Merry Christmas to all! What’s a holiday without a ride?
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Sparrow warmed up by walking and trotting around the rail on a loose rein and practicing his long & low. Then it was back to canter!
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He likes picking up the right lead more, and does it pretty easily. The left lead is trickier. But we got some good reps in, and practiced maintaining canter until cued otherwise.
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He’s also on a loose rein here and decided where to steer himself 😅
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He was really relaxed, and no hopping today!
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🎄 hope all my horsey friends had a lovely Christmas.
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Someone was feeling playful tonight after being let out of the arena to stretch his legs. 😄
In which we transition, trot, chain behaviors, and introduce backing up. 😁
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#horsetraining #greenhorse #arabianhorse #selfcarriage #walktrotcanter #equitation #equestrian #clickerhorse #rewardyourhorse #barnlife #horsebackriding #farmlife #goodboy #endurancehorseintraining #dressage #stepbystep
Sparrow actually did super well today! I worked on verbal cues under saddle and we did a lot of reinforcement for trot, walk, and turning to a halt before adding canter back in.
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He’s still working on balancing and lifting off with me on him, but he corrects himself by moving forward as long as he gets some rein. He has such a cool, lilting canter!
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Feeling wonderful today about getting his stimulus control back, getting my seat back in the canter, and the lovely weather 😅
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#horse #horsetraining #greenhorse #arabianhorse #coltstarting #equitation #partnership #clickerhorse #rplus #bestboy #autumn #barnlife #canter
The weather is perking up, so it’s back to work. Today was a little longe lesson working on cue discrimination. I’m making sure the trot click and the canter smooch are actually distinguishable - and they are, he’s doing well!.
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He’s also working on the shorter line but able to maintain balance in a slow, smooth canter, and today he also tried to stretch in the canter for the first time.
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Last, I had him do a few solid laps so that he gets used to the idea of cantering for more than a few strides at a time.
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Let’s see if this carries over to work under saddle, or if it’s back to roller coaster town tomorrow 😅
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#horsetraining #humanehorsemanship #rewardyourhorse #balance #partnership #longeline #groundwork #slowandsteady #greenhorse #arabianhorse #autumn #texas #barnlife
We are still working on the basics 😊 Sparrow’s getting less sticky on his hind end rotation, and he’s continuing to explore more of the arena instead of trying to magnetize to the gate.
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He’s getting snackies still but I’m also using a lot more of his most powerful reinforcer, per him, which is doing Nothing. 😅 Might as well listen to him instead of trying to make him work for an arbitrary choice.
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Sparrow and I played with his canter bounce after a longe session today. I’m still focusing on getting a whompy first stride, he has done a few steps of distance too, but we are working up to it slowly since if he gets out of balance he tends to kick out 😬
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He’s so enthusiastic and really loves this game 🥰
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#horsetraining #horses #arabianhorse #selfcarriage #clickerhorse #clickertraining #followthetarget #bouncy #barnlife #equestrian #antifragile #beyou
Sparrow had a long and fruitful training lesson today. We are going backwards in time and starting to fill in some gaps in his training and focus on stimulus control.
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First, I worked on his lateral flexions. He does well with them standing still but is sticky to the left from a walk.
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I also worked on getting him to move his hind end off my leg readily and to stop when I stop asking. He’s doing pretty well, but sticks his shoulder out sometimes so we will keep working toward consistency.
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Next, I incorporated those into his walking to build towards his ability to do a one rein emergency stop if needed. His “whoa” is pretty darn strong, but I’m willing to put in the work to have a backup before we start doing trails.
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Last, I’ve been sifting through lots of info to try to get him to stop targeting the gate and decided to try the “choose where you work” principle, so we practiced the above any time he stopped at the gate.
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By the end of his lesson he was taking himself for a walk around the outside of the arena with no leg or rein aids from me!
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Focusing on one thing at a time progressively helped us have a relaxed, easy session and for him to avoid frustration. I’m happy we are making such significant progress after feeling stuck for a while.
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#equestrian #equine #horses #horsebackriding #rewardyourhorse #limatraining #greenhorse #arabianhorse #bendtoastop #safetyfirst #horsetraining #hearthorse #goodboy
