I haven't been in a much of a mood to ride lately. I don't know why. I love to spend time with her but riding just hasn't moved me much in the last couple weeks. I was able to get a regular shoe on my left foot today
. I still can't get my paddock boot on but will keep trying every few days. It will be much better to ride in the paddock boots to get some ankle support and a bit of stiffness. The only other shoes that are a go are athletic/tennis shoes. I am more than a bit protective of the bionic foot and they aren't the best for riding and the cam boot is just darned awkward.
I have been a long time member of Karen Rolhf's video classroom. She puts up several videos a month and if people don't know who she is she was a GP dressage rider that up and went and worked with Parelli for a year
. However, not liking the way most of the horses went (carriage and energy wise), she came home and developed her own program. It's roots are in 'regular' dressage but she incorporates a lot of NH concepts into them and does a lot of ground work as well as mounted work. Well I watched a couple videos called Silly Horse Tricks. They aren't so much "tricks" as somewhat unusual tasks. Like putting her feet in a bucket/tub, going sideways...on command, touching a ball. I can see that the basis actually is clicker training but she does not use a clicker. Anyway, I could see some utility of trying this with Kyra as one problem I have always had with her is for her to wait for me to ask something of her. She often thinks she knows what I want and if she is really confused or upset, she will just throw out everything she knows hoping she will come across the one I want. Not so great for relaxation or any hope of a decent outcome.
So we started out with two tasks that I thought would be successful...the bucket and the sideways. She was a star. Karen usually uses a big rubber tub so there is nothing to injure them (I used a 20 gal rubber tub). It took about 5 minutes to have her place both front feet...when requested...in the bucket. We also started on hind feet in the bucket but that is a trickier proposition. They have to maintain alignment and are doing it by feeling as they can no longer see the bucket and most horses don't like stuff banging around their hind legs. She got one hind foot in and stood so we ended that exercise on that positive note. The sideways was a piece of cake as I have always done LY and sideways in my in-hand work but she did it quite readily with me at a bit of distance (maybe 6 feet). Now Karen does it at liberty. I know, in the arena, she will leave me at some point so to have success and to keep the horse with me, I used a very light lunge line I have. It was cool as she was doing the sideways with complete slack in the line. In the round pen, I might get away with liberty but in the arena, if things get harder, she usually quickly expresses her opinion that she would rather do her own thing so I do use a line. Maybe some day at liberty? I really liked the exercises. They made her think and she was focusing on me really well AND waiting
. Physically, we worked on alignment (straightness) and she had to lift her legs higher than usual. When I released her in trot, she had a very nice active stretchy trot with good relaxation. It also gives her brain a break from routine arena work. I like to switch things up and if her recent nice work with SF is any indication, it hasn't seemed to hurt a thing.
Flight...your user name is very appropriate
.
Susan
I agree with MC that you need more impulsion/power. For my sticky mare (short back, nervous), it is way easier to get the good change with a powered up canter (that is not an extended canter, but it's like a collected on the verge of medium canter or like one stride medium-change).
