NOTE- I am transferring a lot of notes from Facebook over to here :)....
This is from the 13th November.
What a refreshing and enjoyable day I've had today.
Had a lovely ride out this morning in the woods- it was really fresh and the air was crisp, the noise of the leaves crunching as the horses trod on them was really quite enchanting, Meg was lovely to take out and I'm not used to being quite so high up!
We began our in-hand work today, Shadow and I and definitely know what I need to work on, main one is my body positioning, I found I kept getting a bit too ahead and a bit close, so had to take a step back and remind myself to respect his space. Did some exercises at halt to start with, he certainly responded to it, although he responded well, he wasn't too keen on the lifting stretch, he did well with the neck flexions, although he did try and nip me to begin with, I said 'Ah' as he knows that means 'no' and he then moved his head away and got a pat. The lowering stretches are a working progress- although he did well, and held himself nicely for 3 seconds, he then saw the grass and thought 'Mmm, that's why we lower our heads- to get nearer to the grass, thanks Amy!'', we did it in short bursts ( i.e a stretch in each direction- up, down and sideways) and then a short break, as he's not used to this kind of work. I'm thinking of perhaps free-shaping some neck stretches with the clicker, as I didn't use it today, I wanted to get coordinated to begin with, as I had to get used to playing with the bit and holding the rein and whip in the other hand. We got walk pretty well, although I think I kept moving in front of him. There was quite a lot going on around- with other horses in the school, so this probably impaired his concentration a bit as he is a very curious pony by nature, but nevertheless when I wanted his attention, he did give me it and he got mine too.
Came back out the school and we put into practice some of the things we've been working on with the clicker, and I got that very proud 'Joie de Vivre' moment, where it really all felt like it had paid off. All the practicing we've done, and we put it into practice today, I had to get something out of the car boot and Shadow came, I asked him to 'baaack' and he went back, and then when the boot was open (it's full of hay and treats- he used to just barge you over and grab all the treats!), I told him to stand, et voila, he listened and kept his ear and eye on me.
I also noticed how observant he really is, I think it's something I've subconsciously taught him, because he responds to it, but I've always had leading problems when going back to the field, with him not wanting to move or him wanting the eat the grass, but sometimes, when I get nervous or feel a bit cross/impatient, I tap my finger and thumb together, each time I did this, he walked forward and the faster I tapped them together, so did he. So I wanted to experiment with this, and I asked him to trot with my fingers and he did it. Okay, so useful on the ground so perhaps I could add a cue in to help this encourage forwardness in other aspects of things too. He was very responsive and also very observant to my body language too, which was really quite sweet and a very happy moment, it finally feels like our hard work has paid off, because now we can put our work into situations apposed to just practicing in the field.
Didn't want to overdo it with the in-hand work yet, it's a lot for him ( and myself) to absorb still, so it's a case of just slowing it down a bit and taking it slow, however I think we're enjoying the work, with his naturally curious nature, he enjoys doing things, like me- hates being bored, however, he is also like me in that we have short concentration spans and short bursts of things do us better than intense periods of work, but the disadvantage of working in a grassy area is that his nose and mouth begins to wander down to the green grass.....!! Need to ponder on some ways to keep him active, so may resort to working on the track, until I've gotten a little bit better with my timing and positioning and then can begin to do some more activities to vary out the sessions and prevent them from boring him.
In good time, it will come, but I'm kind of enjoying the challenges and kind of enjoying the journey anyway, as those small triumphs keep you buzzing for days and it's a nice feeling.
Although, I shouldn't say this, and shouldn't be making expectations, but I really cannot wait until we can go for more walks in the Autumn leaves and explore the beautiful countryside that surrounds us :).
