Our first gaming show

What a crazy day! 3 people got unseated, at least one set of trampled feet, four loose horses & lots of rain!

    Diesel handled himself quite well, kept his composure & made sure not to run me over when he got scared for his life! He schooled like a champion pleasure horse & I was thinking to myself, 'Hmmm this speed is not quite what I was hoping for during gaming' ... and that speed is what I got during gaming.

     I'm not mad, how can I be? He does practically everything I ever ask of him, and I'd rather have a solid technical run than a crazy, out of control, wild style faster run. I know he's got that high gear, I've gotten it before. [once accidentally & a few times on purpose!]

     He's such a smart boy, I think come spring time we will be able to hold our own in any show class. I had my sister video each event we did, but only 1 came out bright & clear enough to really see. Check it out below, & don't forget --  we're working the technical side of things first and adding speed later on, as we progress!

10/22/12

   Well my evening with Diesel was very slow paced, but very successful. He was a hot mess when I got there! Bonnie told me she watched him wander into the middle of the biggest mud puddle & roll in it over & over again. She wanted to video it for me, it was that messy!

   So I groomed him out pretty well, tacked up & headed for the arena. I worked him on the lunge line [short & long] and he was seemingly half asleep! He remained 'asleep' for most of our ride, but this equates out to very nice & slow gaits. I was off the reins practically the entire time, he just bummed along nicely. It was refreshing!

   Then we started working on some barrels, and VIOLA-- there's a spunky horse under me! He was ready to run, so we played with barrels for a while, he was listening really well so as it was nearing 9 o'clock I took his saddle off, climbed up & cooled him down bareback.

   I'm getting much better at mounting bareback -- the first night I tried to just 'jump up' I looked like a beached whale! It was hiiiiiiilarious. And embarrassing. But i'm getting a bit better, Diesel sometimes doesn't know what to think of me & my limbs thrashing around on his back trying to get settled, but he's cool about it.

   My legs were SOLID tonight, I posted almost the whole time without my stirrups and it was better than when I picked up my stirrups. I just love to feel progress :)

That's all for now, I'm calling it a night! Looking forward, we are doing our first show on Sunday, Oct 28. We are going to do the gaming portion, definitely barrels and pole bending, not sure what else we'll jump in on, but I'm sure you'll be able to read about it!

Milestones

First night I got Diesel home:

 

First bath:

 First group event:

Introduction to our routine

   So after feeling guilty about rushing through my last riding session, I promised myself that I would take my time so we could actually get something out of them. Luckily for me, Diesel was already inside the barn. Although we have a great time together, he still has separation anxiety about leaving his herd. #WorkInProgress Another lucky moment for me, he was clean! [ish] It doesn't make me mad when he's filthy but it is just easier when he isn't caked with mud. And let me tell you, dude appreciates a good mud hole. I can't say I blame him.

   As per usual, he was bleeding when I showed up. He generally has some chunk of skin or hair missing, almost every day. I'm quite certain that a mischievous toddler gets less cuts and scrapes than him. Thank goodness for Vetericyn! The general consensus is that he deserves 85% of what he gets. He is the punk kid in the pasture & is almost always instigating trouble. I was talking with the owner of P&B Family Ranch and another boarder about his trouble maker tendencies, and we can almost here him saying "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you!" when he's walking around the other horses. I'm tellin' ya - he's a punk.

   I started our session with lateral longeing on his 5 foot lead rope. [Please allow me to clarify lateral longeing vs. regular longeing.] Then I moved to a regular longe line & practiced the same thing at 12' and then a little farther away. I have been adding voice cues to this training & he's responding really well to them. I try really hard to not fall into any specific routine, because Diesel's so smart he gets to predicting what I'm going to do, and that is annoying. I always brush him before we head to the arena, but I also brush him and pick his feet in between the longeing exercises we do in the arena. I don't want him to think that as soon as I show up, he has to go to work. I always do pressure training exercises while I'm on the ground, and bending exercises as well.

   I usually tack up in the arena, partially because he's not a fan of crossties but also because he gets more of a 'choice' in the arena. To read more about 'choice', click here. Much of the psychology that I believe in involves the horse having a choice to participate, a choice to leave or be their, and feel like they've got options. Who doesn't want their horse to choose to be with them, anyway?

   Once I mount up, we try to stand still, but that is also a #WorkInProgress. I start off with leg steering exercises, halting & backing up, before we pick up the pace. I strongly believe that if you don't have good basics, you can't have good anything else. We warmed up with a western pleasure style jog, until we're both settled and limber & steering well. I sprinkle in several stops just as a reinforcer. Then I work on my leg position and strength during a working posting trot, add more steering practice as well as halts and backing up.

   Diesel's canter/lope is definitely unfinished. His speeds vary, his collection comes and goes and his leads are a luck of the draw. However, he is making progress in means of consistency.

   I feel that I also need to add that I too am getting better at my consistency, especially while cantering. See before I bought Diesel it had been over a year since I'd been on a horse, so I'm rusty! I finally have gotten my good seat and leg strength back and I'm progressing quite nicely now too :)

A fresh look at longeing

These are my definitions and I'm not claiming to be a professional, if you're interested there are some great articles out there. I've been primarily inspired by Parelli Natural Horsemanship as well as others, such as John Lyons and Clinton Anderson.

Regular Longeing - an exercise most people use when they think there horse is too fresh to be ridden yet, they run the horse around in circles to tire him out. These mindless circles exercise the horse physically but not mentally and they condition the horse physically such that you need to longe longer and longer each time before they get tired.

Lateral Longeing - uses your body position and body language to direct the horse in specific directions at certain speeds, and to change these with minimal suggestion pressure from you. This exercises the horse physically, as well as mentally. It brings the horse's to focus on to you and opens the lines of communication between the two of you.

*The key difference is that at the end of regular longeing the horse is tired and looking for the easy way out, while after lateral longeing the horse is focused and paying attention to you, ready for more.

The following is a good article, for those of you interested in reading more about this. "The Use and Mis-Use of Round Corrals"