Windy

Some people do not ride when it is windy. I like to anyway. I think it is a great time to test my horsemanship. I just have to keep the horses attention on me by moving his feet frontwards,backwards, left and right. So I did. I rode both horses today. That was fun. I took Jake first and worked him through all his paces. He did real good.
Then I got out Raven and worked her for a half an hour. That was all that was needed in order to accomplish what I wanted too. I have few more steps to get her through before taking on the advanced level. If I canvet some good time on her this week maybe next will be the start.

beautiful fall

No, I didn't fall. It is beautiful with the leaves and all though. I haven't been working with the horses much because of time and such, but this week I have been able to work with Raven on saturday and yesterday. I got out with her yesterday and just worked on her backup from the ground. My goal was to get her to back with energy and keep pace with my movement as I walked toward her. I need to remember that I can't expect her to go as fast backwards as I go forwards though. I want to be able to back her in any direction and turn her in any direction without her stopping her feet, by using just my body language. She does pretty good now. I can turn circles and squares etc. They are not the most perfect, but they'll do. The purpose of getting a horse to back with energy in any direction is really to have control of their feet. It builds feel and connection too. By the way, this is an advanced exercise to boot. After about 20 minutes of this she was sweating bullets and I had put my back out again. And I didn't even ride her. Oh, well. Hopefully, I will get out again with her before the nasty weather hits this week.

Refreshing

You know when you are seemingly run down and just not feeling like doing anything. It is time to get on your horse. Yeah. I did tonite and it was like I was recharging my battery. It felt good to be in the saddle again after over a week of not riding. I gave a few lessons, but no riding for me. So tonite after my work was done I saddled up Raven, did a little ground work, with the power line trimmers using their machinery as a distractant. We went through our routine and finally I got on and boy when I did it was like slipping into my lazy-boy chair after a long day. It felt so comfortable up there. She was relaxed and we worked together as one doing all sorts of moves including just walking around doing nothing in particular. We did work on the bending exercise and also lots of rein exercises to work on connecting the rein to her feet. I also worked her on roll backs along the fence and bending along the fence. She is so responisve to me. I just have to pick up a rein practically to get her to collect up. She is such a joy to ride. But I know this makes her better too. Peter Campbell said at his clinic that you shouldn't ride for yourself, but to help the horse. Well, I rode for both tonite and it feels good. I gotta stop letting other things get in the way of my riding. So do you need to be refreshed? get on your horse or whatever gives you pleasure and helps to releave the stress of the day, sans-drugs, alcohol, etc. do something productive.

One hour ride

I had the opportunity to ride this afternoon for an hour. That was enough, but not quite. We were on a roll when I had to quit. But sometimes that is the best time to quit. Then we can start off on the good foot which he will remember. I did a few GW exercises to warm her up. It was only about 15 minutes and then we started to ride. It started off real good right from the start. We did the bending exercises then also with vertical flexion. We did the exercises where you tip the nose to the fence and then when she swings her butt over you back up. We also worked on the the cruising lesson which she did real good, also staying on the fence with light touch of the rein. I had her also turning on the forehand. I wanted to work on roll backs off the fence. We did a few at the walk then several at the trot. We did a few sidepasses, some shoulder in/out or leg yields as they are otherwise known. My hour ran out to quickly but we stopped and backed up with a gentleness that was nice.

What Level are you?

Ok, today was test day for Raven to see what Level she is at. OR I am at. So I set the timer, as I wanted to see how long it took to go through both levels of GW.  We went through all the levels of fundamentals, except the round penning one. She would do that with or without a round pen. These included desensitizing to stick, lead, yielding hindquarters stage 1 & 2, backing up (four methods), yielding the forequarters, lunge for respect stage 1 & 2, flexing head and neck (4methods), sending, circle driving, leading beside and finally, fundamental desensitizing (3 Methods).
then we went on to Intermediate level GW: which is changing sides, run up and rub, desensitize to plastic bag, slap and tap, changing eyes, touch and rub:nose, poll, shoulders, out back exercise, Cpattern, throw to a stop, sidepassing on the fence (she doesn't need fence), leading behind, circle driving transitions, line driving, circle driving transitions on long line, bridle bending: forward around, yield hindquarters, forequarters and backup.
That took us about 40 minutes.
Then we went through all the riding in fundamentals, there are 14 exercises there and she knows them all. That was about 10 minutes, then on to the intermediate riding, and did vertical flexion at walk, yield and bend, yield hindquarters on fence, sidepass, rollbacks on fence state one, vertical flexion at trot, shoulder in/out, yield hindquarters and bring front end through, bending with vertical, sidepass from standstill, draw to a walk, there are several others that we did not have time to get through or even start to do today. I simply ran out of time. IT took a little over an hour to go through all of this. But I think with a little more work we are ready for advanced. Yeah!

Making Progress

Yesterday I was able to get with Raven and work out some things with her. We breezed through many of the GW exercises and seeing as they build off of one another and have components of the earlier ones I do not have to keep going over the fundamental exercises. Therefore, we spent our time on the intermediate ones, namely: sidepassing, bridlebending, out back, leading behind, touch and rub. She is progressing in these very well. Then when I rode her we spent out time on bending and yielding. We did couple trips around the fence doing the yield the hindquarters and back up. I didn't do the cloverleaf, which she needs work on going to the left, because we ran out of time. However, she is doing real well.  I think next time I will work on rollbacks, shoulder in/out when I ride.

Beautiful day to ride

I was able to get out with my horses this afternoon and have a great time. I took Raven through all the exercises I could except for line driving and she did great. I spent the last 30 minutes practicing some of the stuff from Peter Campbell's clinic. The main one of course was the tip the horses head and the butt steps over then backs up. This is good for getting lightness in the horse and a better backup. I walked around the arena tipped the nose out the hindquarters stepped over and backed up. We did this in both directions around the arena 3x stopping about every 20 feet and by the time I was done, I just had to pick up the rein with light fingers and she would step the butt over and back up with slack in the rein. That was nice. That exercise is also in CA's material. We also worked on the cloverleaf at a walk, trot and canter in both directions. She did well but going to the left she didn't like to stay on the leaf pattern and wantd to speed up and and not follow her nose. If the area would have been bigger it would have worked better for me but that is just something I will have to work on, going to the left with her.
Then I got to help Jacob along, though we only did about 30 minutes of ground work. He did not like the 'run up and rub' exercise. But that was real good for him, because he is spooky of those things. He and Raven do well at leading behind and staying with me whether going forward or back. He moved through the GW exercises real good in both the fundamental and intermediate exercises. He can do almost all of the Intermediate exercises. Actually, after thinking about it, there are only two that we never did: the run up and rub, and bridle bending. He may not be perfect at all of them, but he would rate a C or B in them, at the least. I noticed he still favors the right rear leg though so I have to take it easy with him. All we have to do now is get through the riding parts of each level and we are on to the Advanced level with both Raven and Jacob. Hopefully, within the next month we will be working on that level.