Submission and "positive tension"
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 3:42 pm
I thought about putting this in the spooking thread, but I think it's more about aspects of submission.
Annabelle's style of spooking is "the pogo stick." It usually comes out of nowhere, she slams her front feet into the ground the pops straight up. As we've been advancing, this is getting worse in that she will be triggered from something small that she wouldn't normally blink at, just when we're working with more collection and impulsion. For example, yesterday a boarder was riding her mare at a walk outside the arena. We are coming towards them in collected canter, I see Annabelle notice them from about 50' away, and I add some half halts and inside leg to remind her that we are working and not sight-seeing. But as we pass, here comes the pogo stick; this time I was ready for her and booted her forward, but sometimes it unseats me enough, and happens so suddenly that I don't fully manage to ride through. She had two other similar minor come-aparts passing the same horse. The other day we'd turned and were cantering across about at X when a rider was walking up the outside of the long side - in that instance I think she was genuinely surprised by their sudden appearance, but it's not exactly surprising, and something that she ought to be able to work through.
I'm just wondering how others might deal with this, or if they had a similar experience and whether the horse got past it. I'm wondering if it is related to her working more on the vertical, so her visual range is different than when she is less collected? She doesn't tend to do this when she's working more deep, but in a longer frame for warmup, it's really more when we're doing a SI or collected gait where she's more up and compressed.
Annabelle's style of spooking is "the pogo stick." It usually comes out of nowhere, she slams her front feet into the ground the pops straight up. As we've been advancing, this is getting worse in that she will be triggered from something small that she wouldn't normally blink at, just when we're working with more collection and impulsion. For example, yesterday a boarder was riding her mare at a walk outside the arena. We are coming towards them in collected canter, I see Annabelle notice them from about 50' away, and I add some half halts and inside leg to remind her that we are working and not sight-seeing. But as we pass, here comes the pogo stick; this time I was ready for her and booted her forward, but sometimes it unseats me enough, and happens so suddenly that I don't fully manage to ride through. She had two other similar minor come-aparts passing the same horse. The other day we'd turned and were cantering across about at X when a rider was walking up the outside of the long side - in that instance I think she was genuinely surprised by their sudden appearance, but it's not exactly surprising, and something that she ought to be able to work through.
I'm just wondering how others might deal with this, or if they had a similar experience and whether the horse got past it. I'm wondering if it is related to her working more on the vertical, so her visual range is different than when she is less collected? She doesn't tend to do this when she's working more deep, but in a longer frame for warmup, it's really more when we're doing a SI or collected gait where she's more up and compressed.