day something....

Its been a long time since I posted.  Boy oh boy am I proud of how far we have gotten.  I am came across some quotes from the seabiscuit movie that reminded me of Magic, figured I would share.  

Narrator: The first time he saw Seabiscuit, the colt was walking through the fog at five in the morning. Smith would say later that the horse looked right through him. As if to say, "What the hell are you looking at? Who do you think you are?" He was a small horse, barely fifteen hands. He was hurting too. There was a limp in his walk, a wheezing when he breathed. Smith didn't pay attention to that. He was looking the horse in the eye. 

This first quote is pretty much how I approach starting each and every new horse.  You look them in the eye and search for their heart.  If you can't see the horses heart in their eye, you will fail everytime.  

Red Pollard: [Last line, narrating] You know, everybody thinks we found this broken-down horse and fixed him, but we didn't. He fixed us. Every one of us. And I guess in a way we kinda fixed each other too. 

Wednesday I had my best ride on Magic up to this point.  We got into the zone, she was listening to every cue and waiting for the next one.  There is only one other horse that gets into that zone with me, the wonderful Caley of course.  Its really hard to describe this zone, its like the world stops turning and time stops moving and all there is is wind and ground.  And you go over one jump; ground, wind, ground.  Next jump; ground, wind, ground.  And so on. Just jumping and going and jumping and going.  Magic and I shared one common goal; to defy gravity.  Its like she has been waiting all summer for me to get back, just waiting for me to get on so she can show me what she has decided she wants to do.  Those are the rides that keep my world turning and my clock ticking.  

I have always begged the question, what do people do with out horses????

Day 4

We have hit a plateau, a good one. Things are coming together on the ground and I discovered that Magic isn't a monster under saddle, so I figured I would let Maggie have some fun and go for a ride today. I warmed Magic up on the ground to make sure that she wasn't going to be in a weird mood before I put Maggie on her. I did the ground warm up exercises with just the reins instead of the long lines and Magic wasn't too sure about that change, but with some work and persistence she worked into it just fine. I had to be very careful though because I could tell if I pushed the wrong way Magic was going to get very upset, I'm not sure how I managed but I convinced her to do it with out an explosion.

Maggies time to ride! I put the long reins on that way if Maggie needed assistance I could be there for her. I did my best to explain the basics of dressage to Maggie and why its important to start a beginner horse with dressage. Dressage is known to be a beautiful art form in the horse world, so people also find it to be extremely boring, I have heard it described as being like "watching grass grow". There isn't a lot of risky thrill to riding dressage and I agree it can be slow tedious work. But I challenge anyone to find a horse that hasn't done a lick of dressage and show me that they can be any where near the balance of a dressage horse.

Horses have a natural tendency to move foreward on their forehand (the front half of the horse) and put more weight on the front feet than their back feet because that is how they support the weight of their head and neck. With out a rider on their back, this is fine. However with the weight of a rider on their back they lean forward even more and become unbalanced, affecting how their body feels and how they move their body. Now you have to start thinking of the horse as two separate parts. The body separate from the legs. Think of the legs as swinging pendulums underneath the mass of the body. The body weighs more then the legs, so therefore the body is going to have a great effect on the legs. Now in Magic's case (as with all beginning horses) her body shifts is always pushing forward a head of her legs, so that her legs have to scatter behind her to keep up with her body. The easiest way to understand this concept is try running leaning forward and then stand upright and run, which one is more comfortable? This scenario tends to produce a horse with too fast of a stride, tempo, and speed. So how does one fix this? Show the horse how to sit back on their haunches. They have to learn to engage their back and step under with their hind legs. More on this later...back to the ride.

I think Maggie's ride went great. Started to work on Maggie learning how to lean back and engage her seat to ask Magic to engage her body. A rider that is not engage will not be able to engage a horse. We also started to work on the whoa cue. In a perfect world all a rider should have to do is think walk and sit back a little and the horse should stop. A horse shouldn't have to be jerked with the reins to a stop every time. Now you may ask yourself, why are we working on Magic halting when she has balance issues at the walk trot and canter? Because in order to halt a horse they have to shift their body weight back to slow down and they actually naturally engage their haunches, the exact thing we want them to do. Also it is to challenge and see if Magic is paying attention her rider. If you sit back and think whoa and nothing happens, that means Magic is not participating in the ride, she is just a shuttle that moves around an arena. A horse must learn whoa, before they learn go. I think Maggie started to realize the importance of this exercise and could start to see a change in how Magic was moving and listening. This is also a good example about how a few good steps is better then several bad steps. Hopefully Magic and Maggie are starting to understand this concept.

Next time do the foot fault exercises with Maggie so she can actually start to feel a horses movement.

Day 3

Started with the usual lunging and ground work.  Only had a few awkward moments trotting to the right on the lung line.  Its really quite odd how she trots forward a couple steps to the right and then decides she can't do it anymore, stops then pivots to the inside of the arena and looks at me.  The look she gives me when she does this is like she is trying to tell me something, all I can do is tell her that I am listening and convince her to go step by step through the routine again.  There is a mental block that extends to a physical block this direction for her, but it is slowly going away.  Work more on getting her to step out and crossover this direction.  Also start to the right next time on the lunge line that way you go bad side to good side.  

So I decided now that we were settling into a warm up routine I was curious to see what she is like being ridden.  Now there is always two types of horses.  Those who learn best on the ground and those who learn best being ridden.  So I never know what to expect when I get on a training project.  I always think "are they going to equate what they have learned on the ground to being ridden? or am i going to have to completely start over?".  I would say that Magic is the type of horse that can apply what has been taught to her on the ground to what is going on under saddle.  

Walking was good, she had a calm long stride and was playing with the idea of giving to my hand like i taught her on the ground.  I did a couple halt transitions through my seat to my hand.  Magic was exceeding my expectations at this point so i decided a little trot might be fun.  She actually has a nice smooth trot which is surprising because half the time the front half of her body is doing the opposite of the back half of her body.  Worked on getting her soft and round into my hand at the trot, she was quite willing most of the time, every once in a while she would get off balance and throw her head up and scurry off at the trot and I would just bring my hands up and ask her to slow down and rebalance.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but we aren't looking for perfection yet, baby steps.  

The cool thing about that ride is, when she was soft in my hand and trotting decently balanced, if i closed my eyes she felt just like Caley, which was really a strange feeling for me.  I have ridden many horses over the last 10 years since I got Caley and no one has ever felt like Caley before.  Strange but cool.

After my fun I wanted to see Magic and Maggie interact again.  So i figured a little lunging work would do and I wanted to see what kind of trot Magic would give Maggie on the ground.  Things started off kind of slow, Magic was wondering why Maggie was now standing at the end of the lunge line.  The nice thing to see is how magic wanted to follow maggie and play with her, its the same way Caley interacts with me.  Magic has dubbed Maggie her person, you can see it in her body language and eye, its a very special bond.  Going to the left everything was great, Magic listened to all of Maggies commands.  Going to the right started out nice, but i think Magic was getting tired at this point and was hoping we would be done soon.  Magic wouldn't trot to the right so Maggie got into Magic's space and made a demand that she should trot.  Magic wanted to heed Maggie a warning that she was pushing it, so Magic gave a little cow kick out at Maggie.  Luckily Maggie didn't look to upset by this interaction.  But I stepped in and talked to Maggie about why Magic kicked out and how to still ask her to do something but avoid upsetting Magic.  

With horses all you have is body language.  You have to watch them all the time.  Are they shifting in towards you? are they shifting out away from you?  Is there eye on you? ears forward? backwards? swishing of the tail?  

It is important to watch the horse as a whole.  Are there ears forward because they are looking at there friend in the field or are they forward because they are looking at you?  When i step closer to the horse do they move away or toward me? and when i step towards them do they tense and ears drop back or are they relaxed with flappy ears?  I need to start working with Maggie on how to read these signs, that way she can start to communicate better with magic and not upset her.  Its alot to learn and it will take work, but as much as Magic has to learn so does Maggie.

Day 2

Once again started with some ground work and lunging.  It always surprises me how intelligent horses are.  I started the work out thinking we would probably have to go back over what was learned the day before.  But Magic remembered all the cues that I taught and asked of her the day before.  You would think by now, after ten years of working and starting horses that I wouldn't be amazed at the memory and intellect of the horse.  It's like they go back to there field at night and do there homework, what do they think?  "ok, tomorrow when Katy comes to work me again, remember: pressure on the reins means give, whoa means stop, click click means trot...oh and dont be afraid when she steps into my space!".  

After realizing that yesterdays work was still there, time to start long lining.  I like long lining horses because i can start using the outside and inside rein differently, just like i would under saddle.  normal lunging is very difficult to imitate what is said under saddle.  There were the usual first time problems with the long lining, had to work on desensitizing Magic to when I need to throw the line back into place.  This of course is scary for a horse to have this long line flying around there body.  Usually when something is being flung around them that means that they need to do something, so i had to explain to her that it really meant nothing and that she should carry on with what we are working on.  It actually didn't take very long to get her over this fear, showing me that Magic is willing to believe what i tell her.  i said "dont be afraid of this line" and she agreed that she could do that.  i felt like i was making a good connection with magic at this point, so when i was done i decided to test that connection.  i unclipped magic from the long line and walked off and asked her under her own free will to go with me, and she followed me like a big puppy!!!  has to be one of my favorite training moments, just to see that trust and willingness to work together.  

after making great progress on the long line, i figured it would be a good time to bring Maggie into the arena and get her started with Magic.  Maggie did great, handled the long lines like she had been doing it for years.  But it was really interesting to watch Magic and Maggie's interaction.  Magic definitely loves that little girl and looked rather pleased to be showing Maggie what she can do.  It's very early in the training process, but they are starting the conversation.  

After the ride i showed Maggie a better way to lead Magic.  When you think the horse is running the show and having an "alpha" mare attitude, one of the fastest and easiest ways to become the leader is by playing "follow the leader".  Simple rules: magic must walk behind Maggie at all times, on a loose lead, and must stop or turn whenever maggie chooses so.  Magic should never get next to or ahead of Maggie, thats when you know that Magic is challenging Maggie's authority.  By maggie saying "no" you stay behind me, she is placing herself as the herd leader in this herd of two.  

The "alpha" mare syndrome is a HUGE myth in the horse world.  Here is the scenario: you have a herd of two, maggie and magic, someone has to be the leader.  Maggie doesn't know how to be the leader (she is young and hasn't been taught how, not her fault) so magic stands up to the job.  Unfortunately in this situation, the one with the smaller brain that only operates off of primal instincts is now calling the shots, and because Magic is a horse and can only communicate in horse language she uses defense mechanisms to communicate and nows she is portrayed to look like an "alpha" mare.  Solution:  Maggie becomes the leader and alleviates all of the extra stress in Magic's world.  This will open up a whole new realm for this herd of two.  Soon Magic wont have to stress about what defense mechanisms she is going to need to use when Maggie takes her out of the field.  Soon it will become a stress free environment, because Magic will know to look Maggie for instruction and all she has to do is just do what maggie says.  horses really do like simplicity, remember there brains aren't very big.  

Magic's new start

Saturday January 30, 2010

Magic and I had our first meeting.  

While I was brushing Magic I discovered a scrap wound on her belly.  But that was fine because I don't normally ride during the first session.

Started with some lunging, found what I usually find with a confused horse, any movement of my arms or body sent Magic into a faster more frantic trot.  Although I noticed immediately that Magic always had an eye on me.  This instantly clued me in that I could start to have a conversation with her.  So I followed my instincts and walked into her space and started the conversation that "its ok if i want to walk up to you and give you a pat on the neck during a work out.  Its ok if you want to slow down and look to me for some comfort."  It doesn't matter how long she walked or trotted for, what mattered is that we could be in each others spaces and start to build a connection.  

This is a HUGE misconception in the horse world about training.  Training should never be: i the trainer stand in the middle of the arena and do nothing and you the horse go around and around in circles, and then were done, good job, back to the field you go.  This results in the trainer knowing nothing about the horse and the horse knowing nothing about the rider.  

Now here is the weird thing, something I haven't felt before while working with a horse, I felt Magic looking for someone...to Magic something was missing.  I could see it in her eye, there was a longing there.  And all I could think was Maggie.  I really think Magic was looking for Maggie.  Very interesting for me to notice this because I have never started a horse that already has a connection with someone else.  So I made the decision that night that i was going to have to bring Maggie into the training sooner then I thought.  I normally spend the first month of training all by myself and then bring whomever in, but something tells me that this time it will be different.  My number one rule in the horse world, always go with your gut instinct.