Well I may have managed a normal day yesterday but I paid for it today by having very little energy. I waited until this afternoon to ride and did Woody and then Ace inside. Ace was bubbly, bucked a bit but only in fun, and knuckled down to some very nice work. Woody was very good onthe right rein but continues to resist working to a contact on the left. He backs off and backs off, until he finally gives in. Today he ended on some very good serpentines with a change of bend without backing off the contact, stiffening up or raising his head. I was pleased but I'll be even more pleased when he stops the silly stuff that he starts off with. I don't like having to kick him into the contact but he leaves me no option when he ignores a polite request.
It looks like there is no hunt on Saturday within a decent travel distance. One is too far away and the other hasn't yet advertised a meet.
I don't know when Radar is going to get some fun. I was going to take him to the farm ride today but I simply didn't have the energy.
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Polite cues are fine until they don't work at all. Tucker would say you are "being rude," of course, but somehow I think getting the horse to respond can well be more important than using proper manners. *G*
ReplyDelete(Of course, I think Tucker also believes that his kicking out at a cue or bucking--maybe not in all good fun as Ace is--is his right and not a rude response at all.)
If I am polite he simply grinds slowly to a halt. WPO did say he was lazy, but I'm not sure that it's actually laziness, I think it is fear and uncertainty of going forwards. So I'm between a rock and a hard place with it. I can't keep him going by nagging, as that will simply turn him dead to the leg. Yet he interprets a kick/flick with the whip as a punishment and overreacts to it. I'm dealing with that at the moment by simply ignoring the overreaction and praising him when he settles to a nice walk again.
DeleteThe difference between Ace having fun and Ace in pain is, thankfully, so enormous that it can't be mistaken. He's just jumping for joy of being alive :-)
It's actually quite funny to feel his excitement.
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Serpentines can be very tricky in terms of keeping the horse supple and in a good outline. I consider it to be a great accomplishment when I can do it. If you are riding in a straight line, any gait, will Woody bend right, then left, then right without objection?
ReplyDeleteNo NL. he won't and that's exactlyteh problem on the nail. He will give me a kind of "fudge" that he is walking straight and into the contact but if you then ask him to circle somewhere that is new, he runs or chucks his head in the air, or both. Likewise, he will do some lovely serpentines until you change what he thinks you are going to want, and another panic ensues. He is improving, but we still have a lot of work to do!
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ML, not NL !!
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