Today was day 7 for Miss Sophie- as you can see we have progressed to riding in the sheep pasture. We have been working a lot on 3 things in particular- One Rein Stops, cruising (aka setting the gas pedal and making sure it stays), serpentines and today was our second lesson with backing.
So after I knew I had good hind end control and could moderate her speed, I knew it was time to keep running forward! One rein stops (aka emergency stop) are similar to the hind end control except it really reiterates the concept of stopping with one rein- if she were to buck, bolt, spook, or run off I need to know that I have a way of slowing her down and getting her to stop.
Once I knew I had a clutch (hind end control) and a brake- I knew I could start working on my gas pedal. I start slow at the walk and get her to just walk when cued. Meaning- not jogging-not bolting- just walking. Once we are good at the walk- we go to the trot. Here it is important that I don't progress until she is trotting on her own at a good relaxed trotting speed. In fact, if they jog here I don't get too picky. Especially because she is more nervous, I don't want her to really feel wrong and get frustrated with me. She needs to feel relaxed with me- this predator on her back. It means a lot to them to just let them get used to that. Finally, I start working at the lope. From my video, I hope you can see that whenever she got speedy at the lope- I just calmly shut her down and went back to that one rein stop. Then I calmly get her going again. Chances are high that when she is running at any point- it means she has stopped thinking and started reacting. My job is to get her thinking again....which leads me to another thing that we were working on-
Serpentines! Buck Branaman starts with a lot of serpentines, as does John lyons and countless others. It's very similar to a lot of the ground work exercises I do in that there is a) lots of changes of directions and it also gets her bending and giving and it also helps them relax. With Sophie, it felt a lot like I was riding this crazy little slinky. She would go one way, then another when I asked her to say go right. This will get better with practice! She needs to develop the muscles and the know how, it's just one of those things that I will probably work on every day for quite awhile. It's a great thing to start off with because it gets them thinking and relaxed.
Finally, we went to our second lesson with backing. This is another thing that takes practice...it was the first time I put her in a bind with the bridle and I let her figure out that it was attached to her feet. I had to just hold pressure on both reins until she discovered that the only time she gets a release is when her feet go back---but it starts with little itty bitty tiny baby steps. And when she hints that she's moving one foot back- I give her a total release and let her soak.
Someone once told me that horse training is a lot about putting a horse in a bind and letting them just figure it out. From my experience, nothing is further from the truth.
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