Walker and finesse

It's been a lot of fun playing with Walker getting ready to film our Level 4 Finesse. He's such a challenging horse. One day, he may do things just as planned, the next, he has a totally different opinion of the whole thing and gives me serious attitude. Yesterday was a particularly interesting day. I believe in planning when playing with horses, but with Walker, we often can't follow the one I have in mind.

The weather began changing, with a cool breeze coming off the Gulf and a cover of clouds scudding over the landscape. Walker's state of mind was, well, jumpy. It's difficult to reinforce anything with Walker when he is in this frame, but to be fair, I don't think I would be ready either if I felt that way.

Also, we have had an enormous amount of rain over the last 2 weeks, so the large arena is a sloppy mess. The indoor arena is good for some things, but not when Walker is on edge. When the extrovert is antsy, it's best to be in wide open spaces so he can really move out. So, it's out to the park we go. We are very fortunate to have the park to play in. It can absorb a lot of rain and still have good footing for riding.

I don't want any more life to come up in my horse, not at this moment. Some of you may have ridden a horse who feels like he has fire coming from the ends of his hair, but for those of you who haven't, it can make the human feel pretty jumpy too. It's akin to feeling like a passenger on a projectile in a slingshot that's been cocked and is ready to be launched. Exhilarating, and scary all at the same time. Since I am now 55, I make it a point to stay away from scary.

So, I figure walking a long focus on a casual rein will be good for him. We have trees in every corner of the park area, which is fabulously handy. It's as though they mark a nice 700 ft. by 225 ft. arena area. We start and he is walking big long strides using that energy he came with while looking around at our surroundings. He does a pretty good job following my focus until we actually get to the first tree, but despite my focus, he goes right by it. "Ring, ring", I lift my reins, ask for the hindquarters to go away to get him to face up on the tree. As we get there, I lower all my energy and say aloud, "Now, hurry up and relax, Walker." He can only stand there for two seconds before he has to walk away from the tree. After the third time we repeat this at this same tree, I start to count in my head how many times we have to do it. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 times! On the eighth try, he sticks his head far into the branches of the tree, as if to say, "OK, I get it!", and after ten seconds of standing still, I ask him to move off to the next tree. I repeat this going to the right until he actually stops at a tree and stands for 10 seconds without having to redirect him or ask him twice to stand still at the tree. I think we took two full trips around the park to get this.

Lather, rinse repeat to the left. This time, it only take two trees (half the park arena) for Walker to get it, and I know I now have a horse who is ready to do something. Thank you PNH! Without the tools and techniques to get my LBE into the game, we could never have progressed this far.

In an open area, I started first to ask for a shoulder in to the right, his easy side and then the left, the side that gives him difficulty at every thing. Walker has difficulty keeping himself balanced going left, however some balancing exercises first always help. Today, his shoulder in going left feels really good, so I start to ask for walk canter transitions.

He does the best ones, by far, he has ever done, so we stop and as I reach for his mane to get off, he give me a big "get off nicker". He only does those when he knows he's done something really well. This is not my imagination. He knows when he has put in good effort, and he is rewarding me with that nicker when I reward him by hopping off.

There is just no feeling like the one you get when your horse and you are so in sync.

My Trip to Colorado

August was an exhausting and exhilarating month of horsemanship, fellowship and realizations. I heard things said in ways I had never heard before. There were concepts that got a lot of emphasis that I had not experienced in past lessons or clinics. These things really helped to make sense of and clarify the direction I am going with my horsemanship and my teaching. 

The first concept that Pat and Carol emphasized was: 

We are in charge of the gas, our horse is in charge of the turn.  

The more I have thought and put this concept into action, the more effort I have been getting from my horses. Not because I'm urging them to go, but teaching them that they must go until I say otherwise. Now that Walker and Maverick are learning this, they are putting more effort in on their own. Interestingly, most of the time, it is the other way around, the horse is in charge of the gas and we are in charge of the turn. That is a dangerous situation. When the horse knows their human is in charge of the go button, the less likely they will "go" on their own. When my horse KNOWS he MUST turn at an obstacle (or go over it), it makes it much less likely that I will get launched over a fence or into a tree because my horse has stopped in front of it. 

So the key for me is the energy and focus I bring when teaching my horses this. If we are trotting along at a passenger lesson and my horse is thinking slow down or stop at a fence or barrel, or whatever, I put all my concentration and effort into making sure they understand GO. I don't care whether they turn left, right or jump, they just must not stop trotting. When I started playing with this I realized pretty quickly not to have anything in the arena I was not comfortable with jumping! At that point, the only concern from my point of view is that they go until I say otherwise. It is amazing how quickly the horse catches on to this game. Once they do, I move on to something else. 

At this point with Mav and Walker, Mav as the introvert has more trouble with go than Walker. However, that is no excuse! He can learn to do this just as well, but it may take a little longer for him to be obedient to the concept. The key for Mav is rest when he does get it. The key for Walker is release in motion when he gets it. Walker always has a way to tell me when he has moved enough. Most of the time, I am near exhaustion before that happens, but it is important I follow through for him to learn!

The other key is the phases of go so it takes very little for your horse to know that you mean go:

1) Smile with all four cheeks
2) Turn the smile into a squeeze (turn both toes OUT)
3) Smooch ONCE (otherwise the smooch will mean very little after a while)
4) Spank the air (with popper on macate reins or savvy string, I prefer the popper, I can do less with it and get more response)
5) Spank the hair (of the horse); if you have to go to this phase, be aware that anywhere behind you can also push the up button on your horse. If you can ride that, great, if not, stay to spanking over your horses shoulders