Outside leg isolations

Yesterday we had a nice but short hack out. I rode in the indoor school first playing with inside leg isolations (asking Filly to turn by bending around my inside leg) and then outside leg isolations.

In the inside leg isolation I place my leg where it naturally hangs down her side and ask her to bend her body around it. At halt this just brings her nose around (neutral lateral flexion without the rein), at walk because her body follow her nose it turns her towards the leg I'm using.

For outside leg isolations I place my leg forward of neutral. When exaggerating to teach this may be as far forward as on her shoulder itself. When pressure is applied there the leg I am touching should step over under her body. To get the opposite front leg to move over and step out away from her body I ask with the rein held out to the side. So the rule is "my left leg talks to her left front leg and my right hand held out to the side talks to her right front leg".

When asking her to turn on her haunches to the right she has to extend her right front leg out to the side then cross her left front leg over it, then her right leg etc. This makes the timing of the aids critical. Apply rein pressure, release when the associated leg moves then apply leg pressure, release when her leg moves, apply rein pressure etc. Difficult to describe when writing about it, even harder to time correctly ! To make sure she doesn't drift forwards with her hind legs I apply a little back pressure with the other hand from time to time to keep her weight back over her hind legs. The weight has to be there in anycase to free up the front legs to move.

To make a game out of it I place a cone in front of her and one behind her. The pattern is to turn her with just her front legs moving so that her nose goes from one cone to the other. Once she got the pattern she put real effort into turning, especially the last step or two.

This exercise is having lots of beneficial effects in other parts of her training. I can now push her over if she trys to turn to early during "follow the rail" for example. Her ridden sideways work is getting better as I can keep her shoulder in line.

What is more is it is great fun. Not to watch maybe but to ride it feels like a real conversation.

Initially of course she didn't understand what I was asking so we have done lots of groundwork to prepare her. One good exercise is to ask her to yield her forehand around her hind legs in a circle using porcupine pressure. For this I use one hand to apply pressure to her shoulder to ask that leg to move over, release, then apply pressure to the side of her head to ask the opposite leg to move over. Afterall it is this side of the head the she will feel the pressure from the bosal so it is a totally congruent exercise with the ridden work.

When ridden I started moving my leg way up onto her shoulder and pressing, if I got no response I tapped lightly with my toe, still no response I used coils of the 45 foot rope to tap where my leg was. None of this was hard, just rhythmical tapping to get the response. The coils were actually hitting my leg, not her. They just made the aid really obvious. And that is what it means to exaggerate to teach, not more pressure or more pain as some folks use, just working out a way to make the desired response more obvious.

A great ride

Recently I've had a couple of trailer loading sessions with Filly. Not to get her better at loading in the trailer, though that is a nice byproduct, but to get her better at yielding to pressure and not pushing into it. More specifically not pushing into me !

The trailer was just an obstacle to play with, not the point of the training session. By using the trailer I could get her to display "I don't want to" behaviour. She is not at all worried about going into the trailer but she can decide that she doesn't want to go in the trailer. There is an important difference. Never push a worried horse, but expect a confident horse to respond.

The trailer loading was pretty full on, and I have to admit to using the handle end of my stick. I didn't want to but she was pushing on me with more pressure than I could apply any other way. Remember principle number 5 "The attitude of justice is effective". The stick was only used to apply a little more pressure than she was applying to me, and as soon as she de-escalated so did I. If she would uphold her responsibility of "Act like a partner not a prey animal" then I would reciprocate with "act like a partner not a predator".

In the end she became pretty responsive and we could go one step into the trailer and then back out one step. The only difficult step was getting the back legs from out of the trailer and onto the ramp. Here she was worried so we took our time to softly work through the issue. It's not just about loading the whole horse each bit has to load and unload confidently.

We then had a few days of just having fun and chilling out together. I had withdrawn pretty heavily from the rapport bank and needed to make some deposits back in. Not that she was allowed to go back to her old ways of pushing on me of course.

I now found that she was much softer and more responsive to pressure. She could think her way through it and try to figure out what I meant instead of just reacting to it.

This translated into a really good ride the other night. Nothing fast, all at walk and for the outside observer it would have been like watching pain dry. But there was no one else on the yard and we could just chat to each other through the aids I was applying, discussing what they meant.

I've been trying to get her really good at just moving the front legs sideways when I ask. The inside hind foot should stay still. I rode her in the bosal. The inside hand stretched out to ask the inside front to step over. As soon as it did the pressure released. Then the outside toe on her shoulder asked the outside front to move over and again a release. Then the timing had to get good from me. Inside hand, inside leg, outside toe, outside leg. Finally I got the timing right and we were performing 180 degree turns on the spot without the inside hind moving in about three or four steps. To make the end of the turn obvious and give her a goal I had two cones set up so that at the end of each 180 turn her nose was on one of them. So that's why we teach "touch it game" !! :) .

We did other things as well, like sideways over the cones, sideways along a pole backup etc but the highlight was having those front feet in my hands. For a left brained horse like Filly to give up those front feet softly is a really big deal.

Happy Christmas everyone. I'm looking forward to a great horsemanship New Year for all of us.

Riding JRFS December 2013

My last post dealt with getting Filly to and from JRFS, this one deals with the actual lessons I had whilst there.

On arrival we had pizza and beer with Josh during which we discussed what I wanted to achieve during the week. I've noticed that many folks turn up for a lesson and expect the instructor to tell them what they are going to do. I like to discuss what I feel I need to work on. The instructor may then asses me and disagree, that's fine but at least we have a starting point. My emphasis was threefold.
1) More birdleless riding
2) Assess my liberty to see what needs to be improved for my level 3
3) Hacking out

Day 1

This was really an assessment day to see where Filly and I had got to since my last visit to JRFS.
Normal prepare to ride but with an emphasis on indirect/direct rein online. What is interesting is that as I improve I am using the stick and string less and less. I am also using the 12 foot rope more than in the past.
For example : indirect/direct rein online. Start by getting Filly to walk (or trot) whilst I walk at her hips. Then using my intention to start with and the belly of the rope as phase 4 touching her sides ask the inside hind to step under her body. Timing the "ask" with her leg being off the ground is important in this. So I use a little feel on the halter to ask the outside hind to step out and intention/touching her sides to ask the inside leg to step under. Like I said timing is crucial. Once the steps fluid and willing I ask for a little more so that the hind quarters swing away from me and the nose comes towards me. As the angle off the rope to the halter changes I am now talking to the front feet and start to time the feel on the rope with the inside front being off the ground to ask that leg to step out towards me. Again timing is vital.
Riding emphasised "follow the rail" to improve her responsibilities.

Day 2

More of the same online, but the riding now was all about bridleless. More "follow the rail" to start with trying to use the reins as little as possible to keep her on the rail. Once this was going tolerably well with the reins over the saddle horn Josh asked if I was ready to take the bosal off. I've ridden her bridleless a fair bit so I was happy to do this. We were in a lovely indoor arena with great boarded sides so what could go wrong ?
To start with she would not now stay on the rail. She decided that tighter and tighter circles were a good idea. Josh shouted over "do you want to ride like Pat or Dave Stewart ?". Well much as I respect Pat, Dave Stewart is a beautiful rider who I would love to be able to emulate. "Dave please". At which point Josh handed me a 45 foot rope. Apparently if I had said "Pat" I would have got the carrot sticks :) . Splitting the coils so that I had some in each hand I now had a method of tipping her nose each way if she did not respond to my eyes, belly button or leg. The coils could also be used to give her a nice rub on the neck when all was going well then lifted up and forwards to direct the nose if needed.
This worked very well and we were soon moving along the rail at trot in a very orderly fashion. A few circles were thrown in just to keep it a little more interesting.
Once this was going really well I had now proven I did not need the reins to direct her. It was now time to put the bosal back on and start using the reins to pick up a soft feel. For this a little pressure was applied to the reins, and if that didn't work some soft bumps, to get her head to lower and her nose to tip in. Now all the steering was being done from the body/legs this left the bosal to speak to her about vertical flexion.
This was the theme for the next few days. Ride with the bosal until I wasn't using the reins and was ready to go bridleless. Ride bridleless with the rope coils until I wasn't using the coils for directional control. Put the bosal back on to pick up a soft feel. I really logical progression.
We finished the day with a short hack out across big open stubble fields. She was great on the way out, but a bit joggy on the way back which I corrected with sideways and small circles.

Day 3
No hacking out today as the wind was ridiculously strong.
Prepare to ride emphasised use of the 45 foot rope. That is such a versatile bit of kit. Not once did we use it at its' full length.
Taking a loop over the nose I used it to get the nose to tip gently each way. Adding in a loop around the near front leg allowed me to ask the nose over and the front leg to step over at the same time. Getting the timing so that the nose tipped first followed by the leg stretching out established a link between pressure on the far side of the nose and the leg stretching over.
Take a loop around her belly and now I could work on porcupine game by gently picking up a feel and pulling her towards me.. Depending where the loop was I could talk to the front legs or the hind legs.  
We then made a loop that fitted around her neck with a not to stop it tightening. Now with the halter off I could lead her around and ask for yields off the neck. Combine with putting it around her legs or body and there was a huge range of response I could ask for.
Ridden was just the same as before but I added in playing with the big green ball to give more purpose to moving her around. Here's a short video of it

At the end we played a little a liberty. She left me a couple of times, but Josh reckoned that we were easily able to take out level 3 liberty audition. All I have to do is work out a routine to film and hope I can keep her interested for ten minutes ;)

Day 4
The last day :( . More of the same for the school work. But then we headed out for a longish hack up onto the Salisbury Plain. Filly was a star. She seemed to really enjoy her time out of the school. Lots of looking around in curiosity, no spooks. She only got a little fast coming back down the hill of the plain. Again I just set her to going sideways so that she had to think about her feet rather than just charge down the hill. We stopped at the pub for a half pint of beer, which Filly didn't seem to like to my disappointment. Maybe try cider next time.


So ended another great week riding with Josh. As usual I learnt loads of new skills to take me to the next level.
I said that I eventually want to get her good enough that we could pony young horses to help with colt starting. Josh though that given our rate of progress that would be perfectly possible by next summer ! That's at least a year sooner than I expected so I am very pleased with progress

JRFS December 2013

Another great week at JRFS with Filly

The journey down was not great. Filly loaded very well at Manor Farm, but once we got on the road she got very agitated. In the past she has settled after around 1 hour or so, but this time that didn't happen. Going along the motorway she was really bad. She seemed very upset by any lorry going past especially as it was now dark and there were flickering lights around. What to do ? Go home, continue to JRFS, keep driving.
We tried the option of keep driving and went up and down the motorway between junctions to avoid getting further from home. By now we had been on the road for a fair time and had to stop for a pee. In the service station she was particularly bad. Being stationary was no comfort. About then we decided to go home so we could at least unload her there rather than face another journey home from JRFS. It was pretty emotional. We started driving again and noticed that she seemed a little more settled so turned around and headed to JRFS. As soon as we got off the motorway she settled right down and munched hay. For the next hour she travelled as well as we have seen her.
Stopping at JRFS was a different prospect. She got very very agitated. Josh got in the trailer with her and slowly she calmed down to the point we could lower the back ramp. We did not want her last memory of the trailer to be bad. Then Josh asked her off the trailer and immediately back on. She loaded fine. A couple of more YoYos on and off the trailer and I took her to her field for the night.
Loading and un-loading was now her last memory of the trailer and we hoped that would help the return journey.
Saturday came around and it was time to go home. I played in the school with her and got her really soft and responsive. Then it was time to load up. This did not go well. She loaded ok in a left brained confident way, but in the same confident manner unloaded herself again. Then refused to go in again. I got pretty firm with her, not because she would not load, but because she was pushing into my pressure.
Josh was hovering in the background. Trailer loading is one of his favourite disciplines and so he gently took over from me.
Now we really found out how pushy Filly was being and Josh had to get very very firm. She would rather push into him than load and that was something he was not going to allow. James once told me that there are certain things it is better to have others do with your horse rather than yourself. Not because you are not capable but because your emotional involvement will distract you from doing what is needed. This was one of those cases.
At no stage did I see her go right brain. But she was not going to yield to the pressure Josh was giving without making her feeling known. Basically she got angry. As Josh kept pointing out this had nothing to do with trailer loading and everything to do with personal space and not invading it. This was a Filly I had not encountered for a while but had seen when I first started working with her all those years ago.
On our last visit Josh had mentioned how he had noticed her push into my space occasionally but so subtly I had not noticed. I guess we had a kind of mutual truce going on, not true softness.
In the end Josh had her loading very nicely, stepping back two steps then back in again etc. Then it was my turn. She gave a few half hearted attempts to push into me, but with Joshs' demo firmly in my mind I now knew how to respond appropriately and she was soon loading for me as well.
The journey home was not great even avoiding motorways, but marginally better than outbound. When we stopped she was weaving pretty well in the trailer so I climbed aboard and helped her weave by pusing and pulling on her withers. Suddenly the fact I was helping made weaving seem less attractive and she stopped. Unloading was fine. Then back on and off a few times before putting her to bed.
Two emotionally tough days during which I learned a huge amount.
Thanks for the help Josh, more beer and a dinner coming your way :)

Aikido at JRFS

As many of you will know I am interested in aikido as a way to improve my horsemanship. At least that is how it started, but then I got hooked on aikido to add to my list of hobbies  :roll:

It was Mark Rashid who introduced me to the idea, first through his book then during a clinic I watched where I had a chance to chat with him personally. After that I joined a local DoJo and got really really lucky. Both of the main instructors at the DoJo were interested in my reason for joining and did some research of their own to help me.
It then turned out that I had joined the only club in the UK which really concentrates on the internal form of aikido where the focus and intention are emphasised rather than just the mechanical movement of the technique. There are other clubs which do this but apparently none with emphasis of the one I attend.

After a year at the club I really began to see the benefits to my horsemanship, especially with soft feel, focus and intention. So the last time I was at JRFS I suggested that I invite my instructors down there for a "trial" day. Today it happened.

We started with Josh giving a great demo on his Mocho whilst he commented on the meaning of "follow a feel" to horsemen. He played in all four savvies including bridleless which really emphasised the power of focus. The instructors, Tony and David, seemed pretty impressed by all this and there was much nodding of heads in understanding and agreement at what Josh was showing and explaining. This was pretty remarkable in itself as neither Tony nor David have much experience with horses, limited to the odd ride on holiday I believe. For them to understand what many would describe as
advanced topics in horsemanship so readily showed how close the ideas in each discipline actually are.

Once Josh was finished it was their turn to have a little play with Mocho. We stuck to the real basics of hind quarter yield using intention, lower the head with porcupine and back up using porcupine off the halter. They then found that actually it was quite difficult !

The difference between a horse and human is that horses never lie. If they did not ask quite right they did not get the response. I know for a fact that when I am training in aikido at my low level my opponent will react correctly even if I don't get it quite right. This lets me practise and improve as they ask for more and more perfection before the react. But a horse is always a 5th dan black belt horse and will always act like one irrespective of your level of horsemanship.
They did both get the tasks completed and in the process gained an insight into the horsemanship world. David in particular really enjoyed it. He send it made him feel all tingly when he got it right.

After lunch it was their turn to show aikido to Vicky and Josh. They started with a demo of bokken (wooden sword) work to demonstrate contact in a very amplified way. In aikido we use the bokken in forms similar to the non-weapon work to be able to really see the movement.
From that they moved onto non-weapon work with the three of us. I could see that Vicky was a little sceptical at first as I suspect she thought it all looked very choreographed. Then she had some very gentle techniques applied to her :) Very soon both her and Josh began to see the parallels as the subtlest movement by Tony or David effected their balance, or made them follow a feel in a certain direction. The 45 minute session turned into 90 minutes as more and more ideas flowed and everyone became more engaged.

So passed a fascinating day. It was great to see what happens when  expert proponents of two seemingly very different activities come together and find common ground from which both sides could take lessons. By the time we left Vicky was talking about having them down to JRFS again in the future to do a session at a weekend clinic with visiting riders. I really hope this can be made to happen sometime when the weather has warmed up a bit. It would be great to see how far we can take this marriage of aikido and horsemanship in the future.