Lisa Trowse said Fast Track - Week 3 - Day 11 - So much packed into one small day! Started in the classroom with a bit of debrief from the weekend and some theory practice. Then off to play in the glorious sunshine with our horses. First challenge was playing the 7 games with your horse without moving your feet from a spot. I played lots of porcupine with jack moving his feet one step forward, one back, nice and slow off his nose and chest as this is where most of his brace is. Then head down and head up too. Managed some nice sideways from my spot. My yoyo is really refined now so that wasn't a problem. Friendly was not so difficult standing still, but I had a challenge with circling. Doing less and bringing him to me for a better send if required managed to get some nice circles going though.
Time to saddle up and Jack is now maintaining his responsibility and only tried to eat grass the once. Then he stood still for me and allowed me to saddle and bridle with no fidgets. Onto riding and we made a huge breakthrough. Jack has not been maintaining gait at home with follow the rail, he breaks into canter and then argues off the rail as he out focuses me. Today I was given a small but very valuable piece of advice. When I ask for trot and he breaks into canter as he gets impulsive do partial disengagement, then ask again straight away. Again and again and again until I got the response I wanted. I also needed to keep my body in the two beat rhythm to help him, and ensure I maintained my focus. In the end he gave up and decided to trot for a quiet life and we did really well. I finally managed to out focus Jack!
I really used my body to turn so that I could keep my hand on the wither, and it didnt have to use the rein much at all. It is amazing the results you can get when you really out yourself out there and trust that this will work, but I can really see the importance of neutral and keeping your hand down and your body in time with your horse.....I got FEEL, I got TIMING, and wow did I have BALANCE!!!! I felt solid in that saddle and I didn't feel I had to hang on to Jacks head as we were together. Really good boy today.
After lunch we had a fantastic demo on changes of direction and driving from zones 4&5 and two rein driving. Then it was our turn. Managed to get my first canter change of direction with a simple lead change ever without any break of gait at all :0) technique is everything!
For the zone 5 driving I had a really fun time learning how to throw my rope over his head from zone 5 without it getting stuck on his ears. He was very tolerant bless him, and then we had to do it while moving!! We definitely needs lots of practice here. Jack needs to learn when I am driving and when I am just doing friendly with the rope, so I also need to damp down my body energy to help him with this. Otherwise our driving gets a bit wobbly and straight lines disappear. Had a really lovely afternoon and again have lots of new things to do. So much, so little time........
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