Prince: A Great Session!!

April 30, 2011

After I trimmed Twosox this morning I played with Prince. He was out grazing on the front yard while I trimmed (and might I add quite enjoying the freedom, he was King of the grass for an hour) so after I took Twosox back to the corral and picked up and brought my saddle out and brushed and saddle Prince. We practiced ground tying and also not eating the grass unless I gave him permission. All that went extremely well and Prince did stood perfectly still while I saddled.

Then we played on the front yard for a little while. I tested our porcupine games, hindquarters, forequarters, backing up by the chest and nose, and sideways. All that went well and I was happy fairly happy with how light Prince was although the forequarters were a little sticky. Then for the second stag of saddling we did 8 laps at a trot, on the circle, 12ft line, each direction, one send (no carrot stick), with my in complete neutral. Prince did very well and did it beautifully!! To the right he found the connection very quickly. He kept the belly of the rope on the ground after the second circle. While going to the right even though there was slack in the rope it wasn't on the ground but on the sixth circle he found the connection. It was great!!

We then headed up to the riding ring and played with Figure eights at the walk, trot and canter, but mainly the trot. As soon as we got into the riding ring Prince was disinterested and 100% unmotivated. He would do what I ask but he wasn't asking questions or anything. So instead of making him move I asked him to go slower. I wanted to play with Figure eights at the canter yet I knew that Prince wouldn't be very motivated if I just went in there and did them right away. So we started at the walk... which was painfully slow yet fascinating!! After a couple Figure eights at the walk Prince was getting more and more interested so I asked him to trot. Like I expected he trotted the one end beautifully yet the other end he drifted, while maintaining gait though which was interesting. I decided to change strategies from what I was using, because it wasn't helping Prince put more effort into coming around that barrel. Even though there was some improvement I wanted to see if I could get him more interested and connected.

So instead of sending Prince through the barrels again I brought him into me at the trot and gave him a treat. Then backed him out and sent him on the Figure eight again. I did this twice Prince started to figure it out really quickly. On the third time he came trotting around the barrel with effort and he didn't drift. I brought him in and gave him another treat and repeated the process. The next time Prince did exactly the same at the previous time and put even more effort into trotting around the barrel so I gently redirected him between myself and the barrels and we did two complete Figure eights at the trot with rhythm, relaxation and connection. Then I disengaged Prince and brought him in for a rest!! It was so fascinating!!

Up next was circles! We mainly focused on the canter. My goal was six laps each direction. If Prince broke gait I would change direction. He caught on really quickly and it took fewer changes of directions before Prince cantering six laps with rhythm, relaxation and connection to the right. Going to the left was a bit harder as that is Prince's harder side but in the end we got it. Prince was sweating quite and bit so I gave him a long rest until he was able to catch his breath and cool off a bit. It was warm but it also shows... how shall I say, out of shape Prince is ;) But he is in way better shape than last year and we are going to continue to build on it and get Prince in great shape for September.

Then I mounted. We started with played with indirect rein and getting it even lighter, Prince responding to just my weight shift. This went really well and Prince remembered from the fall when we were getting it back then. Then we played with forequarter pivots/direct rein, getting them light, more speed and being a little bit more particular about how Prince was doing it. Once we had those going well we did what Mr. Parelli showed in the second last Savvy club DVD where you move the hindquarters an 1/8 of the turn and then the forequarter the same, building to true sideways. Prince did well moving each zone but when I went to switch to the other one he didn't understand and would go sideways, which was what my end goal was but not what I was asking fore in that particular moment. I didn't want to make him feel wrong yet at the same time I needed to support what I was really asking. We played with this for quite a while and eventually we got it and Prince started understanding what I was looking for and also I had to change a few things in my body to help it me more clear for him.

Once Prince got it though he did it really, really well and it was smooth and accurate. It was a lot of fun and I love being able to play with small but important things like that and getting more lightness, speed and distance.

Then we did Follow the rail. Repeating last days session only I didn't have to stay as long at the walk and trot as Prince did really well. I added in a little variety though and did a circle to change direction and so the other way. At first Prince didn't respond with lightness at all and so we would ride a circle until he figured it out and then continued on following the rail, either in the same direction or in the opposite direction.

At the trot Prince offered the canter a couple times but I maintained the trot in my body and asked for a trot again and he came back down. At the trot I was really looking for rhythm. At first Prince would trot faster on the downhills and slower around the sides etc so we continued until he found a good rhythm. Doing the circle to change direction took a little while and we had to ride on that circle for a while until Prince started responding to my body more and reins less.

The canter was a bit harder than last day. I lost my focus a couple times and that put us back a bit so we stopped (later than what I should have) and went in the other direction, which was Prince's harder side, and but picked that up quickly and so after we got one complete lap to the left we rested and then went back to the right. Prince got it on the first try and so we ended there.

After I had unsaddled and everything I took Prince over to the sandy area in the riding ring and sat on a rock. I was hoping that he would roll but seeing as this is still one area that Prince holds back I wasn't expecting him too. I thought that I would offer it though and see as he was very sweaty.

To my surprise after a couple minutes Prince went and rolled! I was so happy! Of course I kept it inside and matched Prince's energy. Prince will let me walk up to him if he is lying down but for him to lay with me there is a rare occasion.

All in all it was a great session, I learned a lot and I am looking forward to our next ride knowing how I can set Prince and myself up for even better success.

Naturally,

~Keri