Perry training week 2

Today was the first time I decided to ride Perry in a saddle. We went out in our five-acre hay field. The grass is right at nose level for her, making it hard to stop her from eating. We went out with my Mom and her Haflinger Chucky, so she had a buddy and wasn’t in the big scary world alone. Stuey was out in an adjacent field back towards the barn, so this gave us something to work on: not going back to the barn and her bro. This task is hard for some well-trained horses to do, but hopefully if it's something the babies start out doing (leaving their buddies and home) it won't be a big deal later in life. I worked on the far side of the field (the grass is shorter over there) and did figure eights, stopping and backing a few steps.

Because Mom was riding Chucky, Perry got to have another horse trotting/cantering around her, as well as leaving her and then coming back. Anyone who has ever ridden in a warm-up area or with a group knows that horses often don’t like others coming head-on at them or from behind. They think the other horse is going to bite or kick them, but they need to understand that their rider won't let that happen. Ches and I will work with both babies on this kind of stuff. If not, what happens someday when a little kid on a pony bumps into your horse’s hindend? Its like when Ches talked about the rope dragging, someday it's going to happen and we want the horses to be prepared. Hopefully they will go “okay whatever,” and not freak out, bolt off, or start kicking and make something bad even worse.

Today Kelsy had to work so I also played with Perry a bit. In the morning she spent some time on the highline (and stood sleeping). Later in the day I set her loose in the arena while I rode Mikey. She wanted to follow us everywhere, so I turned and chased her like a cow to practice yielding and moving away without attitude. She was very preoccupied with weeding the edges of the arena, so mostly she just hung out while I rode. She also investigated the various objects in the center of the arena (barrels, poles). I dragged a large orange barrel off of Mikey right past her several times at the canter. She was unconcerned. I also practiced riding directly up to her and stroking her, so she could learn to recognize when to yield and when to stay. After I finished up with Mikey, I threw her bosal and bareback pad on for a ride. I mainly worked on getting her forward off of leg, which she was quite good at. We did lots of trotting and some cantering too, also a bit of moving her forequarters practice.

For kicks I tried dragging the barrel off of her, and she was ok with it so long as she stayed bent towards it. She dragged it a few times on the straight-away, but wasn’t comfortable trotting. It was impressive though because many horses are extremely frightened of strange things chasing them. It was my first time really working with her, and she was easy to get along with.

Perry would like everyone to know that bits are not fun and she does not understand why people would want to put something like that in her mouth. So far she has just been wearing her bit around to try and get used to having it in her mouth without someone (me) adding any pressure. Today I decided it was time to be a big girl and ride with the bit. She still is mouthy about it, but most people want to ride with bits so there is no time like the present to start. I just started on the ground getting her to bend both ways with the reins. The feel of a bit and a halter are different so she was learning to bend all over again. It didn’t take her long to get it. I also put the reins over her head and stood back by her girth to work on backing when I pick up the rein. All I wanted was one tiny step backward and I would release the reins. She had that down in about one minute. Teaching her that rein pressure means to back up will help her to understand stop when I’m riding her.

Because she’s fussy about her mouth, when I got on we just worked on walking in circles and bending until she wasn’t so offended about the whole thing. Seeing as babies just need miles, we again worked on turning, stopping, and cantering as well. One of my personal pet peeves is when I can’t step a horse over sideways (or more importantly when I put on one leg and the horse moves into it). It's helpful for them to yield from one leg for a lot of reasons (such as turning, bending and helps if a horse is struggling with a lead). Perry got to learn that one leg means move sideways, nothing fancy just plain and simple. I was riding another young horse for someone a few years back and couldn’t for the life of me get him to trot (or walk) a 20-meter circle. After thinking on it I realized that he didn’t know how to move sideways off leg, which meant I couldn’t push him out onto the circle. Once I got him moving sideways we never had any trouble with stuff like that again.

I again just started out bending and backing her on the ground for a reminder of what we did the day before with the bit. Perry remembered everything so I didn’t spend much time doing it and just hopped on. Earlier I told you that this was going to get kind of boring and repetitive so you have been warned, especially with a horse like Perry. Nothing bothers her (that’s a good thing) so that means I just get to spend a good long time with the basics. Perry worked on going into the corners with her new skill of moving off of one leg and trotting a large circle. I spent some more time moving her sideways at the walk, and we even did it a little at the slow trot. Again, nothing fancy, I don’t expect her to stay straight or bridled up, I just want her to move sideways, which she does fairly well. We threw in a few laps of canter around the arena (both ways) and then called it a day as far as riding goes.

However I still had plans for miss fussy about the bit. I went and got a surcingle and our elastic side reins. I kept her on the halter rope with her bridle underneath it and put the side reins on loosely. Slowly I shortened them down so that she was almost bridled up and had her walking and trotting like that. This way she can learn that the release of pressure on her mouth is to put her head down and stop fussing. I like the side reins for this because they are steady no matter what she does with her head and no matter how hard I try to steady my hands they can’t be as solid as the side-reins. I had another horse in for summer camp to ride, (Gunnar, a half Friesian and an all around cool guy), so Miss Perry got left in the arena with her side-reins on under Ches' supervision, as Ches was in the nearby roundpen with another Haflinger we have for summer camp. When I was riding Gunnar I’d take the side-reins off to give her a break and then put them back on. Gunnar got to herd her around some in the arena so Perry could trot and canter with them on to. I won't do much more with the side reins, just a little here and there. I’ve found they do seem to help the babies find a “safe spot” and if they aren’t over-used side reins can be a good training tool.

Today we just rode in the arena, but I promised Perry that tomorrow we would go out on a big girl ride. I love babies because in the beginning they have to learn the simple things in life like steering, going and stopping. We did some figure eights to help with her steering (which she’s pretty good at now) and worked more on stopping (she’s got the go down). I’m trying to teach her the word “ho,” so I’ve started saying that before I ask her to stop. It hasn’t taken her long to get that worked out. Anytime I say “ho” she plants all four feet, sometimes faster than I think she’s going to. She spent lots of time working on transitions, and I’m proud to say one time she even had an actual canter transition. I also got the flag and rode with it and then worked on forequarters, which she remembered from the day before. Ches was working one of the new trainer horses in the roundpen so Perry got to practice standing around (as I watched). I had a dressage saddle on so I got behind it and had her walk around with me like that, and I also lay on her rump hanging my legs straight off. She wasn't bothered at all.

Perry's third week of training (new website)