Since the beginning of my horse shopping I've been trying to make a plan of how I am going mold my new project - partner - friend - horse. I started out my re-reading my pony club books about bringing a horse into work, and getting an idea of what my basic timeline would look like. Since this is the first time in my riding career that I've felt no pressure to amount to anything at a rapid pace, I already feel a lot more at ease during every ride than I ever had.
I have little knowledge of Natural Horsemanship, in a sense that I've never bought the Parelli package, but I have learned about it from other sources and I thought given the my horses relationship with the track and that he had never been anyone's 'horse' before, I wanted to lay out simple rules, that I am the leader, not him. I started doing some research reading articles learning a little more about the games and how to execute them and which I wanted to try and so on. During this I came across two YouTube Channels that I started watching. I watched a couple before I even had the horse, but instead of doing some work the other night I got hooked and watched quite a few. I don't agree with exactly everything they have to say, but there is a lot of different knowledge to be obtained from them.
So back to my outline, I had originally wanted to hack around fields for a couple weeks and just let the horse relax, get used to just going forward was his only job. We went on a hack the day after he arrived at the new farm and he was a gent. He expressed he wasn't exactly interested in deep mud - nothing has really dried up yet in the North - but he was brave to be out on his own walking forward with ears forward, generally interested. On our way back he managed not to jig around and walk back to the barn and all of his friends in a good manner. Yesterday, I was loosing sunlight, but I had enough to hack around for a little, my original plan was to hack until I lost sunlight and if I had a good half an hour I would leave it there, and if I wasn't so lucky, I would do some ring work. So I headed out, in the same manner as the last hack, I was happy that he stood while being mounted in the driveway in between to fields of horses. We crossed the road and he started flipping his head around being a bit of a diva. We walked on and I could tell right away my ride wasn't going to go as planned at that there was a battle that was going to have to be hashed out. I was originally a little pissed off that he was acting like this, but then I thought to was Australia has taught me.
Make the wrong thing hard and the right things easy.
I was very grateful I was able to clear my mind and be able to remember this. So, he was being particularly punky about honestly, nothing in the ground but the same part of the field, so I decided this would be my battle. I had bad footing, so the hack wasn't worth it, but I couldn't let him return to the barn thinking if he put up a stink he wouldn't have to go there. I felt I won the battle to a good enough extent, I had him going forward (in any manner - I wasn't about to be picky) we circled around the spot a couple times (although never sans some attitude) and we walked back to the barn. He hasn't been with me a week, so I figured a couple things could of added to this, but I returned to the barn and started to do some ring work. I wanted to work on a one rein stop, and trotting around on a loose rein. So I get into the arena and I work on exactly that, and I was very pleased. I brought his mind to another place, and I had him nicely going round just on the buckle - which is a great workout for me as well. It is so hard to trot around with no contact what so ever, I was more reminding myself to relax and let go, and I decided if he canters, he canters, if he trots faster than light than so be it. And more honestly, he chose to walk quicker than anything. So we ended on a very pleasant note and I'm excited to ride right now.
J + H
I have little knowledge of Natural Horsemanship, in a sense that I've never bought the Parelli package, but I have learned about it from other sources and I thought given the my horses relationship with the track and that he had never been anyone's 'horse' before, I wanted to lay out simple rules, that I am the leader, not him. I started doing some research reading articles learning a little more about the games and how to execute them and which I wanted to try and so on. During this I came across two YouTube Channels that I started watching. I watched a couple before I even had the horse, but instead of doing some work the other night I got hooked and watched quite a few. I don't agree with exactly everything they have to say, but there is a lot of different knowledge to be obtained from them.
So back to my outline, I had originally wanted to hack around fields for a couple weeks and just let the horse relax, get used to just going forward was his only job. We went on a hack the day after he arrived at the new farm and he was a gent. He expressed he wasn't exactly interested in deep mud - nothing has really dried up yet in the North - but he was brave to be out on his own walking forward with ears forward, generally interested. On our way back he managed not to jig around and walk back to the barn and all of his friends in a good manner. Yesterday, I was loosing sunlight, but I had enough to hack around for a little, my original plan was to hack until I lost sunlight and if I had a good half an hour I would leave it there, and if I wasn't so lucky, I would do some ring work. So I headed out, in the same manner as the last hack, I was happy that he stood while being mounted in the driveway in between to fields of horses. We crossed the road and he started flipping his head around being a bit of a diva. We walked on and I could tell right away my ride wasn't going to go as planned at that there was a battle that was going to have to be hashed out. I was originally a little pissed off that he was acting like this, but then I thought to was Australia has taught me.
Make the wrong thing hard and the right things easy.
I was very grateful I was able to clear my mind and be able to remember this. So, he was being particularly punky about honestly, nothing in the ground but the same part of the field, so I decided this would be my battle. I had bad footing, so the hack wasn't worth it, but I couldn't let him return to the barn thinking if he put up a stink he wouldn't have to go there. I felt I won the battle to a good enough extent, I had him going forward (in any manner - I wasn't about to be picky) we circled around the spot a couple times (although never sans some attitude) and we walked back to the barn. He hasn't been with me a week, so I figured a couple things could of added to this, but I returned to the barn and started to do some ring work. I wanted to work on a one rein stop, and trotting around on a loose rein. So I get into the arena and I work on exactly that, and I was very pleased. I brought his mind to another place, and I had him nicely going round just on the buckle - which is a great workout for me as well. It is so hard to trot around with no contact what so ever, I was more reminding myself to relax and let go, and I decided if he canters, he canters, if he trots faster than light than so be it. And more honestly, he chose to walk quicker than anything. So we ended on a very pleasant note and I'm excited to ride right now.
J + H