April 14, 2011
Today Prince and I had another great session this morning. We played again with Figure eights and I wanted to see if I could help Prince get the flying lead change on his hard side. We played with it on the Figure eights. Prince got the flying lead change on his easy side no problems but he was having a really hard time getting it on the other side.
So we continued to play with it for a while and then I decided that I needed to help Prince bend more around the barrel on his hard side because he wasn't able to bend and come around that barrel with the same easy as the other one, and so creating the issues with Prince not being able to canter around that barrel. The thing that I found extremely helpful was really focusing on my draw. I had to really pay attention to matching Prince's energy and also, after I thought about it, I figured out that there was also a slight hesitation between the draw and the drive. For a while it was a quick draw and then drive. But that caused Prince to pay more attention to the drive than the draw, and so our draw got less and less.
At the trot Prince still had a hard time trotting around the one barrel so concentrating on the draw made a HUGE different. Prince got it right away. He started trotting around both barrels no problem and we got a few really nice, smooth figure eights at the trot, which will lead to better Figure eights at the canter.
The next thing we did was zone 5 driving with two lines. I put the two 22ft lines through the stirrups, first time for us as I wanted to make sure that our zone 5 driving was solid and going very well before we tried that. It went so well and it was so much easier to not have to worry about the lines getting caught under Prince's feet :) We did yo-yo's, circles, sideways, touch it, and Figure eights!! It took a while before Prince found the rhythm, relaxation and connection on the figure eight and then we stopped. It was tiring running behind Prince for that amount of time :) But fun, very fun.
We also played at Liberty for a little while. We played with sideways without a fence while I stood in the center of the riding ring. Prince got it really quickly and put so much effort and energy into the sideways. So we played with that and then did some circles at the walk and trot then we got some really nice canter stick to me with my hand on Prince's neck. It was really nice! I especially because Prince will pin his ears when we do close range tasks at higher speeds, i.e. the trot and canter. We kept cantering until Prince put his ears forward and then we stopped.
We also played a bit with zone 4/5 driving at Liberty and just kept things simple with easy transitions, turns and such. Then I bridled, mounted and rode! I didn't do a whole lot in the riding ring before I rode down the hill and rode circles. I did do lateral flexions, indirect rein and some sideways. I am really pleased at how well Prince did in responding to the bit and not reacting.
Then we rode down the hill, opened the gate and rode out onto the front yard to ride circles. Opening the gate went so much better than I ever would have imagined!!! Prince was such a partner!! We went sideways over to the gate, hesitated, opened it, rode through and turned and came sideways back over and closed it. It was an incredible feeling.
Circles went very well. Prince knew exactly what to do and we got them done really quickly. We both picked up the circle size quickly, it helped that Mom and I had measured out a proper circle before ;), we only had to do a couple circles each way and then we stopped because Prince did it so well.
Then we finished with sideways and it was even better than last day! Prince was light in the mouth and went true sideways! I really felt his hindquarters coming under me instead of lagging behind. I unbridled from Prince's back and then let him graze for awhile before dismounting and we went back up to the riding ring.
Again I finished with Prince licking off the bit and that really seems to be making a difference when I come back next session.
Naturally,
~Keri
So we continued to play with it for a while and then I decided that I needed to help Prince bend more around the barrel on his hard side because he wasn't able to bend and come around that barrel with the same easy as the other one, and so creating the issues with Prince not being able to canter around that barrel. The thing that I found extremely helpful was really focusing on my draw. I had to really pay attention to matching Prince's energy and also, after I thought about it, I figured out that there was also a slight hesitation between the draw and the drive. For a while it was a quick draw and then drive. But that caused Prince to pay more attention to the drive than the draw, and so our draw got less and less.
At the trot Prince still had a hard time trotting around the one barrel so concentrating on the draw made a HUGE different. Prince got it right away. He started trotting around both barrels no problem and we got a few really nice, smooth figure eights at the trot, which will lead to better Figure eights at the canter.
The next thing we did was zone 5 driving with two lines. I put the two 22ft lines through the stirrups, first time for us as I wanted to make sure that our zone 5 driving was solid and going very well before we tried that. It went so well and it was so much easier to not have to worry about the lines getting caught under Prince's feet :) We did yo-yo's, circles, sideways, touch it, and Figure eights!! It took a while before Prince found the rhythm, relaxation and connection on the figure eight and then we stopped. It was tiring running behind Prince for that amount of time :) But fun, very fun.
We also played at Liberty for a little while. We played with sideways without a fence while I stood in the center of the riding ring. Prince got it really quickly and put so much effort and energy into the sideways. So we played with that and then did some circles at the walk and trot then we got some really nice canter stick to me with my hand on Prince's neck. It was really nice! I especially because Prince will pin his ears when we do close range tasks at higher speeds, i.e. the trot and canter. We kept cantering until Prince put his ears forward and then we stopped.
We also played a bit with zone 4/5 driving at Liberty and just kept things simple with easy transitions, turns and such. Then I bridled, mounted and rode! I didn't do a whole lot in the riding ring before I rode down the hill and rode circles. I did do lateral flexions, indirect rein and some sideways. I am really pleased at how well Prince did in responding to the bit and not reacting.
Then we rode down the hill, opened the gate and rode out onto the front yard to ride circles. Opening the gate went so much better than I ever would have imagined!!! Prince was such a partner!! We went sideways over to the gate, hesitated, opened it, rode through and turned and came sideways back over and closed it. It was an incredible feeling.
Circles went very well. Prince knew exactly what to do and we got them done really quickly. We both picked up the circle size quickly, it helped that Mom and I had measured out a proper circle before ;), we only had to do a couple circles each way and then we stopped because Prince did it so well.
Then we finished with sideways and it was even better than last day! Prince was light in the mouth and went true sideways! I really felt his hindquarters coming under me instead of lagging behind. I unbridled from Prince's back and then let him graze for awhile before dismounting and we went back up to the riding ring.
Again I finished with Prince licking off the bit and that really seems to be making a difference when I come back next session.
Naturally,
~Keri
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