What we did Thursday

Try: freestyle etc
1. For me: pilates warmup
2. Lateral flexion, indirect rein, yield HQ Try gets offended at the HQ yield
3. 9 step backup--forgot this
4. Patterns--did bullseye at the canter once each way
5. Canter was nice
6. Tenshun, at ease--thought about this ??tenshun
7. Focus up on downward transitions--makes for smooth transition when I remember
8. Rhythm in transitions
9. Stop, turn back etc without reins or leg?? pretty good

Keystone - confidence building
Played in round pen with objects: pedestal, barrel, green ball and tarp.
Did not push--gentle, took my time as it is important that Keystone not trot in reaction for now.
Pedestal--he is confident putting his nose on pedestal and I can drive him to it.
Barrel--this was new--put a treat on the barrel and afterward Keystone was fine with putting his nose on it.
Ball and tarp: Keystone would not go close. I had two buckets on the tarp and moving one bucket to the pedestal Keystone was fine with touch it.
Vet comes tomorrow if trot is oked then I will play a little colder/warmer with tarp and/or ball--accept a little reward, go on to something else and come back. This weekend I may move the toys to the ring where we have more room to move.

Wed Keystone On Line - Self Assessed level 1

Self assessed level 1: I will want it more solid before considering filming it.

Friendly:

1) Under chin, over ears, change hands at the withers—great second time.
2) Swing rope 6x with rhythm—this is ok but sometimes Keystone moves so repetition would make this more consistent.
3) Walk away and swing stick string in front in pendulum fashion: no problem But back away and swing it between us—will take repetition to be relaxed

Porcupine:

1) Lowering and lifting head—lowering getting better with phases and keeping it down longer. Might be good to encourage it more. Lifting head—first time—soft. Haltering: turning head to me—okish, could be lower and softer.
2) Lateral flexion: no—did not trust me and walked around—take the time it takes.

Driving:

1) Stick on withers—pretty good—tapping rear end works and beginning to be able to direct front end to stay straight and use tapping rear end to match my gait.. Stick to me. Walk stop and back is there but backing isn’t soft. Needed extra work on driving front end from zone 1.

Yoyo: prep with tapping and stroking the rope is much less stressful and went rather well.

Touch It—was great at the pedestal—Played “your getting colder” and driving much smoother.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday:
Today, still following Dr orders not to ride for the knee BUT played liberty with Try--mostly stick to me and circling AND 1st time back with Keystone who is ok to walk/do ground work. Keystone and I played with level 1 on line friendly and porcupine and he is starting to think and figure out "touch it" pattern.

Tuesday:
Bethanna rode Try around the picnic table out of the gate, up the road, thru the barn to the ring etc over and over until she relaxed. Dominance games.

Keystone: got in the ring before the kids camp. Takes Keystone awhile to focus.

Friendly: Again we played with friendly but better after some other games. Did not get the quality of relaxation I would have liked.

Porcupine--worked on phases and he was really light for head down, backing, FQ/HQ 360 yields. Backing from the chest is light and better than ever with Try--from the nose is there but slower to respond than Try.

Driving: Backing from driving toward his chest is ok. Did zone 3 driving--good to bring his head up from the grass but he likes to slip to comfy Z2 driving.
Yoyo--did not do this today--next time.
Circling: did not do either as he would probably start trotting and that is a no-no until August 1 with his injury.

Sideways--I have decided to speed him up til he understands then go back to slow (with the fence, both ways). (Still only a few steps as its almost a trot.)

Squeeze: he is absolutely not claustrophobic--he did a tight squeeze between tree and pedestal and yesterday between barn and truck getting to round pen. Also did sniff the trailer because there was one parked in the drive. next time: squeeze and straddle a pole would be good--walking only AND communication to one foot at a time.

Stick to me: Did a little stick to me yoyo back--it happened but would be good with repetition. Ok to do this with walk, halt, back, walk transitions--no trotting.
Touch It: He is starting to get the idea about touch it and I am giving treats when I lead him to object and he puts his nose on it.
Figure 8: Did not do as likely to trot.

Liberty Audition sent in!

Liberty audition tape

Well if today wasn't a strange day! Went out to check on Try and thought we'd do a little liberty and up the energy a little after last time and filmed it. Well about 2/3 of the way it occured to me that we might actually have enough of the compulsories done in 10 minutes to sent it off!

Sooooooooo it isn't wonderful--plenty of stuff not as good as usual BUT compulsories done in some fashion in 10 minutes so what the heck. I figure the worst that can happen is that it doesn't pass and I have to redo--no biggie.

BUT if I pass, I am done with L3 and become an L4 student--wrap ma brain around that!!

Well onward naturally--I see orthopedic dr Wed and hopefully can convince him that its ok to ride within whatever parameters. Keystone is well enough for some On Line and I am looking forward to learning some about dressage. yahoo

Dressage?

Yesterday I enjoyed watching a dressage practice session with Cathy Gould and her two horses and her friend Ruth at Catherine Mark's gorgeous indoor riding facility. Am considering whether learning a bit about dressage will be a good idea for Try and I as we approach level 4 finesse. Also considering materials by Walter Zettl and Karen Rohlf.

Silly Me

Today, despite knee injury, I figured Try and I could at least do a little slow, careful liberty behind the barn. I was pleased with how it went and was glad I filmed it.

Got home and viewed the video--wow--knee or not we need sharpness, more lively, greater contact, more energy, more, more, more--looked like I needed to light a fire under the both of us. Time off? The weather? More warmup time needed?

Thinking about this, I wonder, if next time I'm up for this (??Sunday) if it would be a good idea to repeat some of the stuff on line and film to see the difference. Am I going slow and begging hoping to keep Try from going LBE and disobedient????

More to come....

Wednesday How Interesting

Today: went to the barn with the idea of doing just a little to be careful of the knee.

Learned: Beth Anna rode Try for me yesterday and Try was wonderful--rode her on the buckle in the ring, walk, trot canter--just lovely. BA left the ring and Try went balistic with where SHE wanted to go--over the top dominance behavior. How interesting!!

So today Try and I spent a couple minutes in the round corral--I took off the halter and we did a few seconds of stick to me walk stop back and then one lovely figure 8. So I called it a day for liberty. We then went to the ring where we did a few walk/trot and walk/canter transitions--most of it really lovely. Tho Try pinned her ears like crazy at other horses. She is really in a mood right now. We left the ring and walked a little near the barn with backup, sideways and some turns on the haunches BUT she really wasn't relaxed or thinking just responding to cues but revved for it to be over and get back to the barn!! (Not something new--(being up leaving the ring and the trip back to the barn carrying a rider) but surely interesting to consider.)

Then bath/catch ups of grooming stuff etc.

Vacation

Took a little time off from the barn last week with knee injury. Frustrating at first then realized it was a good mental break, time to catch up on stuff. Hosted play day group at my house on Saturday with topic of patterns--study, discussion, simulations, time to visit and great eats. Now I am stoked to get back to the barn to see Try and hopefully Keystone--surely he will be well enough for at least a little On Line play.

Rode my first real buck!

Monday--started slow with some nice liberty, stick to me, fig 8, circling transitions etc. Followed by standard workout in close contact saddle for my strength--i.e. 2 point, posting trot, no stirrups posting trot laps. Then canter but Try was feeling super exuberant and was cantering very fast (hand gallop??) and ignoring rein aids, sooo I went to the western saddle so I could encourage her to explore her need to move.  I think the change of saddles ticked her off--that she thought she was done--so when we cantered again she gave me my first real buck--cantered a couple more laps before going to the round corral. We played with the circling game/stopped asking Bethanna if I should go back and ride again--she said yes--so we played some more liberty circling until Try let me know she had the p--- and vinegar out of her system. We went back to canter in western saddle in the ring and it was lovely--turns largely from eyes bellybutton etc.  Big day!!

I think we are renegotiating our relationship. I just feel the desire to be more assertive, energetic and want Try to come along with me. If its not her idea, she would like to try some intimidation to maintain the status quo. I think anyway......

canter bareback cloverleaf

Highpoint of the day: I cantered the cloverleaf pattern bareback. Part of the developing self confidence goals for July.

Liberty: was a bit lacking in particularity as I was tired and low energy--Try was really laid back also. I had set out a group of strongid buckets--Try immediately went to them and started weaving--2nd day--we are really close. stick to me turn pretty good--low energy. pedestal--Try offered so we played with walking across--stepped off the the side again.

Freestyle bare back pad: Try was awesome. So much is happening from body weight--eyes belly button and lightly leg. Including sideways over some cones, and turn on the haunches. We did passenger walk for awhile, then posting trot on the rail with stops in the shade, serpentines and clover leaf.

patterns

Try and I have been using cloverleaf and question box patterns to help find a nice relaxed, positive canter gait (no pinned ears). Today I had the idea of a reverse on the rail/circle in the corners pattern--Bethanna helped us with it and it blew Try's mind at first--was good because it took mental energy from us both and Try was relaxed and had a positive attitude and quickly settled into a relaxed trot after cantering.

The pattern: trot/canter on the inside track along one side of the ring--posting or picking up the canter lead opposite from the one you would use on the rail--then go back to the rail to circle and repeat on the remaining three sides. It is good also because it mixes circles and straight lines equalize go and whoa.

  

A Little Liberty

Still catching up with myself and low energy so Try and I played together with a little liberty in the round play pen.

We played stick to me with lots of transitions especially my turning and asking Try to speed up to stay at my shoulder--for future reference, this was way better on her left side. We went back on line occasionally so Try would understand the game.

Try offered the pedestal (and other touch its) so we played with the idea of walking across. She did move her back feet to touch the pedestal and step down in front with front feet then walked off sideways rather than walk across with her back feet.

We played circling game: downward transitions once Try was cantering took a little time tho--downward using draw to me or game over HQ look were great.

We finished with a lovely bath on the hot day to get rid of the salty dried sweat that I think makes her cranky. Certainly a cool bath on a hot day is very relaxing for Try.

Stuff to chew on

Monday we played a little On Line in the shady parts of the ring and then did no stirrups in close contact saddle and then Try was so lovely and exuberant I switched to the western saddle so I would not be holding her back from expressing her LBE self.

Things I considered as we played:
1. Try makes assumptions as a basic tenet of our play--she learned something new then plays the game without asking ?s as much as she could--this is an expression of dominance. I can help with this without making either of us unhappy by changing things up more i.e. varying the sideways/squeeze or fig8/weave.
2. As we up the ante physically in our play, the dominance may become more active as well and it will be good to watch for this for safety reasons.
3. I had not realized it but Try has subtle and not so subtle ways to intimidate a human to seek dominance in a relationship. Good to ID these: i.e. little bucks or going fast at the canter, ear pinning, little nips at the rope or whatever.
4. Another way to assert dominance is the little passive aggressive stuff i.e. being less particular about how we do things such as HQ lagging on the sideways game. I can begin to watch for these.

Yesterday we checked out friendly--pretty good but not fully relaxed. We did change Try's cranky state of mind when I arrived in the pasture to much more relaxed. Porcupine--just a little and great response to phase 1. yoyo--really getting it from just the finger. driving z3--good response--carrot/stick at zone3 and Try ready to go. Did sideways--just a touch off the quality of last time--mixed it up with squeeze and Try was confused. Some traveling circles, turns, change of direction w/me being sure to back up.  Then no stirrups and canter.

Played with concepts from May mastery dvd

Pat: Balance & Counterbalance On Line and Liberty


Unhalter bringing head to you/hip moves HQ into drive HQ with rope and halter leading right into stick to me to maintain the relationship--this was good. Keep walking on rail in stick to me and throw string over horses back--this is new for us--a little awkward.

Change of sides from HQ yield and just change the stick from one hand to the other:{Change of direction: I back and redirect} Play w/this some more.

This horse gets sticky feet and doesn’t follow: Run backwards as counter exercise for the fact that this horse doesn’t want to come forward from a standstill. This worked really well--good to use this a lot.

Sideways game: Same as online, walk like a monster, use appropr pressure Z1/Z4, stick Ze UNDER the belly, chg sides by diseng HQ and bring around. Went great--did not need to correct a lagging HQ after Berin comment--tag then stop and wait so she can consider.

Squeeze   Squeeze through, turn face wait. If horse tips his nose too soon—use little finger flicks at the nose to cut him--Try didn't give me the chance to try the flicks but great to build into repertoire. Easier w/log at the rail--easy cross/turn face/ and offered sideways towards.