Fruits of my labour

Those of you who have been following the blog will know that I have been teaching both Filly and Bonitao to be much more responsive to moving their front legs around whilst being ridden. Basically I've been asking with the inside rein and the outside leg in front of the girth for the front legs to move around the inside hind leg so that they pivot on the spot.
They have both been getting pretty good at this. It takes a lot feel with my legs and reins to get a clean turn. Sometime asking for half a step of backup before asking for the front leg to step over helps. We have gotten to the point that we can make pretty good 180 degree turns with the inside hind barely moving.

What I have noticed is how much more responsive this has made both horses to general riding. Bonitao in particular had a tendency to fall in off the rail towards the centre of the school. Now I have an aid that keeps him on the rail without resorting to the reins, I just use a little inside leg ahead of the girth.
In fact just about every facet of both horses ridden work has improved. It's like magic :)

I would add that I have become very particular even when leading them around, mainly with myself. I am very concious that when I ask for them to turn sharply on the lead rope (in the stable or where ever) I release the pressure as the appropriate leg responds. If I have to apply it again to get more of a turn then so be it. I actually look for opportunities to ask for this yield with an emphasis and being really really polite about it. It's gotten so that it is now a habit and not a chore at all.

It's very wet !!

I've not been writing much recently as there is little to write about. Everything is so wet at the yard there is not much we can do. The outdoor school is a lake, literally, and the indoor school is well used as folks try to give their horses a little exercise.

However the beauty of Natural Horsemanship is even under these circumstances I can still do little bit and pieces to advance our horsemanship.

I'm having to be a little careful with the riding. The surface of the indoor school is pretty poor. Thin sand on a poor concrete base in the most part. The rest is so deep with sand even I struggle to walk. The problem with this is that we can only do slow work and I am loosing my nice forward walk I had with Filly. She seems reluctant to go forwards with a nice overtrack and frankly I don't blame her. So I'm having to be very careful that this lack of forwards does not become a habit that will be hard to break later.

Thus I am mostly working on yields to leg pressure at standstill. Hind quarter and fore quarter yields. This is coming on pretty well, but I am also having to be careful not to dull her to these aids. It's all a balance.

On the upside this enforced slow time has made me concentrate on these little yields, both on the ground and ridden. It's not about getting the yield as such, but the attitude that accompanies that yield. Filly has always had a mental problem with yielding to steady pressure and so this is the current focus. Get to accept the pressure and yield from it willingly. The trick is to not release the pressure on the yield, but on the attitude, even if the yield was not that good.

We did a fair bit of this online yesterday. I just walked her in a circle and then asked with my fingers for her to just side pass onto a larger circle and bend her body around my hand. This was much better on the left side than the right and we did make progress. Not perfect yet, but definite progress.

As for touching her belly, that is now just a part of my routine. Any opportunity I get I touch and hold her belly. She barely reacts now, maybe a tail swish or two. I hope over the coming months to get her totally relaxed with this. This will of course help with the aforementioned exercises as well. It all comes back to "touch all over" on the plan !