Do You Ride Horses? V.4

[ryukrem]

@Luzien:
My mare is fully trained. She is a 13-year-old, 15.3hh Hanoverian QH cross. In terms of training, I meant more of working on muscle development. I want to improve her top line as well as her hind end. My biggest issue with her is her neck with most her muscle residing on the side on her neck rather than the top where her top line should be developed.

I lease her so I only ride her 3-4 times a week, but she is ridden consistently and we are working on training up to First Level dressage.

@socrates.:
My mare is very nervous lunging with equipment. I can't even lunge her in side reins at the moment, but I'll definitely work towards trying that, thank you!

@scardolphin:
That is exactly what I mean, thank you! My mare and I don't jump, but we can definitely try and throw in some pole work too.

[Livid-Silver]

@Hime; How exciting! Feels so good when you get on them for the first time! I've found a lot of these young horses are on the lazier side when work is involved Do you have a really steady trail horse you could take him out with to help with his confidence around traffic? That usually helps give them bit of a boost It must be great to have him home and rideable though! Will be exciting to watch him developed as a riding horse. I still can't believe he's a 'grown-up' now, I still remember how small and fluffy he was in those first foal pics.

@bitanic; Good riding is the best thing. If you can ride 3-4 times a week and she's relatively educated I don't know if I would bother with lunging. It has its place don't get me wrong, but the fact you said she has a lot of muscling on the underside of her neck makes me think she would 'cheat' with lunging equipment (pessoa, side reins etc.) anyway. I'm from Australia so we use different dressage levels, but I believe first level is roughly equivalent to our novice tests? Correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I would really start working on the pushing power, cause if done correctly, she should start shifting her weight back and free up through her shoulder and neck- so butt muscles and top line should develop while her under neck softens up a bit =D In an ideal world anyway lol Hill work is also really good for this stuff, so if you can hit the trail somewhere that would help too! And whatever you teach in the arena you can teach on the trail so don't think of it as 'easy' or a 'wasted' session. Trail riding can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be. Anyway, the exercise I am thinking might help is basically a lengthening exercise. You can do it wherever, on the circle, long side, short side whatever, just pick wherever your horse and you are most balanced. This exercise won't work well if the balance is off, because the horse will usually use one hind leg more than the other which isn't what we want. You basically want to push the horse into a soft-elastic contact from your seat, not from your legs. It will probably be easiest to feel in the trot. Hopefully my explaination makes sense, but you want to hold the horse with your core, don't rise as high, like coiling a spring to try and get them to build some power, so almost to a walk, then swing your seat a little more to try and get them to reach forward and lengthen the stride without speeding up, then bring them back with your core again. Its very important you don't use your hands or legs for this, as it tends to tip them onto the forehand or cause them to just sped up rather than lengthen. If you find she wont lengthen from your seat, a little tap tap with the whip often sharpens them up just enough. As she gets stronger the quality of the trot in both the lengthen and the 'sit' should improve If this doesn't make sense, tell me and I'll explain differently, or find a video Actually, speaking of video, did you happen to have any of you and your mare? It might help to see what she currently works like and another exercise might suit better

@rotter; its hard to say exactly what's happening without actually seeing it, but I suspect there is a lack of driving aids and by that I suspect you may be creeping in front of the drive line. Now, I only say this because its a super common thing to do, I know I do when I'm not concentrating lol. So when she turns in, I would walk back and try keep more towards her hind quarters using whatever cue you use to get her to move off until she walks off on the circle again. I wouldn't bother trotting until she's solid with this stuff in the walk to try and minimise confusion. If she's walking into, I would walk towards her and yield the shoulder away so she was back on a horizontal with me, then ask her to walk off again. Again, this is a little tricky to say without seeing exactly what's going on, but I'm sure if you stick with it and go slow she'll pick it up eventually.

@obessivehoarder; Is there any particular reason she's so afraid of the saddle? Is it the saddle itself or being girthed up in general (like does she respond the same in a lunging roller or surcingle?) I wonder if there would be a pain response, like ulcers for a reaction that extreme. I wonder if ulcers are a possible culprit because of her erratic behaviour... Or she got a big fright during breaking and has a negative association with the saddle. Best of luck with her.

~~~

I really hope this video works (wish I had angled a bit better to get the first bit better but oh well), but Reggie is starting to look a little bit fancy Had his first ever lesson a few days ago and with a few minor alterations to my position suddenly I was sitting on a dressage horse! He's just coming back from his second 'breaker break' so safe to say I was pretty chuffed with him. He still has ugly moments (really ugly moments ) But not bad for a clumper

Click me

Also, don't know if anyone is interested but I've started a set of 'training logs' for Reggie that I've been posting on a tumbler blog. I'm doing this more for my own sake and keeping track of progress, the good and the bad, as well as discussing what exercises are working and what one's aren't (plus try and develop a habit of doing 'something' for study purposes lol) But if anyone was interested I can share the link.

[warmblood]

How would I train a horse to pick up their feet when jumping? I'm trying to teach a mare to jump. She's a little bit on the heavier side, but she jumped a 4ft fence when she was a 2 year old, so it's not like she's incapable.

[guilttripping]

How would I train a horse to pick up their feet when jumping? I'm trying to teach a mare to jump. She's a little bit on the heavier side, but she jumped a 4ft fence when she was a 2 year old, so it's not like she's incapable.

Raised trotting/canter poles are an absolute life saver. Start out with normal trotting poles and then raise them once both you and your horse is confident and then eventually move onto canter poles and do the same thing. Once you're feeling good about it and you feel your horse is ready, make the last pole a jump.

[obsessivehoarder]

Amy Pond: its the second its on her back. She used to do it with bareback pad too but now she's fine with it. Other behavior I used to deal with include......
Attacking me (not provoked just random)
Flipping out when tied
Flipping out when separated from herdmates to the point of blind panic and running into things
Having a fit when walking and under saddle and literally flipping herself
Running me over to get out gate

There are others but these are the worsr

[Hime]

@Amy Pond: Yeah we have couple horses fitting the task (though the best one is already retired) and even Heta would fit the bill, but we don't have so many riders to match the task... R has promised that we can figure something out when it comes to trail riding and one leaser also said she can come and walk her lease horse with us, but her lease ends at the end of the month, so not sure if that's going to work out... Luckily we have very low traffic roads around us and there aren't that many places were you absolutely must use the road side. But he's bit nervous of everything new so going with confident horse in front of him is probably the best way to go.
Omg, Reggie is looking so fancy. He has such nice long looking stride, love it.
_____________________
Bits of our 1st ride L filmed the clips with her phone, as she couldn't figure out my camera, thus quality sucks... I just compared the clips where the trainer rides him and then me riding.... Yeah... I have lot to learn. And yes, for those that understand something about gaits and well why not rest of you, he's quite pacy in tolt, partly just the way he currently is and partly my riding.
But anyway, I've ridden Tý now twice at home and he's been pretty great. ^^ Our first ride at home didn't start of so great as after two days off he had little more energy than I was expecting (let's just say I got my butt barely in the saddle and he was almost tolting), plus I was actually more nervous than I was on Friday (weird I know). But I pulled myself together and we had nice short ride. The second ride I think I kinda got his steering figured out, but lost tolt almost twice to trot... So yeah, as said I have lot to learn with him. We also did a little car test with him the other day. L was just about to leave with her car and I was just finishing up riding Tý and heading back to the stable, so we did a little reaction test. I stood with Tý 2-3 meters away from were L drove. Tý looked at the car, was maybe tiny bit unsure, but didn't really move a muscle or tense up in anyway. And L's car is pretty loud even when rolling at slow speed. Then L stopped her car and left it running while I walked Tý past it. He didn't really want to walk right next to the car, but that's acceptable and he didn't freak out. So over all I'm little optimistic that this car fear may not be as bad as the trainer gave me impression of. Though it might be combination of trail anxiety/nervousness and car fear, since Tý's still not the bravest horse in weird places. I did walk him little bit along the trail and he was bit antsy, but compared to the last time I did it with him before the training period, it went so much better and managed to control himself and not rush so much when heading back home.
I do have little tack problem with him as his nose is possibly even tinier than Heta's and his head is also shorter so I don't have a fitting noseband for him. ^^' So I'm yet again borrowing something of L and R's, along with one of their saddles, which seems to be a decent fit luckily... BUT tomorrow I am hopefully picking up a saddle or two to try out for Heta and Tý. They are from a saddle fitter I haven't worked with before, so we shall see what he's like.

[lettuce.]

I am a hunter jumper, and I ride saddlebreds. I do 2 disciplines I guess. But both are the exact opposite. My saddlebred horse's name is McGee. I love him with all my heart. I've known him for a long time. He is my everything. My jumping horse's name is Dublin. I've known him for a few months only.

[ryukrem]

@Amy Pond

Thank you so much for your input and advice, that is really helpful. I understand what you mean by using the core so don't worry, you explained it well! I've been trying to push her more forward when riding in an attempt to get her to use her hind end, but she usually ends up just getting flatter, rushing to avoid the contact, and fall slightly downhill as she braces on the contact. I couldn't figure out how to change this aside from the half halt, but if I half halt from my core more it should help her move the hind end rather than fall downhill.

As for video, I have some recent clips but they aren't up on Youtube. However, I did recently upload a general youtube video with clips of our recent riding, so i hope that helps a bit. We've come a longggg way and even though we aren't perfect I'm proud of how much we've accomplished this past month and a half. Here is the video, clips starts at 0:35.

@pills

@socrates gave your great advice, just make sure you practice the half halt before the fence or before the pole. This will help her be uphill rather than falling on her forehead. Just make sure you support the half halt with the leg.

[obsessivehoarder]

FB_IMG_1501459549793.jpg (29.48 KiB) Viewed 148 times

Proud of this little brat. Groomed her today and only had 2 meltdowns in an entire hour. A yearago couldnt go 10 minutes without complete meltdown

[Livid-Silver]

@Bitanic; No worries! I love to help with this kind of stuff, or to the best of my ability at least. I am by no means an expert, but dressage is bit of an obsession of mine lol Its so great to be able to look back and see how you and your horse develop through the training scale. I had a look through the video and I can definitely see what you mean about her falling flat. Its especially easy to see in the canter, as her forefront actually lands a second before the hind foot does. As she develops the correct muscles and movement, this will go away but it does take time and isn't anything 'bad' but just a stage in her training. I can also see how she tends to brace her neck and looks like she leans into the bit and braces her jaw. (Which please correct me if I'm wrong, I very well could be lol) To try and help this, I would try and carry your hands a little higher and maybe a fraction closer together. Sometimes with these horses that like to get a little flat, holding your hands a bit higher helps them take the bit rather than lean on it. It would also help you to get a bit more bend in your elbows so that you can be soft through them and follow her mouth (I do this too and I know how hard of a habit it is to break!) You'll have to experiment with how much/little contact she likes, but oftentimes when you take up a much more elastic contact, the horse will tend to mimic and become more elastic themselves. My trainer explained it to me by saying, if the contact is elastic, there isn't really anything for them to lean on/resist. Every horse is an individual, so it won't work the same (if at all) for every horse but it might be something worth trying and seeing if there is any difference. I think once you've got her working off your seat and core a bit more, you'll find she'll start to come 'through' more when you ask for more forward and implusion, though you do often get some 'ugly' moments before it clicks and they get what your asking for lol. I had a look through one of the older videos and you've both improved heaps!! So be proud of that! Other than you being a little straight through your elbows, I can't really find much of anything to fault with your position! So keep at it and I'm sure it will come together soon!

@Obessivehoarder; If your mare is doing all of that on a regular basis I would seriously consider getting a vet check. The great majority of horses won't act out like that for no particular reason When the behaviours exhibited are this extreme, if they are as you described, I would suspect a medical issue. Could be anything from ulcers to kissing spine, hormonal imbalances to granules-theca cell tumours (common type of ovarian tumour renowned for causing aggressive behaviours) or possibly even a abnormality in her brain. I don't know your situation, but if you can I would think seriously about getting her checked out. Horses are big and when they act out in such a manner can pose a huge risk to their handler, so it pays to cover your bases to ensure that you and her are as safe as you can be. But, you know your horse better than I ever will, so please ignore this if you truly believe its unrelated to any health concerns. I'd just hate to hear you got hurt and I've seen similar situations turn out poorly.

@pills; My instructor like to be rather mean when it comes to poll work in the canter. She likes to set them up 'roughly' x strides apart with the idea the rider has to set the horse up to make the distance comfortably by adjusting the canter. It can get some phenomenal results, but I wouldn't recommend it for green horses! If she isn't very snappy off the ground, grid work helps a TON. Have a look at the free jumping section of stallion licencing to get an idea of what to set up. Often a vertical to a square oxer to a vertical can help get them a bit quicker off the ground and more adjustable. Bounce grids are also very good for improving speed off the ground.

@Hime; Definitely recommend having a competent rider in tow with the confident trail horse in case something goes wrong! 9 time out of 10 its all fine and dandy, but the one time its not, it helps to have an extra hand! And Reggie thanks you for the complement Tý looks like he's super smooth to ride in that video! Can see he's still a green baby, but he looks like he's got the making to be a very nice riding horse! I imagine, like with any 'normal' gait, his tolt would improve over time as he gets stronger and more educated. Or is tolt typically difficult to improve? Good to hear he had a good experienced with the car! Every bit of exposure helps, as I'm sure you know Plus, as he gets used to the routine of being worked and ridden he'll probably settle down even further. Since its a few days since the last post, I'm assuming you went and tried the saddle? How'd that go?
Also how is Feykja? Is she nearly a year old now, or am I getting confused? Lol