on lunging and in hand work...

ok, so the lunging...

remember, I've been able to lunge all previous horses I've had with no difficulty whatsoever, and have lunged one of Natasha's that others (her groom, for instance) couldn't...

It's not me doing the lunging in these videos, it's Gaynor; he won't do it at all for me (the best we can do so far is him walk round me in a circle).  It was so bad at one point that even reverting to someone leading him round from the outside with person standing properly in the middle didn't work - as soon as person leading let go, he turned in!  happily, we are, we think, beyond that...

and getting to this point has taken a year of working on it off and on.

Last year, we rather came to the conclusion that it was something that had never been established with him when he was first started.

there's another vid that i'm struggling to upload as it's rather large which i hope shows G able to stand her ground - i remember we both commented that it was the first time she'd been able to do that with him

Sometimes with the lunge whip we think its a shade too much for him and then it's best to remove that by dropping it, which is what happened.

Anyway, once the other vid is loaded I'll link that in (thought i'd done it last night, but it isn't there... must have not pressed some relevant button on youtube!)

As for in hand work.  I've been reading Oliver Hilberger's Schooling Exercises In Hand, which is excellent.  very slightly different from that which i had been doing, and put it into practice tonight.  We had been improving on that already, but this was a LOT better, and i was even able to do as recommended and turn him to right bend whilst still being on his left.  Much the best of the books on in hand work I've read so far, the photos are good and the text is pretty good as well.  Would like to see it replicated on video as well.  Anyway, looking forward to more of that work now!

and hoping this all translates into something useful on longlines, as that needs a lot of work as well.  We've had similar issues as when lunging - a propensity for turning in and an unwillingness to go forwards.  Lesson Sunday coming (touching wood, have had to cancel so many lessons for injury this year it's been ridiculous!) on that...

videos

there are two more but i will need to upload them to youtube from the pc when the broadband is working properly ..

in the meantime, rugs came back from cleaning and i ended up with one of someone else's - happily, someone else's on the yard - so chap's gone off to see if he can sort that out .. and can i remember what i sent away?  not likely ...

penny dropping?

think he's starting to "get it".

the last few times i've noticed that he's starting to pay attention... that inner ear, cocked towards me, rather gives it away - not wholly consistently, but very noticeable when it hasn't been previously.

anyway, today Gaynor came and we lunged (riding not an option, the only bit of him dry was head/neck, body still wet from recent rain).

and then he consented to free schooling, which he's not done before (or, put another way, would never do for me, LOL)

i'm getting error messages when trying to upload the videos :-(, so will load them off the phone and then post links tomorrow ..

improving

on the in hand work, he was much more willing to move at a reasonable rate, and was listening to me,

whether that was a function of the noseband which i added today, probably not, i reckon it's just practice improving things for both of us.

the wind was blowing a gale but it's  been really warm - very odd, looked out the window and expected to get chilled stepping out of the door, but in fact was warmer out than in!

2 more geldings going in our field tomorrow .....argh ... it had too many horses in it before Charlie went 2 1/2 weeks ago....we really don't understand this at all, TBH, but doubt very much if decision will be changed by YM....

a bad week...

what with the floods, and mother being discharged from hospital yesterday (lots of near hysterical laughter from me, followed by my screaming at my sister down the phone...)

and i learnt a hard lesson - i really didn't want G to use her bit on M on Sunday but couldn't articulate why; rediscovered Theresa Sandin's piece on the subject (on sustainabledressage) and emailed it to G who cried

and M is very pissed with us...

it was his not wanting headcollar on that told me there was a problem ... not a lot of thought to work out what that problem might have been caused by ...

won't be happening again....

floods...

this is the 20 acre that we normally ride round (through the white gate and straight along...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsz7Hq95YC4

it's about 10 feet above the normal height of the river ....

and poor gaynor, having a totally crap september - the house looks like its surrounded by a moat from one side (well, it did at 6.30ish) but the front porch is flooded, the flood defences having failed, everything moveable has been moved upstairs...

on the bit....

with Gaynor up....another smile on her face!  We're debating sharing M, but in the meantime, said she could ride him/play with him

so tonight she rode; originally planned a hack out, but life got in the way and ran out of time, so just in the arena, and he worked hard for her...

And then went out rugged, we're forecast some wet weather and they might be ok cold and dry, but NOT cold & wet...

surprised, TBH, he's not demanding to be in overnight yet, but expect him to express that view fairly soon...