Little dude just gets better and better with every ride 😁 First canters tonight and besides trying to slam into the panels from time to time when going right it was rather uneventful. Finished off with a cruise around out amongst the trees and happy days.
First ride in the snaffle for Mr last night. This is one of the most delicate and important parts of starting a young horse in my opinion. We should always be conscious of the feel we offer on the rein with any horse at any stage of their education but these first few rides in a bit can have a massive impact on the horse.
I was asked recently if I long rein/ground drive young horses before I ride them in a bridle. This is something I have done a bit of in the past and can certainly still do but not something I see as necessary any more in the starting process. I've learned and improved a lot over the last few years (thanks Anthony!), the feel I offer the horse and my whole understanding of feel are probably the biggest things I've learned and improved.
I want to be able to feel the horse make the slightest try at following the rein and give back to them a microsecond later so I can build on that and develop as soft a horse as possible. I also want to be able to offer as light a feel as I can to begin with and long reins just don't quite offer that same level of feel or instant release.
Whilst I have 2 reins on the snaffle, one attached to each ring, I'm still very much working off just one at a time. Until the horse happily follows each rein individually I have no business picking up 2. Mr is a bit sticky off the right rein so there's still plenty to work on before I go to picking up 2 reins on him.
Ride 3, more trot, a cruise around outside the round yard (including opening the gate without getting off) and finished off riding back to the stables 😁 Bit by bit the pieces are slowly being developed and put together.
Huge thanks to Caitlin for coming out and riding Penny to keep Mr company for these first few rides plus getting some videos and photos.
Hot tip to show your appreciation for your hoof care professional...... brush your horses legs off if they're covered in sand and dirt before your hoof care professional arrives👌 Note I said BRUSH not wash. Why? Think about it a bit 🤔 Your hoof care professional has to be in close contact with your horses legs and feet for a reasonable amount of time. What do you think is nicer to handle?
1 - A dry leg and hoof covered in sand?
2 - A clean but wet leg and hoof?
3 - a clean and dry leg and hoof?
Try handling your horses legs for longer than a minute each time they are one of the above and let me know ;)
Hoof care professionals don't charge nearly enough for what they do, things like this cost you nothing but are certainly noticed and appreciated by said hoof care professionals.
Found trot on Mr tonight 😁 There was a bit of sass and funky attitude there tonight but nothing serious. Mr rather enjoys chasing my crazy dog Luna and Luna rather enjoys being chased so I think most of the funny little head toss moments was aimed at the dog and wasn't about being asked to go forward. Ideally he would be more focussed on what I'm asking him to do instead of the dog but a few times this afternoon Luna provided a bit of draw and helped with impulsion so I ran with it.
I'll push him forward more tomorrow and ask more of him but tonight's questions were fairly simple to find the answer to..... trot please, follow the feel on the halter and roll the hindquarters over when I ask. There's a few things I could have done better with tonight's ride and I certainly made a few mistakes but overall it was another good session with this cool little horse.
First time with a saddle on for the little dude tonight and he could not have cared less if he tried. Such a smart little horse, may even get his first ride this coming weekend 😁
(Don't mind the ears at the start, he likes chasing Luna 🤣)
So whilst my horses are having some "time off" (not that they've actually done much this year to have ever been considered "in work" but I digress....) so I can focus on Mr that doesn't mean I'm not still working on something with them.
Elle is boss of this little herd there is no doubt about that and she can be quite full on at times, almost too full on. She can be incredibly pushy with other horses with or without humans around to the point it can almost be a bit dangerous to be in the herd that she's controlling. I've started to change that so that when I'm around I control the herd, not Elle.
I remember a QH mare, JB, we had when I was growing up. The initials stood for many things - Just Brown, Just Beautiful (she was in her own way) but the most commonly used one was Just Bitch as she was boss. When we were around a mob of horses that JB was in everything was chilled, she didn't move any other horses on from their hay, she shared a bucket of oats with other horses and there was peace and harmony. Once the humans moved away THEN things changed and JB got to work moving the other horses feet and taking the hay she wanted. It was fascinating, JB knew that when the humans were around she wasn't in charge of the herd and she was cool with that..... Elle hasn't learned that....... yet.
So that's what I'm working on. If Elle puts her ears back and goes after the other horses while I'm there then I put my ears back and go after her. She's starting to work it out as are the other horses. I'm doing a similar thing, to a lesser extent, with Penny but she isn't as full on as Elle. See how we go anyway, will be interesting to see how this translates to other areas.
Bit of multi-tasking this afternoon. I needed to trim Pennys feet so took the opportunity to put the bridle on Mr again so he can get used to it while eating some yummy lucerne hay. Bit of passive training like this is so beneficial plus gives him a feed to keep his guts happy before I do some other work with him later this afternoon 👌
