.
He says that when you put a two legged on top of a four legged they very quickly discover that they can get away with murder in terms of balance, compared with standing on their own two feet, but "unfortunately, while they're getting away with murder, it's the horse they are murdering, because he's the one who has to compensate for their lack of balance."
He says that in the East the centre of gravity and of balance is referred to as the 'hara', but hara means much more than that. It's not just a physical thing but has a strong mental element too; it is a centering and balancing of the individual, with psychological and spiritual elements.
He says that there is far too much emphasis (generally) on the rider's calf and lower leg, and that really excellent riders can generate impulsion and produce exemplary work from the horse without ever using their lower leg at all. They do so by projecting their centre of gravity forward, towards the pommel of the saddle. He says:
"One of the magical things about seeing the really good riders is that they can generate impulsion from the back, from the seat; they don't GO to the lower leg.
The seat is where the emphasis should be - not in the calf, not in the spur. Learn about generating impulsion by first mastering your centre of gravity, your centre of balance - the hara - and THEN you will be able to make the horse impulsive by projecting it, or restraining it, or holding it steady, and so on. Too much talk of the lower leg is just chatter as opposed to the importance of the upper leg and how it connects with the seat."
There is a quote by Karlfried Graf Durckheim, from his book 'Hara, The Vital Center of Man' read out on the tape:
"One rides with hara. Only with hara does that flexible and yet firm and relaxed posture, which keeps the rider balanced and which gives him that unforced control over his horse, release that action and non action to which the horse willingly submits.
The good rider sits erect but without tension. In form but without rigidity. Rider and horse form a unity - a unity of symbolic significance. The horse adapt itself to the rider because the rider has adapted himself to the horse. They feel each other, as it were, from centre to centre, and whatever the rider demands is achieved; not by his conscious will but by the force of hara, which produces it, as it were, involuntarily".
Monday, 16 February 2009
Poem.
A friend emailed me this today (thank you, Alison, if you read this) and it could have been written by me - every word of it is true (apart from the car and trailer bit):
Why do I like horses? I think I must be mad.
My mother wasn't horsey - And neither was my dad.
But the madness hit me early - and it hit me like a curse.
And I've never gotten better. In fact I've gotten worse.
My stables are immaculate. My house is like a hovel.
Last year for my birthday - I got a brand new shovel.
I hardly read a paper - but I know who's sold their horse.
And I wouldn't watch the news - Unless Mr. Ed was on - of course.
One eye's always on the heavens - but my washing waves in vain
As I rush to get the horses in - in case it's gonna rain.
And though they're wearing 15 rugs, the best that you can get,
I bring them in to keep them dry - while I get soaking wet.
I spend up every cent I've got - on horsey stuff for sure
I buy saddles, bridles, fancy rugs - and then I buy some more.
I should have had my hair cut - or bought that nice blue shirt
At least it wouldn't now look ripped to shreds and in the dirt
I can't make a bloody sponge cake - I don't even try
But I can back a car and trailer - in the twinkling of an eye.
It's jeans and R.M. boots that I live in night and day
And that smell of sweaty horses just doesn't wash away.
I ache from long forgotten falls. My knees have got no skin.
My toes have gone a funny shape - from being squashed again.
But late at night, when all is still - and I've gone to give them hay,
I touch their velvet softness and my worries float away.
They give a gentle nicker and they nuzzle through my hair
And I know it's where my heart is - more here than anywhere.
- Author Unknown
Why do I like horses? I think I must be mad.
My mother wasn't horsey - And neither was my dad.
But the madness hit me early - and it hit me like a curse.
And I've never gotten better. In fact I've gotten worse.
My stables are immaculate. My house is like a hovel.
Last year for my birthday - I got a brand new shovel.
I hardly read a paper - but I know who's sold their horse.
And I wouldn't watch the news - Unless Mr. Ed was on - of course.
One eye's always on the heavens - but my washing waves in vain
As I rush to get the horses in - in case it's gonna rain.
And though they're wearing 15 rugs, the best that you can get,
I bring them in to keep them dry - while I get soaking wet.
I spend up every cent I've got - on horsey stuff for sure
I buy saddles, bridles, fancy rugs - and then I buy some more.
I should have had my hair cut - or bought that nice blue shirt
At least it wouldn't now look ripped to shreds and in the dirt
I can't make a bloody sponge cake - I don't even try
But I can back a car and trailer - in the twinkling of an eye.
It's jeans and R.M. boots that I live in night and day
And that smell of sweaty horses just doesn't wash away.
I ache from long forgotten falls. My knees have got no skin.
My toes have gone a funny shape - from being squashed again.
But late at night, when all is still - and I've gone to give them hay,
I touch their velvet softness and my worries float away.
They give a gentle nicker and they nuzzle through my hair
And I know it's where my heart is - more here than anywhere.
- Author Unknown
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Is Clicker Training Unique?
I think it's quite hard for someone who hasn't met a clicker trained horse to believe the effect it has on the horse.
I think you need to see an experienced clicker horse to appreciate just how different an experience it is, from the horse's point of view. Their eyes SHINE with pride and enthusiasm. They become addicted to it - they just can't get enough of it. They'd much rather play with you than with their equine friends and the most difficult part of it is to find a way to end sessions without the horse viewing you ending work as a punishment, because they want to go on forever. If they ever did want to stop then I'd know there was something wrong and I'd have the thermometer out and the vet on stand by!
If I'm going to use my horse's body for athletic effort then I want it to be with his full consent, and for him to enjoy it as much as I do. I find with Clicker Training that the horse actually enjoys it at least as much as I do, and often more than me, because I'm always ready to stop before they are!
I think you need to see an experienced clicker horse to appreciate just how different an experience it is, from the horse's point of view. Their eyes SHINE with pride and enthusiasm. They become addicted to it - they just can't get enough of it. They'd much rather play with you than with their equine friends and the most difficult part of it is to find a way to end sessions without the horse viewing you ending work as a punishment, because they want to go on forever. If they ever did want to stop then I'd know there was something wrong and I'd have the thermometer out and the vet on stand by!
If I'm going to use my horse's body for athletic effort then I want it to be with his full consent, and for him to enjoy it as much as I do. I find with Clicker Training that the horse actually enjoys it at least as much as I do, and often more than me, because I'm always ready to stop before they are!
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Horse Of Course.
I found this blog today and I love it! She's not actually clicker training as such but her principals and ethics all ring bells in my head.
http://horseofcourseeng.blogspot.com/
I especially love her latest post, 'What's In It For Me', and the last paragraph of her 'Back to Basics' post I found really moving.
I'm spending too much time on this computer! That's what not being able to lie down for fear of drowning does for you! If OH ever goes near another coughing supermarket checkout assistant I'll kill him!!!!!
Horse of Course has very kindly agreed to let me copy a few sentances from her blog. I LOVE reading her last paragraph of her 'Back to Basics' post. Fame is the name of her horse:
"I try not to get disappointed those days when thing doesn’t work out as I had hoped, and after many years of riding it’s not that difficult.
I know that steady work brings us on in the long run, and that there will good days and bad days.
But the good days, aaah - they make me fly.
I keep them as secret treasures in my mind, experiencing the feeling over and over. They give me joy for several days.
And it’s not just the dressage work in itself, or mastering the exercises, it’s the fellowship with Fame.
She’s my buddy. We do things together. And I believe she understands a LOT.
I just have to let all the stress go, and tune in, marvellous!
You rock, Fame."
and from her 'What's in it for Me' post (I only asked about the former so I hope she won't mind but I love this bit too):
"To our training I fill my pockets.
I praise Fame when she does right (that's my “clicker") and a carrot appears. Often a short break to stretch the neck on long reins.
And my horse turns to into the Dressage Queen.
She gets very eager, and tries to do all the tricks by her own, and often before Mum has asked for them.
Sometimes we dance, and sometimes she gets too eager and forgets to listen.
But if it’s not perfect, it doesn’t matter. We will try again the next day.
And we have fun.
She’s always coming to me when I am to fetch her.
She’s leaving the hay in her box when I come with the bridle, and puts the bit into the mouth by herself.
Gives a soft neigh to greet me when she hears my voice in the stable.
I don’t care what the end result will be.
Riding is so much about the road, and not the goal.
In the meantime we are enjoying ourselves, both of us."
I could read these words forever and never tire of them. Horse of Course you write poetry and you speak straight to my heart.
http://horseofcourseeng.blogspot.com/
I especially love her latest post, 'What's In It For Me', and the last paragraph of her 'Back to Basics' post I found really moving.
I'm spending too much time on this computer! That's what not being able to lie down for fear of drowning does for you! If OH ever goes near another coughing supermarket checkout assistant I'll kill him!!!!!
Horse of Course has very kindly agreed to let me copy a few sentances from her blog. I LOVE reading her last paragraph of her 'Back to Basics' post. Fame is the name of her horse:
"I try not to get disappointed those days when thing doesn’t work out as I had hoped, and after many years of riding it’s not that difficult.
I know that steady work brings us on in the long run, and that there will good days and bad days.
But the good days, aaah - they make me fly.
I keep them as secret treasures in my mind, experiencing the feeling over and over. They give me joy for several days.
And it’s not just the dressage work in itself, or mastering the exercises, it’s the fellowship with Fame.
She’s my buddy. We do things together. And I believe she understands a LOT.
I just have to let all the stress go, and tune in, marvellous!
You rock, Fame."
and from her 'What's in it for Me' post (I only asked about the former so I hope she won't mind but I love this bit too):
"To our training I fill my pockets.
I praise Fame when she does right (that's my “clicker") and a carrot appears. Often a short break to stretch the neck on long reins.
And my horse turns to into the Dressage Queen.
She gets very eager, and tries to do all the tricks by her own, and often before Mum has asked for them.
Sometimes we dance, and sometimes she gets too eager and forgets to listen.
But if it’s not perfect, it doesn’t matter. We will try again the next day.
And we have fun.
She’s always coming to me when I am to fetch her.
She’s leaving the hay in her box when I come with the bridle, and puts the bit into the mouth by herself.
Gives a soft neigh to greet me when she hears my voice in the stable.
I don’t care what the end result will be.
Riding is so much about the road, and not the goal.
In the meantime we are enjoying ourselves, both of us."
I could read these words forever and never tire of them. Horse of Course you write poetry and you speak straight to my heart.
Friday, 30 January 2009
My Little Helper.
Hope to start riding again in a couple of days but in the meantime I thought I'd cheer myself up by posting these pics of Megs, my little helper. She's just a year old and we thought we were buying a black and tan Jack Russell. Her mum is the most typey JR imaginable and we keep saying we should take her back and demand a refund!
Megs is tiny but thinks she's huge and spends most of her time telling the horses off. Amazingly they are all, even Bella, really tolerant of her. She's a gorgeous little dog; really faithful and always so happy and enthusiastic. I spend most of my time looking down on this view:
I also cheered myself up by buying another Iberian bridle. It's much more plain than Grace's and I want to replace the very thin noseband and browband, but it was going too cheaply to resist (and the buckles and reins are lovely). I do find that with these driving or in-hand type bridles (the English equivalent) the noseband, as it runs through the cheekpieces,does help to support and stabilise the bit in the horse's mouth. I always used to ride my PBA mare in an in-hand bridle for that very reason. I didn't know about Iberian bridles then. I'll take some photos of it when I've customised it!
Megs is tiny but thinks she's huge and spends most of her time telling the horses off. Amazingly they are all, even Bella, really tolerant of her. She's a gorgeous little dog; really faithful and always so happy and enthusiastic. I spend most of my time looking down on this view:
I also cheered myself up by buying another Iberian bridle. It's much more plain than Grace's and I want to replace the very thin noseband and browband, but it was going too cheaply to resist (and the buckles and reins are lovely). I do find that with these driving or in-hand type bridles (the English equivalent) the noseband, as it runs through the cheekpieces,does help to support and stabilise the bit in the horse's mouth. I always used to ride my PBA mare in an in-hand bridle for that very reason. I didn't know about Iberian bridles then. I'll take some photos of it when I've customised it!
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Photos of my Pones Backs.
I emailed my photos to 'Saddlefitter' this evening (poor woman, very cheeky of me to send her photos of all three, but I always feel I have to treat them all equally - as if they'd care that they'd been left out of the photos!!!!!).
Anyway I thought you might be interested to see what my hips have to cope with! I'll just post the most revealing
Grace, a badly sprung settee:
Jack, an overstuffed armchair:
Bella, an overstuffed mattress:
I sent a side view of Grace taken at the show in September, so she looked really smart, but I couldn't find suitable ones of Bella and Jack so had to take these of the muddy, scruffy looking urchins. I need some warm weather to get them clipped right out and bathed!
Anyway I thought you might be interested to see what my hips have to cope with! I'll just post the most revealing
Grace, a badly sprung settee:
Jack, an overstuffed armchair:
Bella, an overstuffed mattress:
I sent a side view of Grace taken at the show in September, so she looked really smart, but I couldn't find suitable ones of Bella and Jack so had to take these of the muddy, scruffy looking urchins. I need some warm weather to get them clipped right out and bathed!
Monday, 26 January 2009
Saddle Fitting.
I found this blog today.
http://saddlefitter.blogspot.com/
I thought it was really useful and I think I will take her up on her offer and email her some photos of my pones' backs. I would be especially interested to hear what she had to say about Grace's atrophy, as I'd really love to find a treed dressage saddle for her one day.
http://saddlefitter.blogspot.com/
I thought it was really useful and I think I will take her up on her offer and email her some photos of my pones' backs. I would be especially interested to hear what she had to say about Grace's atrophy, as I'd really love to find a treed dressage saddle for her one day.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Russell's Story.
I've begun Russell's blog, if anyone is REALLY short of reading material!
http://russell-helen.blogspot.com/
No photos yet but I'm working on it.
http://russell-helen.blogspot.com/
No photos yet but I'm working on it.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
I found these clips on You tube yesterday and they really excited and inspired me:
After watching them I wanted, today, to try to get Renvers, Travers and Half Pass at liberty by drawing my horses towards me from the inside of the bend, rather than 'pushing' them away from me from the outside of the bend, which is how I've always done it before.
It was tricky. I knew that the back end was going to be harder to draw than the front so I began by asking their outside hind to step underneath them towards me, by staring at it, stepping slowly backward and beckoning it towards me with my nearest hand, much as in the video clips.
Jack stood with his head down, thinking and trying SO hard to work out what I was asking, but I don't think he could see me well enough on his bad eye side. I didn't think there was much point in doing it on one side only so I found something to click him for and abandoned the exercise in that form.
Bella understood really quickly and stepped underneath, towards me, with her outside hind. I clicked and treated her madly for that and it was then quite easy to get her to target my other hand with her nose and draw her into the movement, but I did find that her front legs drew more easily and took bigger strides than her hind legs, which is what I thought was happening slightly in the video clips. I need to find some way to emphasise the 'push' of the outside hind, to keep the power of the stride.
What really, really blew me away was how hard they both tried and how much mental effort they put into trying to work out what I wanted. I don't usually do proper liberty work (as opposed to just letting go of the reins) in the school, because there is a lot of grass growing in the school, and grass is something they're allowed very little of, so it's often been too much of a temptation.
They didn't even look at the grass. There was nothing to stop them wandering off but they stayed with me and gave me every last ounce of their thought and attention. That is something I wouldn't have dreamed possible with young horses, pre clicker. I shouldn't be surprised, having seen Hilary's Lottie on the 'Microshaping DVD but it still amazes and humbles me every time.
I don't think I've EVER seen Jack try as hard as that anywhere, let alone in the school. He might have been the one who couldn't work out what I was asking but it certainly wasn't for want of thought, attention and desire to please. His mental effort was written all over him. Once again he was my hero among heroes!!!
After watching them I wanted, today, to try to get Renvers, Travers and Half Pass at liberty by drawing my horses towards me from the inside of the bend, rather than 'pushing' them away from me from the outside of the bend, which is how I've always done it before.
It was tricky. I knew that the back end was going to be harder to draw than the front so I began by asking their outside hind to step underneath them towards me, by staring at it, stepping slowly backward and beckoning it towards me with my nearest hand, much as in the video clips.
Jack stood with his head down, thinking and trying SO hard to work out what I was asking, but I don't think he could see me well enough on his bad eye side. I didn't think there was much point in doing it on one side only so I found something to click him for and abandoned the exercise in that form.
Bella understood really quickly and stepped underneath, towards me, with her outside hind. I clicked and treated her madly for that and it was then quite easy to get her to target my other hand with her nose and draw her into the movement, but I did find that her front legs drew more easily and took bigger strides than her hind legs, which is what I thought was happening slightly in the video clips. I need to find some way to emphasise the 'push' of the outside hind, to keep the power of the stride.
What really, really blew me away was how hard they both tried and how much mental effort they put into trying to work out what I wanted. I don't usually do proper liberty work (as opposed to just letting go of the reins) in the school, because there is a lot of grass growing in the school, and grass is something they're allowed very little of, so it's often been too much of a temptation.
They didn't even look at the grass. There was nothing to stop them wandering off but they stayed with me and gave me every last ounce of their thought and attention. That is something I wouldn't have dreamed possible with young horses, pre clicker. I shouldn't be surprised, having seen Hilary's Lottie on the 'Microshaping DVD but it still amazes and humbles me every time.
I don't think I've EVER seen Jack try as hard as that anywhere, let alone in the school. He might have been the one who couldn't work out what I was asking but it certainly wasn't for want of thought, attention and desire to please. His mental effort was written all over him. Once again he was my hero among heroes!!!
Monday, 19 January 2009
First Time Evers.
I has a really exciting day today with 'first time evers' with all three of my Dales.
I am still working Jack in hand and the hover I have been building into his front feet, with the Monty Python stuff, is finally beginning to really surface in trot and today, for the first time ever, I had the beginnings of real elevation in his trot to click. He looked so impressive because there is so much of him to elevate! I'm really missing riding him but concentrating on in hand is paying off. The sarcoid on his girth line has now started to peel away on one side and has lost about a third of it's area of attachment so I'm still hoping it will fall off without treatment.
With Grace I got some perfect downward transitions for the first time ever. The breakthrough was watching Philippe Karl and reading 'Twisted Truths' which made me realise that she needed to raise her head but I had to explain to her that she should do it by lifting through the top of her neck and withers, instead of contracting the top of her neck and hollowing her back.
I have been explaining this to her by lifting the back of my own neck and 'withers' and she has 'got' this so well now that I can often stop her instantly by doing this alone. She feels like a totally different horse when she halts like this - there's an elegance to her top line which looks and feels beautiful from on board. I need to get some photos taken to confirm what I'm feeling. This has improved her rein back as well, and she feels as though she has suddenly taken a massive leap forward in terms of balance and engagement, and all the previous jerkiness has suddenly vanished from her upward transitions too. Everything feels smooth and easy. If I could just add in some more elevation to her paces....
Riding Bella was the most exciting part of the day for me. Bella performed her first ever steps of Spanish Walk under saddle and I got to ride my first ever steps. It felt SO weird! I have to really think of sitting towards one hind leg and then the other, to free up the opposite shoulder enough. I wonder if it feels a bit like one time tempi changes do? I felt as though I was sitting on a horse for the first time, it felt so different and alien to sit, but it's very exciting and she puts SO much effort into it. I had to race into the house and tell OH afterwards, I was so excited!
Another dream come true. I never, ever really thought that I'd be able to train my own cobby Dales pony to do Spanish Walk with me in the saddle, and it's happening by my just lifting the reins alternately and saying "Spanish"!!!
With the discussions we've been having in 'comments' I was wondering today what attracted everyone else to looking at alternate ways of training their horses? With me it was a free Parelli DVD in a magazine. I loved the liberty work and raced out to try it with Bella in the field (even though it said not to begin with liberty work!). Bella seemed to like it too and I loved the idea of being able to really 'play' with her, so I had to know more and bought the 'Level' packs.
What inspired everyone else to look outside traditional methods?
Oh, and the other reason I've had a really good day is because I've managed to install a new USB network adapter! The last one had packed up and this one is faster and I managed it almost single handed! It might not be much of an achievment for Bill Gates but for me it's massive!!!!
I am still working Jack in hand and the hover I have been building into his front feet, with the Monty Python stuff, is finally beginning to really surface in trot and today, for the first time ever, I had the beginnings of real elevation in his trot to click. He looked so impressive because there is so much of him to elevate! I'm really missing riding him but concentrating on in hand is paying off. The sarcoid on his girth line has now started to peel away on one side and has lost about a third of it's area of attachment so I'm still hoping it will fall off without treatment.
With Grace I got some perfect downward transitions for the first time ever. The breakthrough was watching Philippe Karl and reading 'Twisted Truths' which made me realise that she needed to raise her head but I had to explain to her that she should do it by lifting through the top of her neck and withers, instead of contracting the top of her neck and hollowing her back.
I have been explaining this to her by lifting the back of my own neck and 'withers' and she has 'got' this so well now that I can often stop her instantly by doing this alone. She feels like a totally different horse when she halts like this - there's an elegance to her top line which looks and feels beautiful from on board. I need to get some photos taken to confirm what I'm feeling. This has improved her rein back as well, and she feels as though she has suddenly taken a massive leap forward in terms of balance and engagement, and all the previous jerkiness has suddenly vanished from her upward transitions too. Everything feels smooth and easy. If I could just add in some more elevation to her paces....
Riding Bella was the most exciting part of the day for me. Bella performed her first ever steps of Spanish Walk under saddle and I got to ride my first ever steps. It felt SO weird! I have to really think of sitting towards one hind leg and then the other, to free up the opposite shoulder enough. I wonder if it feels a bit like one time tempi changes do? I felt as though I was sitting on a horse for the first time, it felt so different and alien to sit, but it's very exciting and she puts SO much effort into it. I had to race into the house and tell OH afterwards, I was so excited!
Another dream come true. I never, ever really thought that I'd be able to train my own cobby Dales pony to do Spanish Walk with me in the saddle, and it's happening by my just lifting the reins alternately and saying "Spanish"!!!
With the discussions we've been having in 'comments' I was wondering today what attracted everyone else to looking at alternate ways of training their horses? With me it was a free Parelli DVD in a magazine. I loved the liberty work and raced out to try it with Bella in the field (even though it said not to begin with liberty work!). Bella seemed to like it too and I loved the idea of being able to really 'play' with her, so I had to know more and bought the 'Level' packs.
What inspired everyone else to look outside traditional methods?
Oh, and the other reason I've had a really good day is because I've managed to install a new USB network adapter! The last one had packed up and this one is faster and I managed it almost single handed! It might not be much of an achievment for Bill Gates but for me it's massive!!!!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Aspirations and Expectations.
Muriel said in the comments to the last post that I had attributed some powera and virtues to clicker training which were not clicker dependent. She has also said that she is disappointed with the 'Click That Teaches' DVDs she has bought, which I feel quite guilty about, as it was me who recommended them - sorry Muriel!
I guess a lot depends on your expectations and your starting point. I started clicker training with problems with both Bella and Jack that I had begun to think might prove insolvable. Clicker training solved them in the blink of an eye.
I am not saying that there were definitely no other ways of solving them, or that clicker training is the only way, but it was the only way that worked for me and this is a personal account of a personal journey.
Karen Prior, pioneer of clicker training and author of 'Don't Shoot the Dog' says the following;
‘‘A curious but important corollary to training
by positive reinforcement is that it breeds affection
in both subject and trainer. . . . The success
of the training interchange tends to turn the
participants into generalized conditioned reinforcers
for each other. The trainer is the
source of interesting, exciting, rewarding,
life-enhancing events for the subject, and the
subject’s responses are interesting and rewarding
for the trainer’’.
My expectations and aspirations have grown alongside the success I've had with clicker training, and because Bella and Jack seem to me to be quite talented, but I'm not kidding myself too much. All I really want is to have happy, soft, shiny, enthusiastic horses who love working, playing and being with me as much as I love working, playing and being with them, and that's what clicker training has given me.
Bella is already producing some extraordinary work but when I say that I don't mean that it would be extraordinary, or probably even ordinary, if Philippe Karl or Anja Beran were training her. I mean that it's extraordinary because I am training her. We're already managing to achieve things that I thought were only possible in my wildest dreams, because I am not a talented rider and never will be.
Bella and Jack were never going to take the professional dressage world by storm, even if they did have a talented rider, and even with the most talented horse in the world and all the coaching money could buy neither was I. If I can train them to happily do a little high school work then I will have surpassed all that I ever thought I was capable off. I will have blown my own socks off!
If I do manage to it will be because of clicker training. Other people can get there without but it will be such an extraordinary, massive achievement for me. My wildest dream before clicker training would have been that some day I might have found someone willing to let me have a sit on their high school horse and experience what piaffe, passage, etc. felt like. The idea of training my own, all by myself, from scratch......
Clicker training makes dreams come true. I'm already making mine come true. But it is my dream and it only has to impress me and my horses. If the work ends up lacking fire and great impulsion but my horses stay sound and happy doing it then I will have achieved everything I have ever wanted.
And I couldn't have managed a fraction of it without Alexandra Kurland and clicker training and I know that to be true.
I guess a lot depends on your expectations and your starting point. I started clicker training with problems with both Bella and Jack that I had begun to think might prove insolvable. Clicker training solved them in the blink of an eye.
I am not saying that there were definitely no other ways of solving them, or that clicker training is the only way, but it was the only way that worked for me and this is a personal account of a personal journey.
Karen Prior, pioneer of clicker training and author of 'Don't Shoot the Dog' says the following;
‘‘A curious but important corollary to training
by positive reinforcement is that it breeds affection
in both subject and trainer. . . . The success
of the training interchange tends to turn the
participants into generalized conditioned reinforcers
for each other. The trainer is the
source of interesting, exciting, rewarding,
life-enhancing events for the subject, and the
subject’s responses are interesting and rewarding
for the trainer’’.
My expectations and aspirations have grown alongside the success I've had with clicker training, and because Bella and Jack seem to me to be quite talented, but I'm not kidding myself too much. All I really want is to have happy, soft, shiny, enthusiastic horses who love working, playing and being with me as much as I love working, playing and being with them, and that's what clicker training has given me.
Bella is already producing some extraordinary work but when I say that I don't mean that it would be extraordinary, or probably even ordinary, if Philippe Karl or Anja Beran were training her. I mean that it's extraordinary because I am training her. We're already managing to achieve things that I thought were only possible in my wildest dreams, because I am not a talented rider and never will be.
Bella and Jack were never going to take the professional dressage world by storm, even if they did have a talented rider, and even with the most talented horse in the world and all the coaching money could buy neither was I. If I can train them to happily do a little high school work then I will have surpassed all that I ever thought I was capable off. I will have blown my own socks off!
If I do manage to it will be because of clicker training. Other people can get there without but it will be such an extraordinary, massive achievement for me. My wildest dream before clicker training would have been that some day I might have found someone willing to let me have a sit on their high school horse and experience what piaffe, passage, etc. felt like. The idea of training my own, all by myself, from scratch......
Clicker training makes dreams come true. I'm already making mine come true. But it is my dream and it only has to impress me and my horses. If the work ends up lacking fire and great impulsion but my horses stay sound and happy doing it then I will have achieved everything I have ever wanted.
And I couldn't have managed a fraction of it without Alexandra Kurland and clicker training and I know that to be true.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Giving the Horse a Voice.
Alexandra Kurland wrote somewhere (I can't find it now) about how clicker training can give the horse a voice and a chance to communicate how he feels about things. She said that, after learning the mounting block lesson, where you are basically asking the horse if it's ok for you to get on him, her old horse Peregrine is usually very eager to line himself up with the mounting block but on days when he's not feeling up to being ridden (he's in his twenties and has had problems with his back legs all his life, and with his feet for many years) he hangs away from the mounting block. On those days she knows that he must be sore and just does in hand work with him.
I thought that was such a lovely thing. Inviting the horse to go with you to the mounting block and stand ready to be mounted, once he understands the job and knows he will be rewarded for it, builds in a safety net, for the horse and the rider. She said that if normally cooperative horse suddenly doesn't want to play 'Capture the Saddle' than you know that something is wrong.
I've had times in the past when Jack wasn't very keen to come to the mounting block in the school. I took very little notice then but now realise that if, on those days, I'd spent a bit more time with him on the ground, he would have been less inclined to over-react to every imagined dragon lurking behind the bales! I was lucky because my St. Merryn always kept me on board, but I would have fallen off him on most of such occasions without it, and all because I wasn't listening to him trying to tell me that he felt safer with me on the floor with him and didn't want me to abandon him just yet.
I've been doing a quite a lot of Spanish Walk with Bella just lately and read yesterday about the effort of it making some horses quite sore. I thought, at least if Bella is feeling a bit sore she'll be able to tell me because she is always super keen to play 'Capture the Saddle'. The day she isn't I'll be in absolutely no doubt that something is amiss.
If I ever start a young horse again I will spend hours on the mounting block lesson, long before I ever really mount. How fantastic for a young horse to be able to communicate his needs so clearly, right from the very start of being backed. I wonder how many horses would ever feel the need to buck their rider off if they were all trained in this way, and felt that they had a choice in the matter of being ridden, and that choice would be noticed, listened to and respected.
I thought that was such a lovely thing. Inviting the horse to go with you to the mounting block and stand ready to be mounted, once he understands the job and knows he will be rewarded for it, builds in a safety net, for the horse and the rider. She said that if normally cooperative horse suddenly doesn't want to play 'Capture the Saddle' than you know that something is wrong.
I've had times in the past when Jack wasn't very keen to come to the mounting block in the school. I took very little notice then but now realise that if, on those days, I'd spent a bit more time with him on the ground, he would have been less inclined to over-react to every imagined dragon lurking behind the bales! I was lucky because my St. Merryn always kept me on board, but I would have fallen off him on most of such occasions without it, and all because I wasn't listening to him trying to tell me that he felt safer with me on the floor with him and didn't want me to abandon him just yet.
I've been doing a quite a lot of Spanish Walk with Bella just lately and read yesterday about the effort of it making some horses quite sore. I thought, at least if Bella is feeling a bit sore she'll be able to tell me because she is always super keen to play 'Capture the Saddle'. The day she isn't I'll be in absolutely no doubt that something is amiss.
If I ever start a young horse again I will spend hours on the mounting block lesson, long before I ever really mount. How fantastic for a young horse to be able to communicate his needs so clearly, right from the very start of being backed. I wonder how many horses would ever feel the need to buck their rider off if they were all trained in this way, and felt that they had a choice in the matter of being ridden, and that choice would be noticed, listened to and respected.
Monday, 12 January 2009
Philippe Karl Style Flexions.
We've swapped frozen solid for wet and windy here today so I didn't waste any dry time in tacking up and just made a dash for the school to do some in hand work. I managed to keep Bella and Grace dry but Jack and I got a soaking.
I wanted to try some bigger lateral flexions, Philippe Karl style. Alexandra Kurland teaches the horse very small, gradual lateral flexions, a stage at a time, which is a lovely, gentle way to teach and develop them, but Philippe Karl says "wizout bend where iz ze gymnastizizing?" I wanted to see if my horses were ready for more gymnastic lateral flexions.
I tried with Bella first. I only had her in a headcollar so asked her mostly to flex towards me. I thought she might struggle with the fairly drastic flexions that PK uses in 'Classical vs Classique' as she has never been as supple laterally as Jack. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for her and it suddenly occurred to me to try giving her something to think of bending around.
I held my in hand whip up vertically alongside her inside shoulder and asked her for a lateral flexion. This had the added advantage of making it absolutely clear to her that I wanted her to stay really well up off her shoulder. She understood straight away and gave me a flexion that wouldn't have looked out of place on PK's DVDs. She then did some really lovely shoulder in on both reins.
She was quite on her toes throughout this, as she has had a week off and not been able to do more than walk carefully around a rock solid field for days, so I let her have a run around on the lunge. She walked and trotted on both reins sensibly and swingingly (for clicks and treats), even though Tom and my neighbours horses were turning themselves inside out in the field, and didn't let rip until asked to canter, which was accompanied by much leaping, bucking and farting. The emotional control she has learnt from 'Riding with the Clicker' is, I think, extraordinary for a six year old, especially as it's not something I've really concentrated on with her, as I have with Jack.
I did the same things with Jack and he also found the big flexions to be no problem. He hadn't been in the school for a week and it was really windy so I had prepared myself for him to be really spooky and was ready to go back to 300 Peck Pigeon if necessary. He was an absolute star! Not even a hint of a spook, even when it started raining as well. Even on the lunge he stayed relaxed and though he was glad to kick his heels up too, when asked to canter, there was no tension or anxiety there at all. He has come so, so far! He's my hero!!!!
I found that Grace isn't really ready for big flexions yet. They call for quite an advanced outline and Grace is not uphill enough yet and still needs to do more of the AK baby flexions, but holding the whip upright by her inside shoulder helped to really keep her up and off it, especially on her stiff side. I don't let her run around on the lunge as she only practises bad movement, and she's already spent too many years doing that. She doesn't yet have the self carriage to carry herself well, left to her own devices, and still needs reminding all the time.
I was thinking today about how demanding in hand work is for the horse. I am now, at very close quarters, controlling everything about them, from the speed and direction that their feet move in to the position, height and angle of the front of their faces. The fact that they can cope with this and stay relaxed, happy, enthusiastic and keen to do more of the same, as all three of them do, is just wonderful. My gratitude to them, for allowing me to, knows no bounds.
Please may I never, ever start to take all of this for granted and lose the wonder of it all.
I wanted to try some bigger lateral flexions, Philippe Karl style. Alexandra Kurland teaches the horse very small, gradual lateral flexions, a stage at a time, which is a lovely, gentle way to teach and develop them, but Philippe Karl says "wizout bend where iz ze gymnastizizing?" I wanted to see if my horses were ready for more gymnastic lateral flexions.
I tried with Bella first. I only had her in a headcollar so asked her mostly to flex towards me. I thought she might struggle with the fairly drastic flexions that PK uses in 'Classical vs Classique' as she has never been as supple laterally as Jack. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for her and it suddenly occurred to me to try giving her something to think of bending around.
I held my in hand whip up vertically alongside her inside shoulder and asked her for a lateral flexion. This had the added advantage of making it absolutely clear to her that I wanted her to stay really well up off her shoulder. She understood straight away and gave me a flexion that wouldn't have looked out of place on PK's DVDs. She then did some really lovely shoulder in on both reins.
She was quite on her toes throughout this, as she has had a week off and not been able to do more than walk carefully around a rock solid field for days, so I let her have a run around on the lunge. She walked and trotted on both reins sensibly and swingingly (for clicks and treats), even though Tom and my neighbours horses were turning themselves inside out in the field, and didn't let rip until asked to canter, which was accompanied by much leaping, bucking and farting. The emotional control she has learnt from 'Riding with the Clicker' is, I think, extraordinary for a six year old, especially as it's not something I've really concentrated on with her, as I have with Jack.
I did the same things with Jack and he also found the big flexions to be no problem. He hadn't been in the school for a week and it was really windy so I had prepared myself for him to be really spooky and was ready to go back to 300 Peck Pigeon if necessary. He was an absolute star! Not even a hint of a spook, even when it started raining as well. Even on the lunge he stayed relaxed and though he was glad to kick his heels up too, when asked to canter, there was no tension or anxiety there at all. He has come so, so far! He's my hero!!!!
I found that Grace isn't really ready for big flexions yet. They call for quite an advanced outline and Grace is not uphill enough yet and still needs to do more of the AK baby flexions, but holding the whip upright by her inside shoulder helped to really keep her up and off it, especially on her stiff side. I don't let her run around on the lunge as she only practises bad movement, and she's already spent too many years doing that. She doesn't yet have the self carriage to carry herself well, left to her own devices, and still needs reminding all the time.
I was thinking today about how demanding in hand work is for the horse. I am now, at very close quarters, controlling everything about them, from the speed and direction that their feet move in to the position, height and angle of the front of their faces. The fact that they can cope with this and stay relaxed, happy, enthusiastic and keen to do more of the same, as all three of them do, is just wonderful. My gratitude to them, for allowing me to, knows no bounds.
Please may I never, ever start to take all of this for granted and lose the wonder of it all.
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Frosty Photos.
Everything has been thawing well here today and we have water coming from all the taps again. The school always takes a while but I think it will be usable tomorrow. It feels like forever since I last rode and the novelty of more time in the field has definitely worn off for my pones. They looked very bored today.
Yesterday was almost unbearably cold with freezing fog for most of the day. Temperatures started well below freezing and got colder all day. Even the water to the house was frozen underground until OH managed to thaw it out. It looked really beautiful though and I took some more photos.
The school:
The view from the back of the school:
The drive:
Our livery, Tom. He is in his twenties and was the most perfect driving schoolmaster ever, having been delivering coal in Dublin when he was three. He wasn't gelded until he was four and is very butch. Bella and Grace love him but he is a bit of a bully with other horses. His owner has clicker trained him to do a few tricks, which he loves and picks up very quickly. Tom is living proof that you can teach an old horse new tricks!
My next door neighbour's horses. She doesn't have much land and rents a paddock from us to use in the winter. I have black horses, she has duns!
My ducks sulking because the pond and puddles have all frozen up:
One of my hens:
Jack's tormentor. If you click on the second photo to see the full size version you can see Jack's point - she looks positively evil! I wouldn't want to be a mouse with her about!:
Yesterday was almost unbearably cold with freezing fog for most of the day. Temperatures started well below freezing and got colder all day. Even the water to the house was frozen underground until OH managed to thaw it out. It looked really beautiful though and I took some more photos.
The school:
The view from the back of the school:
The drive:
Our livery, Tom. He is in his twenties and was the most perfect driving schoolmaster ever, having been delivering coal in Dublin when he was three. He wasn't gelded until he was four and is very butch. Bella and Grace love him but he is a bit of a bully with other horses. His owner has clicker trained him to do a few tricks, which he loves and picks up very quickly. Tom is living proof that you can teach an old horse new tricks!
My next door neighbour's horses. She doesn't have much land and rents a paddock from us to use in the winter. I have black horses, she has duns!
My ducks sulking because the pond and puddles have all frozen up:
One of my hens:
Jack's tormentor. If you click on the second photo to see the full size version you can see Jack's point - she looks positively evil! I wouldn't want to be a mouse with her about!:
Friday, 9 January 2009
Snowy Days Photos.
Bella and Russell, showing what great friends they are:
Bella with Grace in the background:
Grace:
Jack:
Please don't click on the photos of Bella to see the full size version or you'll see that I've managed to do up one of her surcingles twisted - sigh - there's always something when I'm going to take photos!!!
Bella with Grace in the background:
Grace:
Jack:
Please don't click on the photos of Bella to see the full size version or you'll see that I've managed to do up one of her surcingles twisted - sigh - there's always something when I'm going to take photos!!!
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Photo Albums 2008.
I've organised Bella, Jack and Grace's photos from 2008 into albums. Clicking on the photos should take you to each individual album. I think they've all been posted before but I wanted them all together for ease of reference. I really must ditch the AK-style waistcoat for future photos!!!!
I've had to move all the photos back again because they had disappeared from the earlier posts and the EE blog, which people still seem to be reading. I'll have to reload them into separate files at some point. One day I'll get the hang of all this!
I've had to move all the photos back again because they had disappeared from the earlier posts and the EE blog, which people still seem to be reading. I'll have to reload them into separate files at some point. One day I'll get the hang of all this!
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Snowy Days.
I've given up trying to work my horses for now as we have lying snow which is balling up in their feet, and getting all the livestock watered takes up most of the day, with only one tap thawable and so having to drag miles of hosepipe about.
I'm not complaining though because they love the snow and I love watching them in it. Jack in particular is such a big kid! He has to push his nose along through it all the way to his paddock, and has been known to just HAVE to stop for a roll on the way there, as he can't wait any longer.
Usually in the winter they all go out about midday, for a couple of hours, and I fit in working them either side of that. At the moment, while it's been so sunny and lovely out, they've been going out after breakfast with a pile of haylage, and coming in about 3pm. It means I have to carry water buckets out to the paddocks, as the troughs are solid ice now.
I had a very nasty moment today though. I'd just got Bella and Russell in and tied them in the yard to change their rugs when our Jack Russell, Flora, started barking. I have to shut the dogs in a stable when I need to leave the yard gate open, as Flora has what has been a near fatal attraction to standing in the middle of the road, for some reason known only to her, so the dogs can't be left to free range like most of the animals here.
I had to leave the gate open to let the returning poultry, who do free range, back in to get into their stable for the night. I had the radio on and kept shouting at her to shut up when it eventually occurred to me to wonder why she was barking. Our Golden Retriever often does, in protest at being shut in, but Flora usually only barks for a good reason. I turned the radio off and immediately heard a calf sounding distressed in the cowshed, which backs onto the stables.
I ran around there and OH had shut the cows back out of the front passageway, so he could drive the tractor in, and disappeared. We have two young calves, just a couple of weeks old, and one had become wedged (with a little help from the cow in the pen who isn't his mum, I suspect) with his head through the gate and his bum tight up against a ring feeder. The gate was pressing on his windpipe and he was suffocating.
I tried to untie the gate but he had jammed the knots tight and I tried to push his bum out of the tiny gap it was wedged in but nothing gave an inch. I was shouting for OH, who always carries a penknife, but no joy. I racked my brain for where I could quickly lay my hands on something sharp and suddenly remembered leaving a knife in the shed opposite. I ran over and grabbed it and got back just in time to see the calf go limp as he lost consciousness. Cursing my slow reactions I cut the string and the gate shot open. It had been holding the unconscious calf up and as he fell to the floor he began to gasp again. I stood guard over him, so he didn't get trampled, until he came around and staggered to his feet and then, low and behold, OH appeared!
I apologised profusely to Flora for shouting at her when she was trying to tell me that something was making an unusual noise and needed investigating. If it wasn't for her that calf would be dead now and he's SO cute - red and woolly like a Highland, although he's an Aberdeen Angus. OH would have been distraught and blaming himself for leaving them unattended, and the calf's mum is devoted to her first ever offspring. We all have a lot to be grateful to Flora for.
Bella and Russell were still tied in the yard and waiting, surprised but patiently. I really appreciate my pones endless patience at times like these. The other day my next door neighbour came into the yard for a chat when I had just got Jack in and tied him up. He stood watching us thoughtfully, ears pricked as though taking an interest in our conversation and never moved a muscle. When we finally went over to him he said hello very politely to her but then leaned towards me, as if seeking my assurance that she was OK. I've often noticed him doing this when someone goes up to his stable door in front of me - he will say hello but then look around them for me. It's really touching and makes me feel really close to him. Dales do seem to be quite 'one person' ponies. I am so glad that I'm Bella and Jack's 'person'!
I would be grateful if Bella didn't try to eat other people that go near to her stable though, especially OH. It doesn't endear her to him too much!!!!!!
I'm not complaining though because they love the snow and I love watching them in it. Jack in particular is such a big kid! He has to push his nose along through it all the way to his paddock, and has been known to just HAVE to stop for a roll on the way there, as he can't wait any longer.
Usually in the winter they all go out about midday, for a couple of hours, and I fit in working them either side of that. At the moment, while it's been so sunny and lovely out, they've been going out after breakfast with a pile of haylage, and coming in about 3pm. It means I have to carry water buckets out to the paddocks, as the troughs are solid ice now.
I had a very nasty moment today though. I'd just got Bella and Russell in and tied them in the yard to change their rugs when our Jack Russell, Flora, started barking. I have to shut the dogs in a stable when I need to leave the yard gate open, as Flora has what has been a near fatal attraction to standing in the middle of the road, for some reason known only to her, so the dogs can't be left to free range like most of the animals here.
I had to leave the gate open to let the returning poultry, who do free range, back in to get into their stable for the night. I had the radio on and kept shouting at her to shut up when it eventually occurred to me to wonder why she was barking. Our Golden Retriever often does, in protest at being shut in, but Flora usually only barks for a good reason. I turned the radio off and immediately heard a calf sounding distressed in the cowshed, which backs onto the stables.
I ran around there and OH had shut the cows back out of the front passageway, so he could drive the tractor in, and disappeared. We have two young calves, just a couple of weeks old, and one had become wedged (with a little help from the cow in the pen who isn't his mum, I suspect) with his head through the gate and his bum tight up against a ring feeder. The gate was pressing on his windpipe and he was suffocating.
I tried to untie the gate but he had jammed the knots tight and I tried to push his bum out of the tiny gap it was wedged in but nothing gave an inch. I was shouting for OH, who always carries a penknife, but no joy. I racked my brain for where I could quickly lay my hands on something sharp and suddenly remembered leaving a knife in the shed opposite. I ran over and grabbed it and got back just in time to see the calf go limp as he lost consciousness. Cursing my slow reactions I cut the string and the gate shot open. It had been holding the unconscious calf up and as he fell to the floor he began to gasp again. I stood guard over him, so he didn't get trampled, until he came around and staggered to his feet and then, low and behold, OH appeared!
I apologised profusely to Flora for shouting at her when she was trying to tell me that something was making an unusual noise and needed investigating. If it wasn't for her that calf would be dead now and he's SO cute - red and woolly like a Highland, although he's an Aberdeen Angus. OH would have been distraught and blaming himself for leaving them unattended, and the calf's mum is devoted to her first ever offspring. We all have a lot to be grateful to Flora for.
Bella and Russell were still tied in the yard and waiting, surprised but patiently. I really appreciate my pones endless patience at times like these. The other day my next door neighbour came into the yard for a chat when I had just got Jack in and tied him up. He stood watching us thoughtfully, ears pricked as though taking an interest in our conversation and never moved a muscle. When we finally went over to him he said hello very politely to her but then leaned towards me, as if seeking my assurance that she was OK. I've often noticed him doing this when someone goes up to his stable door in front of me - he will say hello but then look around them for me. It's really touching and makes me feel really close to him. Dales do seem to be quite 'one person' ponies. I am so glad that I'm Bella and Jack's 'person'!
I would be grateful if Bella didn't try to eat other people that go near to her stable though, especially OH. It doesn't endear her to him too much!!!!!!
Saturday, 3 January 2009
Taking Stock.
Everywhere is still frozen rock hard here so I have only been able to do in hand work in walk so far this year! I've been giving some thought to where I am now with my horses, at the beginning of 2009, and what I need to concentrate more on, to get to where I hope we'll be by the beginning of 2010.
Things I am especially delighted with and excited by:
Bella, Jack and Grace -
Their understanding of and response to the bit.
The quality of the contact and feel they give me down the reins.
Their understanding and response to the lightest of driving aids.
Their attitude to their work and to me.
Jack -
His walk and his lateral work at walk.
His present high levels of confidence and concentration, and he is so controlable now.
His energy and enthusiasm, and his newly aquired love of movement.
Bella - Her superb (for a Dales), elevated, cadenced trot, and her Spanish Walk.
Grace - Her canter (considering where we started from).
Things I would like to change:
Bella and Jack -
Their attitude to each other and to working around other horses (they both seem to regard attack as the best form of defense and have to be restrained/discouraged from doing so!).
Grace -
Her lack of confidence with high sided vehicles on narrow lanes, and with some objects.
Her habitual tendency to hollow still in downward transitions.
Also I can't ride Jack at the moment. He has had a small nodular-type lump under the skin on the underside of his chest, underneath where the girth lies, for some months. It only involves the skin (I can get my fingers underneath it) and was causing no problems and my vet didn't think that it was a sarcoid, or anything sinister, but suggested surgically removing it sometime and having it biopsied.
I have been dragging my feet over this because I have had rams with terrible brisket sores which won't heal because they are always in contact with the ground when the ram lies down. Removing Jack's lump was going to leave a stitched wound in the same sort of location and in an area where the skin is already quite tight, and I was worried that the wound would break down.
Also, the only time Jack has had sedation and antibiotics (he had to have his leg stitched after being frightened by someone shooting on the other side of the hedge, so he tried to climb over the gate to his paddock) he had what looked for a while like it was going to be a surgical colic, two days later.
I was planning to try and desensitise him to needles using the clicker, so he could have it done without sedation (and have injectable antibiotics instead of oral) but the lump has changed drastically in the last fortnight. It may be wishful thinking on my part but it looks as though it is separating away from the surrounding tissue. It certainly looks more like a sarcoid than it did, so I will tactfully insist on sending a photo of it to Derek Knottenbelt before the vet tackles it, if it doesn't self cure.
Either way I won't put a girth on him while it looks so unstable and sore.
Things I am especially delighted with and excited by:
Bella, Jack and Grace -
Their understanding of and response to the bit.
The quality of the contact and feel they give me down the reins.
Their understanding and response to the lightest of driving aids.
Their attitude to their work and to me.
Jack -
His walk and his lateral work at walk.
His present high levels of confidence and concentration, and he is so controlable now.
His energy and enthusiasm, and his newly aquired love of movement.
Bella - Her superb (for a Dales), elevated, cadenced trot, and her Spanish Walk.
Grace - Her canter (considering where we started from).
Things I would like to change:
Bella and Jack -
Their attitude to each other and to working around other horses (they both seem to regard attack as the best form of defense and have to be restrained/discouraged from doing so!).
Grace -
Her lack of confidence with high sided vehicles on narrow lanes, and with some objects.
Her habitual tendency to hollow still in downward transitions.
Also I can't ride Jack at the moment. He has had a small nodular-type lump under the skin on the underside of his chest, underneath where the girth lies, for some months. It only involves the skin (I can get my fingers underneath it) and was causing no problems and my vet didn't think that it was a sarcoid, or anything sinister, but suggested surgically removing it sometime and having it biopsied.
I have been dragging my feet over this because I have had rams with terrible brisket sores which won't heal because they are always in contact with the ground when the ram lies down. Removing Jack's lump was going to leave a stitched wound in the same sort of location and in an area where the skin is already quite tight, and I was worried that the wound would break down.
Also, the only time Jack has had sedation and antibiotics (he had to have his leg stitched after being frightened by someone shooting on the other side of the hedge, so he tried to climb over the gate to his paddock) he had what looked for a while like it was going to be a surgical colic, two days later.
I was planning to try and desensitise him to needles using the clicker, so he could have it done without sedation (and have injectable antibiotics instead of oral) but the lump has changed drastically in the last fortnight. It may be wishful thinking on my part but it looks as though it is separating away from the surrounding tissue. It certainly looks more like a sarcoid than it did, so I will tactfully insist on sending a photo of it to Derek Knottenbelt before the vet tackles it, if it doesn't self cure.
Either way I won't put a girth on him while it looks so unstable and sore.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Motivation of Dressage Horses - Richard Hinrichs
I received this DVD for Christmas as well and it's just fantastic. As well as it being beautiful to watch, Richard Hinrichs says some very interesting things which are very similar to 'Riding With The Clicker', and not just the emphasis on reward, including food rewards.
He puts a lot of emphasis on getting the horse completely relaxed by riding it in a long, low outline - not just young horses, but also advanced horses at the beginning of every session (and this includes Iberians, for whom some people seem to think that riding long and low is detrimental).
The reason for this is because he says that "A horse with it's head held low is clearly releasing less adrenalin than one with it's head held high." He says that "If the horse learns to stretch forward and down from a signal from the rider, and a conditioned reflex becomes automatic, one can also calm the horse in difficult situations and control it's behaviour". He says that this method of calming a horse was first described in 1710 by a trainer with the Spanish Riding School.
He also says that you should begin a session with right turns and circles because "Most horses calm down in right turns, whereas in small left turns they tend to get excited". I hadn't heard that before.
He says that when warming up the rider should keep on varying the stride length and frequency because "If, at this preparatory stage, the trainer already occupies his horse with many small variations, it will look forward to new demands as a pleasant change and not an unpleasant interruption of the status quo". I thought that that was especially relevant to clicker training, with all it's stops and starts. Richard Hinrichs talks a lot about keeping the horse interested in the rider with frequent changes - he says even the reward of walking on a long rein should only be for very brief periods, or you loose the horse's interest and attention.
Richard Hinrichs is also very keen on using voice aids first and foremost. He says that Pluvinel referred to the voice as 'the spur of the mind', and he (Hinrichs) talks of obtaining a "state of mind where the horse offers the exercises of it's own accord. He says that anyone who regards riding a horse this way as 'poodle dressage' should ask themselves if they could obtain such lightness in their horse's work (this is while a little Camargue in a western saddle is performing a stunning piaffe, as calmly and lightly as a feather).
It is a beautiful and inspiring DVD, featuring a range of different horses. The Friesian performing a wonderful ridden piaffe with no bridle was just spectacularly gorgeous. I love this DVD and it has inspired me to revisit long reining, using his 'hands on' (literally!) approach, and to start to work toward piaffe in hand with Jack and Bella, which seems far more attainable having watched the DVD.
One of these days Jack and Bella (and maybe even Grace) WILL be the Dales equivalent of that Friesian!!!!!!!!
PS. Now I just need the school to thaw out so that we can get on with it!
He puts a lot of emphasis on getting the horse completely relaxed by riding it in a long, low outline - not just young horses, but also advanced horses at the beginning of every session (and this includes Iberians, for whom some people seem to think that riding long and low is detrimental).
The reason for this is because he says that "A horse with it's head held low is clearly releasing less adrenalin than one with it's head held high." He says that "If the horse learns to stretch forward and down from a signal from the rider, and a conditioned reflex becomes automatic, one can also calm the horse in difficult situations and control it's behaviour". He says that this method of calming a horse was first described in 1710 by a trainer with the Spanish Riding School.
He also says that you should begin a session with right turns and circles because "Most horses calm down in right turns, whereas in small left turns they tend to get excited". I hadn't heard that before.
He says that when warming up the rider should keep on varying the stride length and frequency because "If, at this preparatory stage, the trainer already occupies his horse with many small variations, it will look forward to new demands as a pleasant change and not an unpleasant interruption of the status quo". I thought that that was especially relevant to clicker training, with all it's stops and starts. Richard Hinrichs talks a lot about keeping the horse interested in the rider with frequent changes - he says even the reward of walking on a long rein should only be for very brief periods, or you loose the horse's interest and attention.
Richard Hinrichs is also very keen on using voice aids first and foremost. He says that Pluvinel referred to the voice as 'the spur of the mind', and he (Hinrichs) talks of obtaining a "state of mind where the horse offers the exercises of it's own accord. He says that anyone who regards riding a horse this way as 'poodle dressage' should ask themselves if they could obtain such lightness in their horse's work (this is while a little Camargue in a western saddle is performing a stunning piaffe, as calmly and lightly as a feather).
It is a beautiful and inspiring DVD, featuring a range of different horses. The Friesian performing a wonderful ridden piaffe with no bridle was just spectacularly gorgeous. I love this DVD and it has inspired me to revisit long reining, using his 'hands on' (literally!) approach, and to start to work toward piaffe in hand with Jack and Bella, which seems far more attainable having watched the DVD.
One of these days Jack and Bella (and maybe even Grace) WILL be the Dales equivalent of that Friesian!!!!!!!!
PS. Now I just need the school to thaw out so that we can get on with it!
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About Me
- Helen
- I am a clicker training addict and there is no cure - thank goodness!!!