Mostly Rosie (or Speed, direction and destination)

This is a few updates pulled together - things I have commented on elsewhere but wanted to capture and collate. Rosie has been getting me to do the "how interesting" thing a few times recently. I've been focusing on her a bit more because Fi has been lame, and now has a sore eye :(

My aim is really to be able to ride Rosie like she is a "normal" pony. Which guess begs the question of what I mean by normal. Mark Rashid talks about "speed, direction and destination". Rosie has always been of the opinion that all of those should be set by her and not the rider. I remember watching Mark teach at clinics and him talking about the horse being able to turn the decision-making over to the rider. Rosie has always been very loathe to do that. 

I really want to be able to start work with Rosie (whether ground or ridden) and not have the discussion about Forward. Nor to discuss every change of direction. And then maybe, just maybe, we would reach the destination I had in mind.

 So for a long long while, before and after the laminitis, the main focus was speed. For most people that would be about the mph the horse was moving at. For us it was about whether we moved at all. Just before the laminitis hit, we were starting to get some willing forward-ness. I was somewhat worried that we would have to renegotiate it all over again when she started back. At a clinic with Kathleen Lindley she commented that most horses worked out after a certain amount of time that their objections were taking more effort than doing what they were asked - and at that point they would tend to give it up. She (Kathleen) commented that Rosie stuck with the objections for way longer than any pony she had met before. But when it came to it, she (Rosie) tested the water a bit (and still does) but we were not back to Square One (phew).

 One of the things I have done differently this time is try to focus on just getting Rosie fitter through forward. Before Laminitis (BL) if I took her out for a hack, she would throw all the objections she could think of at me the next time we were in the school. A bit of a disincentive to hacking out as it felt like every step forward was followed by a dozen back. But this time we have been able to mix and match a lot more (is she growing up ?!). So off we went, building up the trot work by using intervals. Which meant she was fitter for the arena work and less likely to get out of puff. And when she got out of puff she used to start objecting. So less puff equals less objections :D

She's not terribly confident hacking on her own, but is more forward going. At walk she is a real rubber-necker, always looking for where the next "nasty" is coming from. But in trot she goes forward and much straighter. I guess the context (a road) helps there ;)

I have been trying to work on Rosie's straightness for a while.  The "rubber-neck" thing happens in the arena too, particularly on the left rein. Anyway - I wanted some undemanding time for myself the other day so decided just to hop on bareback with a halter for a short while. Only Rosie decided that steering with the halter was something we had never ever done (fair enough it has been a while !). So I just swapped to steering with my carrot stick instead..... and had one of those "Hmmmmm" (rubs chin) moments. She was much much straighter ! Ok she still wanted to rubber neck - but although I was still straightening her head and neck, we were back on track quicker and without getting off track anywhere else in her body. So - need to do some more work bitless, and need to do some more carrot stick work ;)

Then a couple of weeks ago I took Rosie out for a wander along the roads. Now she is a classic "make me" type so I'd always tagged her as being mainly LBI - when stressed she tends to freeze (no movement). But as it happened I had just watched the Savvy Club DVD by Patrick Handley, and I was suddenly very aware that what I am getting out on our hacks is movement. And lots of it ! But more "sky falling". Which means we are either getting LBI on adrenalin, or something else is showing up.

Finally today I decided to follow through on the "more bitless" intention. I meant to go dual control - bridle plus bitless (enduro). That way I could "help" Rosie out if she struggled with just the nose pressure. But when I got down to the field, I had forgotten the bridle (oops) so decided to seize the day and just use the enduro. Off we went into the big field. Yes she tested the limits - but only briefly. And no, she doesn't fully understand the nose pressure so I do need to do more. But we had brakes and we had steering - in fact we pretty much had speed, direction and destination. I didn't have the softness that we get with a bitted bridle. I realise that in focusing so much on "forward", there are some gaps in training/education that might be useful to go back and fill. If I asked for a turn with just plain pressure, Rosie would go "into" the pressure and it felt like there was a fairly massive brace there. But if I stroked the rein, she would give softly (given time).

Mark Rashid recently posted an excerpt from his upcoming book ("A Journey to Softness") with a story about how “Horses don’t like to be pulled on.”. He said:

I recall one time when I was about eleven, I was riding a little gelding named Spark and was having trouble getting him to turn and stop. If I pulled to the right, he would pull to the left, if I pulled to the left, he would pull to the right. If I pulled on him to try to get a stop, he would push into my hands and just keep walking forward. The longer I rode him, the more frustrated I got, and the more he seemed to want to fight with me.

 and then

“I wasn’t pulling on him, he was pulling on me!” I argued as only and eleven year old could. “Every time I try to make him do anything he just wants to do something else. He doesn’t want to turn, he doesn’t want to stop, he doesn’t want to…”

Gosh doesn't that sound familiar ! Needless to say, the upshot is that if you don't pull, the horse doesn't pull. I remember Mark being asked how a rider could get a horse to soften, and he propose that the rider offers softness. I need to remember that ;)