A week of good horsemanship - day 2
Today we started out doing a little more groundwork. Ross started Sari working on turns on the forehand and hindquarters. The hindquarter yield operates as a very tight turn where the front feet stay more or less in place and the hindquarters move around them. The goal is to direct the horse around the circle- if their shoulders fall out then their thought is moving around that way, not being directed. The two things that one is looking for in this movement are the hind feet stepping underneath the body and a smooth bend in the neck with no resistance. If the step is too bumpy or there is resistance to the rein then it's important not to release but to just stick with the horse in the same position relative to them and wait until they can offer a smooth step with a relaxed bend.
They moved onto turns on the hindquarter ( or forequarter yields ) where the horse walks the forequarters around the hind feet. Ross teaches this with the inside front foot stepping ahead of the outside front, rather than behind as I have learned to do it in the past- neither is incorrect, but they are slightly different. A horse should be able to do either. The forequarter yield requires the horse to move their balance back a little before they can move their forequarters around. Ross takes the rein wide and asks the horse to look where they are going ( because where a horse is looking is a good idea of where they are thinking ) then follow that thought with their feet.
I did a bit of round pen work, first with Riley, just so I could get an idea of how Ross expects things to work out in a round pen and then with their little welsh pony May. She is a little sceptical of people in general so we used our session as a chance to try and help her feel better about my presence.
The way Ross works with a more concerned horse in a round pen is a little different from what you might have seen other trainers do and almost the exact opposite of what someone with a Monty Roberts ( or other Natural Horsemanship type background ) might expect.
When I let May off the halter, she immediately wandered off to the far side of the pen and had a sniff of the grass and a look out at the other ponies. Ross suggested I make a bit of noise by popping the tail of the rope on my chaps and she stopped and looked at me. Then we stood there for a while, me quite still, pony staring at me, both of her tiny fuzzy ears pointed my way. After a while she went back to watching something in the distance so I popped the rope on my chaps again and this time she looked at me and took a couple of steps forward. We formed a kind of impasse then, her watching me and me waiting for her to change so Ross suggested doing something to ask for a change again. A bit of movement or noise was enough for her to keep watching me and take another step forward. By this point she was about six metres away and Ross explained that the reason she hadn't come any closer was simply that she didn't feel safe to. She was confident enough to approach me that far, but she wasn't able to get any closer because she hadn't decided whether or not I was a danger to her.
After giving her a little more time Ross suggested I walk across and around her, not getting any closer but not getting further away either and changing the angle between us. After a long moment of contemplation, May turned around to face me. I gave her some thinking time then arced around the other way, maintaining distance again and this time when she turned to face me she took a few steps further forward. By now we were quite close so Ross suggested I go up and rub on her a bit. I gave her a rub and then walked away, but I was a little abrupt so she didn't come with me. After a couple more arcs we met in the middle and I rubbed on her a whole lot, giving her lots of scratchies for being the bravest little pony mare.
The whole process took quite a while- maybe forty minutes- and for most of it nothing was happening at all. The importance of moving and popping the rope against my chaps was simply that they interrupted May's thought, asking her to make some kind of change. He talked with Sari about working with a horse like her Pepsi and how that might be different in what the horse offered- some are much more keen to run, others want to stand like May, and Pepsi would probably just ignore anyone else and eat, but the principle of interrupting the horse's thought and allowing the horse to make their own decision to approach is consistent.
In the afternoon we rode together out in the arena ( which is a mowed area of paddock ) with Sari on Birch and me back on Riley ( at approximately 11hh, May would be a bit much horse for me. ) We started out working on our hindquarter yields from the saddle. I found this hard because the way Ross expects to take the rein is starting wide and smoothly coming around and in the past I have tended to take the indirect rein straight across my body. The aim of this is to guide the horse around rather than trying to make them come around. Riley was getting quite stuck, but as I learned to do less and soften my presentation Riley found he could follow it better.
Ross challenged us to tell him which front foot our horses would step away with when we were halted. Once we could call it accurately, he asked us to set things up so they set off with the other foot instead. This isn't a specifically important exercise, but it is important that as riders we can feel where the horse's feet are, where their balance is and how we can affect that.
We worked a bit on our lateral work too as I tried to understand how Ross teaches it to horses from the reins alone. I found it very difficult to avoid using my leg but I started to be able to get the feel of it- using the reins to contain the direction so that they closed the directions we didn't want to go and allowed the directions we do. We have been working in sidepulls when we ride which I've never used before but they're pretty easy to work with and don't present a very different feel to a bit.
They moved onto turns on the hindquarter ( or forequarter yields ) where the horse walks the forequarters around the hind feet. Ross teaches this with the inside front foot stepping ahead of the outside front, rather than behind as I have learned to do it in the past- neither is incorrect, but they are slightly different. A horse should be able to do either. The forequarter yield requires the horse to move their balance back a little before they can move their forequarters around. Ross takes the rein wide and asks the horse to look where they are going ( because where a horse is looking is a good idea of where they are thinking ) then follow that thought with their feet.
I did a bit of round pen work, first with Riley, just so I could get an idea of how Ross expects things to work out in a round pen and then with their little welsh pony May. She is a little sceptical of people in general so we used our session as a chance to try and help her feel better about my presence.
The way Ross works with a more concerned horse in a round pen is a little different from what you might have seen other trainers do and almost the exact opposite of what someone with a Monty Roberts ( or other Natural Horsemanship type background ) might expect.
When I let May off the halter, she immediately wandered off to the far side of the pen and had a sniff of the grass and a look out at the other ponies. Ross suggested I make a bit of noise by popping the tail of the rope on my chaps and she stopped and looked at me. Then we stood there for a while, me quite still, pony staring at me, both of her tiny fuzzy ears pointed my way. After a while she went back to watching something in the distance so I popped the rope on my chaps again and this time she looked at me and took a couple of steps forward. We formed a kind of impasse then, her watching me and me waiting for her to change so Ross suggested doing something to ask for a change again. A bit of movement or noise was enough for her to keep watching me and take another step forward. By this point she was about six metres away and Ross explained that the reason she hadn't come any closer was simply that she didn't feel safe to. She was confident enough to approach me that far, but she wasn't able to get any closer because she hadn't decided whether or not I was a danger to her.
After giving her a little more time Ross suggested I walk across and around her, not getting any closer but not getting further away either and changing the angle between us. After a long moment of contemplation, May turned around to face me. I gave her some thinking time then arced around the other way, maintaining distance again and this time when she turned to face me she took a few steps further forward. By now we were quite close so Ross suggested I go up and rub on her a bit. I gave her a rub and then walked away, but I was a little abrupt so she didn't come with me. After a couple more arcs we met in the middle and I rubbed on her a whole lot, giving her lots of scratchies for being the bravest little pony mare.
The whole process took quite a while- maybe forty minutes- and for most of it nothing was happening at all. The importance of moving and popping the rope against my chaps was simply that they interrupted May's thought, asking her to make some kind of change. He talked with Sari about working with a horse like her Pepsi and how that might be different in what the horse offered- some are much more keen to run, others want to stand like May, and Pepsi would probably just ignore anyone else and eat, but the principle of interrupting the horse's thought and allowing the horse to make their own decision to approach is consistent.
In the afternoon we rode together out in the arena ( which is a mowed area of paddock ) with Sari on Birch and me back on Riley ( at approximately 11hh, May would be a bit much horse for me. ) We started out working on our hindquarter yields from the saddle. I found this hard because the way Ross expects to take the rein is starting wide and smoothly coming around and in the past I have tended to take the indirect rein straight across my body. The aim of this is to guide the horse around rather than trying to make them come around. Riley was getting quite stuck, but as I learned to do less and soften my presentation Riley found he could follow it better.
Ross challenged us to tell him which front foot our horses would step away with when we were halted. Once we could call it accurately, he asked us to set things up so they set off with the other foot instead. This isn't a specifically important exercise, but it is important that as riders we can feel where the horse's feet are, where their balance is and how we can affect that.
We worked a bit on our lateral work too as I tried to understand how Ross teaches it to horses from the reins alone. I found it very difficult to avoid using my leg but I started to be able to get the feel of it- using the reins to contain the direction so that they closed the directions we didn't want to go and allowed the directions we do. We have been working in sidepulls when we ride which I've never used before but they're pretty easy to work with and don't present a very different feel to a bit.