He was round and on the bit

Wow. Thank you for all the comments with suggestions about how to get Jack to come round and on the bit during transitions. I really appreciate that you took the time to do that for me.

Jack had an unexpected 3 days off when I went to Parachute Music Festival. Once I was back to reality, it was back to work. The ODE is this Sunday and Jack really needed to get worked hard. The first day back (Monday) was a bit of a write off. Jack never works too well after time off , his brain seems to stay in vacation mode. So I made it easy for him and just did fitness work.

Tuesday it was back to the hard slog. Rally started up again for us, just in time too. I really needed help with the hollowness in transitions and during the trot. Thankfully, half of the lesson was focused on flat work and we really got to work on being round. A, my rally instructor, has a style of teaching that usually doesn't appeal to me. I am definately a person who needs words of affirmation and she doesn't do this often. Through the majority of the lesson I felt like I was doing something wrong but we got results from Jack, so I'm happy. This being said, she really likes Jack. She hasn't seen much of him due to his lameness and I don't think she liked him much at the start of the lesson when his head was way up in the air. But as he softened and rounded she started complimenting him. My favourite was "He's a really nice mover." I never expected anyone to say this due to Jack's mincing trot, but by the time she said this he had started lengthening his stride nicely.

A had me concentrate on getting Jack long and low throughout the whole lesson. By flexing his head to the inside then asking for roundness and lowness with the outside rein, Jack really responded and lowered his head nicely. When transitioning from walk to trot, A told me to ask him to lower his head and as he did ask for trot. This resulted in him having to use his hocks to transition rather then pulling himself into the trot with his front legs and head. It worked wonders and he stayed collected almost throughout the whole transition. Once in trot, Jack stayed rounded and on the bit almost the entire time. I was truly flabbergasted. We got some nice downwards transitions too. We didn't do much canter as we were concentrating more on the trot and walk.

I was aiming to reiterate last nights lesson today as I was hoping it wasn't just a fluke. It wasn't! Jack was really responsive and worked rounded and on the bit nicely. We also did leg yields and turn on the forehands which Jack is getting better at. Again, we didn't do any canter work. We were working in a un-even paddock which only had a very small flat area and it was too difficult to do anything much. I'll be working on canter tomorrow in the arena or on a nice flat paddock.

All-in-all it looks like things are going well. Hopefully this means we won't completely humiliate ourselves at the ODE on Sunday. I'm riding 2nd in my class which means I won't have to spend ages waiting around to go into the arena which is a good thing.

Cross Country Lesson

Jack suprised me today by behaving nicely for the lesson today, even though he had the past couple of days off due to New Years. Sue, who helped me a lot with Red, was my instructor.We started off the lesson by doing lots of transitions. First it was 8 strides of trot, then halt and repeat. Then 4 strides of trot, 4 of walk. Then 8 of canter, 8 of walk etc. She wanted him to get much softer in his transitions and soon she had me try getting downward transitions by breathing out and not using the reins. It took him about a minute to grasp what I wanted but he was soon doing it perfectly. He is a very, very sensitive horse and responds beautifully to the lightest aids.

We started off small and went bigger. I had my faithful dad following me around with the camera and part way through the lesson my mum and "auntie" arrived to watch.

It seems that Jack hates having his head interferred with from about 5 strides out of the jump and 3 strides after. As soon as I let him have "his strides" and sung to both of us to keep an even rythm he jumped very nicely. No galloping away after the jumps and no head tossing.

Sue had us jump a ditch during the lesson. I've jumped a couple of ditches before when I was living in Taumarunui but I really don't know much about them. Jack refused the first time but on the second time he jumped it. Really, really big. Even though it was a massive jump I felt really secure and not at all un-balanced... Thank you Red! Sue told me to stay sitting up over the jump, that I don't need to lean forward for it. It looks like I didn't listen to her very well if the photos are any indication. (Click to see the bigger version)

Next it was onto the Water Jump. We all remember my unfortunate incident with the water last time. He jumped into the water like a star and would canter through the water as fast as he could. The cool water refreashed us both I think. One time when we jumped into the water he cantered straight towards a massive bank. I don't know what he wanted to do but I pushed him the other way at the last minute and my knee was almost taken out on a wooden post.

After schooling a few more jumps we stuck most of them together for a course. Jack was a star and jumped everything without looking twice.

I don't know if you noticed but I've got some mean man muscles coming through on my arms. Which shows especially on this photo. They are getting pretty big haha.

We finished off the lesson there since it was our first Cross Country Schooling together. I learnt a lot about Jack in this lesson. Sue really likes Jack which helps a lot. She says he has "unlimited potential" which is very encouraging.

There is an ODE on the 1st of February and I think I will compete at Pre-Training lesson. Hopefully I can fit one more Cross Country lesson in and then we should be good to go.

The Good and The Bad

Jack has been here for 5 days so far and we've already been through a bit of this and that. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were great. Jack seemed to be settling in well and I was looking forward to getting to ride him. Unfortunately my saddle fell through (again) so I had to put off riding for a couple of days. I decided we would just hang out a bit, get to know each other some more and generally just have a relaxing few days but Jack had other ideas.

On Wednesday night I got him out of his paddock. Well actually it was another paddock from what I had put him in the night before because he decided he liked the ponies better and jumped the tape. As soon as I took him out of the paddock the whinnying started... and it didn't stop until I put him back. That itself wasn't too bad. I'd figure he was allowed to have some separation issues since his two paddock mates at his previous owners had been put down on the same day rendering him companion-less. Then the barging, pulling and general bad manners started. His had no regard for me what so ever. He pulled me along on the lead while I struggled uselessly to stop him walking. He basically ran over me a couple of times and when I put him in one of the pens and went in to groom him he swung his butt on me continuously. Basically it was like I didn't exist. I couldn't get his attention on me at all. It was everywhere and anywhere else. It started getting dangerous so I quickly fed him and put him back.



I knew something had to be done. The behaviour was dangerous and totally unacceptable. So the next day when I went to buy his feed I also picked up a rope halter, a lead rope with a tough clip and a crop. I went to Pony Club and went to catch Jack bringing the crop with me. He was in the pony paddock again. I haltered him and starting leading him towards the club rooms. He tried his moves on me pretty quickly but a well timed whack on the shoulder made him think twice. Soon he tried it again and another whack followed. He lead pretty well after that. I put him into one of the pens and fed him. He still whinnied and didn't end up finishing his feed because he was too interested in what else was happening around him. He got pushy on the way back to his paddock but soon stopped when I corrected him again. When I let him go in the hacks paddock he trotted off immediately along the fence line. He then circled out and came at a canter towards the tape. I brandished the whip and yelled at him and he swung at the last minute away from the tape. He tried a couple more times but I yelled and waved the crop at him again and he soon settled down to graze. When I went to get him today he was in the hack paddock so I guess that worked yay!

So today I took him down the club rooms again. He was quiet most of the way and led pretty well. When we got to the club rooms his whinnying started again but again theres not much that can be done about that. He acted up a bit when I tied him up to be groomed etc but settled down when another horse was tied up close by. I groomed him and saddled him up quite easily. He wouldn't let me bridle him and in the end an instructor came over and showed me how to do it another way which he seemed to like more. I took him over to the arena and got on for the first time. Since his ground manners had been worse since coming to Pony Club I was wondering if he would be as bad under saddle. Thankfully he wasn't and we had a pleasant ride around the arena for 20 minutes or so. He whinnied a couple of times but I got his attention back on me and we kept going. I trotted him a tiny bit to show the same instructor how terrible his trot was. He made me a liar by doing a reasonable trot. She laughed because I had just given her a big description of what his trot was like and how horrible it was. I finished the ride, unsaddled him and had an awesome grooming session with Rita who owned Rose, the horse Jack liked. He actually seemed like a normal, calm horse instead of the hyper demon horse he had become for the few days before hand.

One of the instructors at Pony Club, who have dealt with horses with bad ground manners before, is coming to give Jack and I a lesson on ground manners on Sunday which should help me sort him out completely. I actually was scared of him on Wednesday only because he just wouldn't give me his attention at all. He could have run over me and he probably wouldn't have known. So although his manners have been very, very bad at least his riding was good. Also, I put his deterioration in his ground manners down to his excitement and separation issues he's experiencing since the move. He's only been here a few days and I'm sure once he settles in more and calms down he'll be more willing to give me his attention but because he was getting dangerous I couldn't wait for that to happen.

I got contacts today which hopefully should help my riding improve just a tiny bit. I'm short sighted and up until I've worn glasses for driving and watching movies etc but as you might imagine it can be difficult to ride with glasses. Up until now I've just made do but I suspect it hasn't be helping me judge distances correctly when I'm jumping. So contacts is the answer. I wore them when I was 15 but lost them pretty soon after I got them so I will be taking super care of these. I wonder if it will help at all.

Anyway sorry for the very long post! The pictures in this post were taken the second time I rode Jack. I really need to get some more.

Back to Work

Well its back into training again now that Reds better. Since I’ve been away at camp, last night was the first time I had been on in him in a couple of weeks. I didn’t want to do anything too hard so we started off doing some baby cross country jumps in the tractor paddock. I concentrated keeping him rounded and balanced over and between each jump. We progressed to some of the slightly bigger jumps as he was going really well, and we then did a tiny course of the jumps in that one paddock. He was fighting to go the whole time I was riding him through the course which I took as a good sign, you know… that he wanted to get back into work.

I then took him into the arena for a little bit of dressage. Well I tell you, he was great! His collected work on the left rein was stunning. He was balanced, elevated and soft. I decided that I couldn’t put it off any longer and made the decision to work on his right canter. The first transition was bad, I hadn’t kept him balanced as I cued for the canter and he cantered on his left leg. I bought him back, balanced him again and then asked for the canter. AND HE DID IT! The second time I asked he cantered on his right lead! I couldn’t believe it at first, I had to keep looking down to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. I kept him going around the arena a few times, praising him non stop and then bought him back to a loose walk. Deciding to finish on a good note, I cooled him down. Now please excuse me for this next part, but I need to brag. Pony Club camp is on at the moment and a lot of people were watching us as we worked. When I came out of the arena I stopped to talk with Elmir, my old instructors mum. She complimented us over and over which was great, since she knew what we were like when we first came to Pony Club. One of the instructors from another pony club complimented Red too, saying that he was a gorgeous thoroughbred with muscle in all the right places and that I must be training him right. They also said we were looking amazing in the arena, and to keep up the good work. I was on a high for sure.

So now I’m hoping beyond hope that I manage to get him going exactly the same way in the competition next weekend. I remember exactly how I warmed him up so I’m going to do the exact same thing in the comp. Here’s hoping.

I'm back!

Well I haven't posted in awhile because basically I haven't seen much of Red. My Auntie and Dad have been going out to see him and feed them (bless their souls) because I have been very busy and tired. I went to Aussie last weekend for a thing with my work which was lots of fun and a few other things made me unable to go out but now I will get back into my normal routine.

I went out this morning, and I started to clicker train Red. I'm not going to go into clicker training because it would make this a extremely long post but you can read about it here . Basically you ask the horse to do something good and when they do it the click is the reward but you reinforce it with a treat. After a lot of training you can just give a click as a reward for good behaviour.

So I started that with Red today. Some people believe in 'charging the clicker' which means you start off by clicking then rewarding, clicking then rewarding etc until the horse gets that a click means a treat. I did it another way. I held up a cone and when he sniffed it, I clicked, then treated. Everytime he touched the cone with his nose, I clicked and treated. I think he kind of got it. He would touch the cone on purpose a couple of times but other times it kinda looked like it was an accident. But its supposed to take a few sessions till they really get it anyway so I'm not too worried. I also did a bit of lunging. There was a big crew of workers who were doing something on the PC land (which is also council land) who were watching me do it, and thankfully Red was responding very well to my cues! Hes such a good boy.

So anyway I'll keep you updated on our Clicker Training process. Hopefully he'll become a pro at it. I also did a quick training session with Red and the float. He always takes about 10 mins to get on because hes a stubborn old man that doesn't want to leave his nice paddocks. So I just lead him part way up the ramp, and when he was standing nice and calmly I gave him a click and a treat and then we just stood there some more. Hopefully he'll get the idea that floating can be nice and calmly done too. I'll keep on with that.

Red is getting It!

So I went out to see Red today after three days off and I decided to do some lunging with him. If you remember from my previous post Going in Circles, I had a hard time getting Red to slow down. Well folks hes got it! Hes brilliant at the downwards transitions! I only once had to reel him in to slow down and the rest of the time he did it immediately. I was so proud :D I think all the hard work I've put into him this winter has really paid off! I can not wait for the show season, its going to be great!

In other news, look out for pics of Red in his spiffy spare Winter Cover coming up, its electric blue and hes pretty much the man in it!

Adieu!

Going in circles

Well today I dragged myself out of my new (yay!) double bed and went out to see Red. I didn't visit him yesterday because I was soooo tired. I had been to my cousins party on saturday night I didn't get to bed till 2, and then I woke up at 8. I went back to bed at 12 and slept till 3 and then I had to go to church.

So today I got to try out my new lunging gear... dang I just remember I left my lunging whip in the middle of the paddock, oh well hopefully someone has found it. Anyway I've only ever free lunged Red in a round pen so using a lunge lead was a whole new experience. He picked up on most of the cues pretty easily. Especially the upwards transitions. The downwards transitions were another story. He listened to my downward transition cues perhaps twice in the whole time we were working, the rest of the time he just kept going until I had reeled him in closer to me. But I'm sure with a little more practice he will get it. He's a smart GG. I lunged him over a little log which he seemed to enjoy, I tried one of the bigger jumps but he just stopped in front of it. No suprise there though, he doesnt like jumping that jump even when I'm on him.

I'll keep you posted on our lunging progress... hopefully there will be progress lol. Btw you can tell I didn't do my hair when I got up this morning :P Until later...

My horse is high strung

Every weekday morning my mum and I get up and drive out to see my beloved horse Red. He grazes about 25 mins away from us so we endevour to have everything ready the night before so I can have maximum riding time. Today we left later then usual, and mum needed to get back early so as a result I didn't have much time this morning. I decided that some nice, quick groundwork would be in order to save all the hassle of saddling up.

So I took him into the 'plum tree paddock' to work on commands. I got the point where he would follow after me nicely and listen to what I was saying with no leadrope so I went over to the car to tell mum to watch how wonderful he was going. I proceed to say 'trot on' and he did, then mum suddenly got out of the car. Well Red got a fright. See Red is a very high strung horse. He gets frights easily, and often spooks at nothing. He took off and we watched as he cantered away back in the direction of his herd mates. This usually wouldn't be a big deal but his herd mates were at the other end of the property and all the gates along the way were open. We jumped into the car and mum dropped me off at the gate by the 'staircase paddock' where the herd was. Sure enough Red was in front of the gate, his tail held high, calling to his friends. I snapped the leadrope back on and walked him alllllll the way to the clubhouse. That was enough for the day I decided so I fed him, put his cover back on and then walked him all the way back to the staircase paddock.

Oh the joys of owning a high strung horse. But its all good because I love him. And love is all about forgiving :)

PS: The picture is one of Red not being high strung... my compliments to the photographer (my number one reader) Isla