Find trouble, before it finds you!

Miss M

Miss M

Miss M

Yes, she is forcing me to learn, forcing me to go to examine how I do things...

Sensitive horses!

One thing I am starting to realize is that if you are riding a sensitive horse there are a couple things to take into consideration

1. When your riding, do you ever start to look around and say

"Ut-Oh" that thing over there may spook little Miss M and she may go bucking, cantering around like a mad horse, so I cant go over there...

and "Ut-Oh" that other horse is acting up and it may cause little Miss M to act up and so I cant ride by that horse...

or "Ut-Oh" here comes that truck that backfires and we cant ride by it because it may spook little Miss M..

Well dears, let me tell you, while you are worrying about those things, your riding is degraded and your horse is picking up on it...

Dont wait for the trouble, go get it.

Case in point. While warm up riding Miss M this morning I could tell something was spooking her outside the round pen. She when I mounted her I could see that it was a big piece of farm equipment left right outside the round pen walls.

Why they do that I dont know but....

So I played a game with her..

Canter up to the spooky then, then canter away...

Walk up to the spooky thing, then canter away...

You get it...

Same thing in the spooky dressage arena. I know she gets spooked when the horses on the other side of the fence buck up, and she can not see them very well...

Well lets go get em.. !!! Now lets canter away from them!!!

Yeah.. Great, what a rockstar!!!

One hoofstep at a time...

HiHo!

L

Its Really not that Scary ? !!!

For the most part, horses want to get along. They want a leader, someone they can rely on and trust. Once that is built, the horse, usually, will follow you anywhere.

Yet, take for example what I am going through with Miss M.

She is a 6 year old, draft/thoroughbred cross. Who has not had the best deal.

Now when I get her and ride her, it seems everytime something happens. Something spooks her and we go for a canter around.

Well as a rider, after while, your going to start anticipating things. Your going to not look forward to riding. Your going to feel some measure of stress.

Yet, what about the horse. Can the horse feel the same thing.

I notice with Miss M, at first she seems happy to see me, but then when I go in her paddock with the halter, so moves away, not searching me up like my other horses, but actual moves out.

I think, honesty, she feels the same thing I do.

When I get her saddled, and head down to the arena, I can see in her eye the worry....

Now... I know the problem, now I need to build in a solution.

Its about her, you see, not me...

So I think to myself, today I am not going to press her. I am going to ride within her comfort zone and get a change on a couple "SMALL" things...

No lions den today, just move the hind, move the front... Feel me open up, try to follow my feel.

Thats all I did today, and we went back to the stall, and she seemed relaxed...

Now I need to build on that.

Horses can be sensative, and maybe Mares are more so. Yet, I know I want her searching me up, finding the sunshine while she is with me. Right now, she thinks, you know its better when your not here. I need to change that.

I remember reading some old time horse trainer, saying you need to build on the horses pride. I think in some ways that is what we are trying to do. I want to set Miss M up for success, I want her to feel like a rockstar when she is with me. Not like I am constantly challenging her, pushing her to far into the lions den. Build on her Pride, figure out that way that the horse feels good, feels good with me. Hunts that feeling up.

Miss M is about escape right now, and I need to change that. She needs to be about try.. But try comes through release and sunshine. Balance... Balance...

I learned something new today. I learned that horses can feel as we feel, maybe not exactly, but they can show us what they need.

She needs to build her confidence, and I need to be a good enough teacher to help her.

Yet I know she is a confident horse, she needs to be confident with me. We dont have that yet..

I am optimistic someday we will..

Hi Ho!

L

New Year!

Well its the new year and so far I have not been bucked, fallen or trodden on.

SO far so good.

I didnt count just getting off, because that is so far, organized and planned.

Case in point. Yesterday while riding Emma the horses in the pasture next to the arena started bucking and cantering around. Well this set Emma off and she went to go tear off.. Well I managed to get her head and get her listening back to me.. Of course we had to work at it, but she finally came back around.

Then when I tried to ride her through it again she lost it again. So this time I circled her up and got off, worked her on the ground until she settled, until she found it was not going to hurt her, and then I got back on and rode her through it...

It took time, it took me working through my own issues before I could even get to the horses...

You know what I mean...

Riding along, everything is fine, and sunshine and the next thing your amazed you did not fall off and now you have a rocket between your legs..

Yet now, I dont bother with the Wow I didnt fall off... And We never get to rocket speed because I am usually engaging the one rein stop until I get things organized in my head.

Now I need to get better at that..

I also need to get out of the get the horses feet moving, just to move, and get to the mind...

Yesterday Emma checked out because she got scared. My job was not to scare her more. My job was to help her find a place to settle, a place to get back into the sunshine. I caught myself falling into an old routine, and then when I backed out of it, she started to let down... Ah....

Ok now I just need to do that more...

Miss M... LOL for Mighty Mighty!!!!

The other thing I think we as riders need to start taking note of is, that a horse will build trust or distrust with us.

What I dont want to have happen is whenever she is with me the sky is falling, yet I can not control the situations. IE ride her in a box, inside of a box.. Yet I can try to limit the exposure to the "Lions Den" as much as I can.

One other thing I had mentioned before is letting the horse fail, letting the horse protect themselves, letting them work out their frustration.

It would have been wrong of me to punish Miss M for taking off when she got scared. Just as it would be wrong of me to pop her in the mouth with the bit when she shakes her head. I just need to give her the rein and let her work it out, and not let it start to turn into a problem.

Hard to learn.

Hi Ho

L

Ride like the horse moves..

One of the things I wanted to highlight is this...

Take a spooky horse, you just turned it out into a pasture, or an arena.

Watch how that horse reacts, what it is scared about, how it moves, how it reacts.

Then ask yourself, could you ride that...

Then ask yourself, could you mimic that...

Ie a horse may run up to something that spooks it, could you ask the horse to do that, mimic how they think..

Or when the turn away, the suddenly run away from it, could you encourage the horse and ride that?

Or if they are bent inward, or outward depending on what they are looking at, you should be ok with that....

HiHo!

L

Feel, Timing and Brace

So I learned a couple things, or in the process of learning, never sure which.

The significance of softness, the impact of brace and the follow through of a good feel.

Now to those of you who dont ride or ride a different style this may not make sense to you and thats ok...

To me, it does not make sense but at least I know what I should be experiencing, what I should be feeling...

I know what I am looking for in the horse, while I may not be able to articulate it, I am able to see it, am able to experience it...

The horse should weigh nothing, the feel should be light, the experience should be like a dance.

Ok, I get it now...

I move forward the horse should move forward..

I move back, the horse should move back...

I leap out of my tracks, the horse should leap out...

My feet, their feet, one in the same...

My hands need to be steady, to support, not to confuse... lightness, float, and organization.

My body, centered, directing, energy out, eyes out... knowing where I am going.

I prepare, always... prep the horse always, give them time to catch up..

Give them time to gather, time to organize... Time to relate to my feet...

Soft... soft... soft........ like a spider web..

And when that web breaks, where there is a brace, a push...

Know the difference between the horse not being ready mentally, or physically vs a brace...

Brace is different the prep....

Know it... and how to react to it, and to time to it....

To get back to softness...

Hi ho!

L

Thanksgiving -

Spending Thanksgiving away from family and friends so I can ride and learn... sounds strange.. not really....

My last post was about coming up to McGinnis Meadows Ranch to spend a week learning horsemanship and roping.... Well I learned something... some things kinda fit together...

Then I realized I wanted to learn more, but with vacation time short.. and money being what it is... I asked the family running the place if I could come up over the Thanksgiving week since I already had the time off... well they agreed !

So there are no guest up here except me, which in some ways is kinda lonely and in some ways just perfect...

Perfect because I don't have to listen to silly stories from people who I am really not interested in... ( not everyone just some... ). I can focus on the riding, focus on the feel and get to experience good horses and be around people who I think are just as dedicated as I am and for many of them more experienced.

So far it has been great, since there is a snow on the ground and it has been cold and rainy we have done most of the riding in the covered arena...

One of the fundamental things I am learning is there is a different approach, a different feel and in some ways I am building on the foundation I have already put together, just taking it to the next level.. Trying to understand the next way point...

I think horsemanship is a learning experiance no doubt...

But there are things we have to get out of our system, things we have to unlearn...

Like letting the horse make a mistake, not forcing the horse to do something.

Let the horse find it... let them search for it, set it up and let them find it.

You can not force it... You can not....

That is something I am going to have to unlearn, something that I am going to have to unprogram from me....

That I need the horse to think.. I need the horse to want to search for something..

I need the horse thinking about what the solution is.. I can not force them to find it..

That... that is the key.....

Setting the horse to be right on.. letting the horse go so they can find it..

being confiedent enough that I have to push it so the horse falls apart so they can put them selves back together again to be there...

Set it up, and let them find it..

Release for the smallest try...

Ride Smart...

So much I am learning... So much is like sand, just flowing through my fingers.. I never touched it...

So much....

Listening to Shayne and Randy talk today I would catch bits and pieces but so much was upper level math... I never got it...

Even watching Randy work the colts on the ground... Sometimes maybe 25% of the time I could see what was going on, see how things were shaping up..

The rest...

Wash out... Washed out...

But you know you get hungry for it... You want to spend all the time you can in the saddle, your driven, driving for it... You like a addict unable to control yourself..

You want to feel the horse, feel what is right and then feel what is wrong..

Learn and grow...

Understand how to break it apart, understand what is correct and what is not...

Hi Ho!

LW

Part 2.

Part 2.

In riding, there are a few keys I am learning. A few simple things that keep us out of trouble.

1. Balance

Regardless of how good or bad you ride, if you can keep your balance, then you have something to work with. I dont remember who told me, but I remember hearing that if the horse becomes unbalanced they become unsure. How can we expect the horse to maintain its balance if we can not maintain ours.

2. Direction

We need to know what the heck we are doing on the horses back. We are not a sack of potatoes up there. We need to direct the horse not only with our seat, legs and reins but with our energy. We need to be sure. What this means is you need to have a friggen laser beam on your head and you need to say

" I want to go here"

and by golly you better get there....

3. Work around every horse like its a hot wired colt...

We have to have good habits. Watch the best horsemen and women and you will see it. They are smooth.. I mean like groovy smooth around their horses. The horse always has a place to go if things fall apart that is safe. They move with deliberation and a quiet calm. I think in all honesty the horse actually likes this, searches for it. Every movement is practiced, because if you get sloppy with your horse, bump your horse and just behave badly what happens when you do get that touchy colt... Your gonna be in for trouble.

4. Ride

Dont be a lazy ass. Most good horsemen/women ride almost every day. You can not hone your skills if you only ride 1x per week. You are going to be in trouble. And the days you dont ride, work out. Physical fit.. Now I am not saying us chubby girls can not be fit... but it does not help.

Hi ho!

L