Day 2 - a short but worthwhile training session

Firstly, before I get to the training, WART IS NOT HAPPY about being in the big paddock. He was near the gate and when he saw us, he whinnied and came straight over. The ground next to the fence around the gate has lots of hoof marks and is chopped up a bit, from him walking up and down next to it. He also had some minor sweat marks, although it was a hot day so I don't think he was exercising TOO excessively.

He tucked into a feed of chaff with a few pellets in it. I need to get him a fly sheet and mask as they are hassling him.

I feel like a horrible "mother" as you can see he WANTS TO GET BACK TO HIS PROPER PADDOCK, and ORION. But I can't really do that. I think he will adapt but it might take a few days. Eventually it will be good as he will get used to that big paddock, and feel safe there, and that will make it better to ride there.

Anyway ...

So, training. We didn't have a lot of time as we had to go out to dinner. Ellie was with me and she rode Orion bareback with a headcollar and leadrope, practising bareback trotting, although we need to get her a bra that holds everything more stable as she was having some discomfort.

Because of time limits I didn't go to any of the working areas, which are a bit of a walk away. I just trained Darcie in the area near the paddock gate. There is a bit of open area there, not much, just enough to do some lungeing for respect (LFR), and there is also a moderately wide laneway area. It was a challenge because I had to make sure we didn't run into anything, so space was a bit restricted, but we managed.

We ran through the same things as yesterday. I'd reviewed some more DVD between yesterday and today, looking at the yield the forehand exercise, and realised I'd not been paying enough attention in yield the forequarters to how the front legs were stepping - the close one needs to step across and IN FRONT of the far one. I think, by the feel, that yesterday it was stepping behind.

The first thing we did was some desensitising and initially she moved a bit, and acted a bit nervous! Which she generally doesn't do. However this time it was a new place, and also I had not round penned her before so she was fresh. But she soon figured out I wanted her to stand still and was calm. We also did a bit of desensitising between the different exercises, and at the end, as the previous day.

So then we practised yield the hindquarter, and I checked where the feet went, and was pleased to see that she was stepping across and in front with the hind foot, which she had been taught to do originally. I hadn't checked that yesterday. We did the four back up methods, plus another new one, that CA does with Scooter in the download clip of the TV show, where the handler doesn't move with the horse but the horse backs up along the line, and then comes forward again when asked. Darcie picked that up really well.

Yielding the forehand was quite difficult with the added criterion of where the leg was stepping, but we were able to quit with a decent step in each direction. She had been doing a bit of going forwards (at the end of the sidestep) or backwards (when asked to side step) so we did some backup for the going forwards and using the stick a little further back to tap for the going backwards. My arms got quite sore during yield the forequarter, holding them up and tapping the air and rubbing the horse and so on. So I was happy to quit when we did, too. I will get fitter doing all this!

Lastly we did the LFR stage 1. She is getting much better about starting with energy, in the correct direction, on the point and cluck. She is also getting much easier to stop and turn into me - she is starting to do it just on me leaning towards her hindquarter, and a step in that direction, with just a hint of taking in the leadrope towards me. However she is starting to anticipate the stop, which means that a couple of times I had to start her off again, by driving her front end back out on the circle.

This was where she had some confusion, and I can see that we need to keep the cues very distinct. When I was doing that, twirling the stick and the string towards her neck, I could see at one or two times that she was getting confused, thinking that it was "stand still while I slap the string on the ground". I was pointing and clucking while twirling, as well as facing up to her, so I figure that the face up, point and cluck will be the difference for her between "go" and "stand still". When I slap the ground in desensitising, I don't face up square to her, and I don't point and I don't cluck. CA talks about the difference in body language between wanting the horse to move, and not move. This is a place where I can see that one needs to be very very clear, so that the horse can tell, oh this is sensitising, and oh this is desensitising.

I need to review LFR stage 1 to make sure I am doing it right. I can see that we are getting better but I want to make sure that I'm doing it all correctly.