bitless flexions

I've been teaching Chapiro the rein actions for some time now and almost gave up when I went to Di's and felt Rem's mouth in a bit! I want the same feel bitless of the neck yielding and the mouth being mobile but Chapsi is a stresshead and keeping it all mobile has proved diffeicult. The last couple of days we've had a bit of a breakthrough and the boy has been chewing and swallowing during the flexion work. Next will be to try and transfer it to ridden. It's still not the finished product but here's the video from yesterday.

redeemed myself

Only in the tech sense! I somehow saved my video of Saturday with Chapiro, not sure how but I'm glad I have a comparison because today he was definitely a step on. I've edited the two vids together and it's pretty self explanatory, nothing smart or clever just reinforcing for him staying at my side, not rushing ahead and stopping when I stop. Very pleased with him today and so tomorrow I think we'll swap from a shaping session to a free shaping session where he can decide what we do...not exactly that he can put me where he wants but more that I'll listen to what game he prefers to play; usually he loves free shaping so we'll see how it goes.
I still have them living out without rugs, they are coming in for a few hours to munch hay and work. They don't appear to be starving when they come in and in fact today the pone didn't really want to come in. I took the other two and then went back for him and rode him up the hill to save my legs...perhaps next time he'll think more carefully about being caught! They all look pretty good so far and we have rug options lined up should they be necessary.

A tale of two horses

November has traditionally been my least favourite month. Grey skies, wind blowing rain horizontally and the diminishing daylight hours are hardly conducive to horse training happiness. Last year the boys were turned away until christmas but this year during the same period I'm going to concentrate on the basic groundwork and really cement the liberty work. I will still ride when the weather suits but it will ease the pressure if I already have my head lined up for groundwork.

With this in mind, yesterday I had a session with each at liberty to re-draw the line and see exactly where we are. Now I was hoping to have video to back up the words but I only have  Moralejo's work on video, owing entirely to my ineptitude with movie maker and having somewhow wiped the footage of Chapiro!

During last week a FB friend kindly sent me a profile chart and I filled it in for both the boys,
unsurprisingly both came out as full on extroverts (bags of energy and forward types) but one being dominant and the other being submissive makes them rather different beasts. I'm going to be very mindful of this as we progress and IF I had both vids you would see instantly what I mean about different. Chapiro won't wait, doesn't want to stay at my side because usually it's HIM who decides where the boys in the field go, HE who stops where and when he wants. My way round this is, as usual, with the clicker. To begin with I'm just reinforcing his being at my side but not in my space, if we manage two strides of walk like this I click, if he romps off at his own pace without me then I turn and take a step away and wait for him to come back to 'position' and then click before walking on again. Yesterday two strides was a big ask but today he was already sussing the game and we managed the occasional ten strides before losing it. I will video asap so that I have a record.

Moo is of course stuck to me like glue! He NEEDS me because he is used to being TOLD where to go and can't really make decisions on his own. Again we used the clicker to focus on keeping him out of my space (ideally he would actually like to be touching me throughout) and slightly more ahead than he wants to be. We played again today and he had definitely got the idea (he is certainly one that does well when he's slept on it).

My thoughts from both sessions are...keep it short, keep the building blocks tiny at this stage and play around with variable reinforcers (ie not necessarily rewarding every try, that's not to say clicking without treating but not clicking each try) I know that this really focusses Moo's attention to detail but I'm not sure yet with Chapiro.

Clever Friends

I have some very clever friends, borne out today by this lovely study of Moo by Sarah Cameron. I can't really thank her enough. It captures my man perfectly, that certain sadness in his eye (so true to him) brought a tear to mine.

rusty

I can't remember the last time I long lined but following discussion of the topic and the fact that Interdressage have a class dedicated to it (well anything goes really, lunge, longline, ridden) I decided to give it a try.



To say I'm rusty would be an understatement but Moo was his usual obliging self. Need to work on straight lines, lateral work and keeping the bend correct on the circles, oh and not dropping the lines!

Indian Summer

It's been a real scorcher this last week and everyone, human and horse alike, seems to be happy with the last blast of summer. I've been playing with the liberty again with Chapiro, working mainly on free shaping (successive approximation) where I'm looking for the tiniest hint of him trying to stay with me and rewarding it. It makes no sense to an onlooker but it's already bearing fruit in a small way. There is a small part of Chapiro that stops him from 'giving' himself to me, on a lunge, lead or ridden he can cope but set him free and he can't make the link but it's definitely improving.

Today he was a little 'alert' in the school but by relaxing the neck and asking him out and down a little he finally chilled. We worked on my current ridden project of separating the aids into voice, weight,rein/leg. I started 100% with voice as that was the easiest to transfer from ground to ridden work but now I'm transferring this, firstly, to hand/leg aids (hand says stop, leg says go etc) and then to weight aiding. Ultimately it will be a light weight aid but having a three fold aiding system should theoretically give me  a lot of choice when training different movements.

I've been deliberating about Moo lately, to the point that it's rendered me useless! The fact that he got tight and sore again after the canter work has really bugged me, maybe it was nothing to do with the canter work but the fact that it winds him up and stresses him makes me think it was. We haven't really done any ridden work for a couple of weeks but this morning I figured that I should just keep the walk and trot work going and just wait and see.
He is such a star that boy, no work for a few weeks and I slapped on the bareback pad and away he goes. I had a real emotional surge sitting on him, I just love this horse. We worked on lots of lateral work, playing with half pass and pirouettes and I didn't sense any soreness or tight areas...onwards and upwards then.

Weekend Horses

At the week-end Lydia and I were invited to visit about 2.5 hours south for a friendly competition/get together organised by Helen . In spite of a rather drizzly day (can you believe we had not a drop at home even though it's badly needed) we arrived as the riders were coming back from the orienteering part of the Trec, it was great to finally meet all these folks that I've known 'virtually' for a while. After a super curry for lunch the competitors started on the 'obstacles', a couple of small jumps, bending poles, ducking under a line of flags, walking over tarp etc After the girls had finished Lydia was very lucky to have a go on Polo, who was a superstar (thanks Hollie), and then got to play with Gandalph, Chester and Seraphina. It was a lovely day and really fired Lydia up. Thanks Helen and all the gang who made us feel so welcome. On Sunday Lydia and I worked Chapiro and he was a little star, it's hard for him to adapt to her as I use a lot of voice aiding and of course Lydia's aiding is slightly different but he coped well. After some pole work in walk and trot we then raised the poles so he was having to really lift and stretch, Lydia finished with her first canter on him and a daft grin on her face! Good week-end, Lydia and Polo (receiving sustenance from Tanya).
Ali and Seraphina on the course
Big 'G' (Lydia's fave)
A short, badly filmed video (I was too busy chatting oops)