Quaid's Very Busy Weekend

 Now that the weather is better (sort of. At least the snow is gone) I've been having a lot more rides.   My rides on Quaid are getting longer and more demanding. Instead of primarily walk we've been doing WTC and asking him to stay with me.  

And I have to say that he's really been stepping up. He's definitely matured physically over the winter but it seems that he has mentally as well. He feels a lot less worried or emotional about things. Not that he's not having feelings but they have seemed easy to work through. 

The other day the ring had a lot of puddles (like I know April showers and all that but could the world be less gray?).  We've done the work of going through, standing in them etc. This time I decided to act like they weren't there. I rode and if the path took us through a puddle then that was fine. But I didn't ride the puddle, I rode the straight line. It really worked.  Not that I don't think schooling puddles specifically is wrong. I think that we needed to do that. But now that he understands puddles we can just carry on. God I hope that made sense....

Quaid: am I a seahorse now?

Anyway, things are going well. So when Jane was able to teach this Saturday I jumped at the chance for Quaid to have a lesson. It would be a good test of whether things were as good as I thought or if I was just not challenging him so he was happy. 

I start every ride with him doing groundwork. How much depends on how he feels. I do it until I believe I have him connected to me and then I get on. I had my Pivo set up for the lesson so I recorded the work I do at first. Here's a short clip. 

I describe this as playing. I know that there's a lot I can do to firm things up (more on that later) but I really enjoy it and I believe that it makes a big difference in him. 

Jane arrived and I hopped on. I've been working on keeping my outside leg on (not pushing, just there) as part of my homework and it quickly became clear that unless I focus on it, my leg just falls off and does nothing. Which means that my hands do the turning and not my seat and legs. Sigh. Riding is hard.  

Anyway, Jane is aware and she spent a lot of time (well the whole lesson really) reminding me to keep it on, and, no, it's still not on, yes really, c'mon you can do it but do not kick your horse it's not his fault your leg is off.  I love how she doesn't get frustrated with me because she knows that learning is a process. 

look how grown up he looks

We did a number of 10 metre circles at the walk with me using my inside leg for bend and my outside leg for steering and I was not to use my hands.  And then we did teeny serpentines down the long side. And Quaid just buckled down and did his level best to follow these weird instructions. 

We did a lot of trot work as well, but not in the small circles because we want to preserve his joints. I was to use my legs to encourage him to take longer steps behind but not faster.  Which meant I was to squeeze longer, not tap-tap-tap fast because that threw him out of rhythm. 

The whole lesson was amazing. And Quaid was right there. He didn't get flustered or do any of the kicking out that was last year. We picked up the canter to the left and it was good, then he lost his balance and fell out of it. We rebalanced and then he picked it right back up with zero fuss. 

whee

We had a break and then went to the right. I was not allowed to ask for canter until the trot was good. I was pleased that he kept going too after the break because I'm sure he thought we were done. 

Here's a brief clip. What you will see is a trot, some canter that falls apart, we regroup and try again. For me the big part is not that we fell apart. It's not neither of us were flustered. He didn't get upset. He just tried to figure it out and do it. 

It was a great lesson. Jane was pleased. I was thrilled. Quaid was happy for all the carrots at the end. 

Now the reason that lessons were on Saturday was that some of us had signed up for a ground work clinic with CJ up at Krista's. I thought it was a great way to get some practice working in a new place and work on him learning to relax and not melt down with worry.  

Carmen was left home. Not that she was happy about that but I want to keep working on them being apart and it being NBD (no big deal). After a small hesitation, Quaid self-loaded on the trailer and we were off. When we got there he unloaded easily and walked nicely up to the barn. He was clearly worried but stayed connected. I put him in his stall and set him up with water and hay. 

I watched a few lessons and I was really pleased I decided to come. CJ's philosophy matched mine. He was keen on horses being connected and finding relaxation. He was not keen on confrontation or 'dominance'. He wanted the horses to follow a soft feel and he worked with each one to help them find it.  He talked about arousel levels with 1-4 being chill and totally relaxed; 4-7 is up and excited/ energised and 7-10 is instinct (flight, fight, or freeze).  He does not like horses that are shut down. He wants them to engage with the environment. So if you present something novel (like a flag) he wants them to look at it (this reminded me a lot of the TRT Method). He doesn't want a horse thinking 'if I just close my eyes it will go away'. 

Quaid: I don't know who that is but I like him

I brought in Quaid and explained that he worries and loses focus in new places and I wanted to get some tools to help me (and me).  He was able to show me how subtle Quaid's initial lost of focus is and how to get it back using my whip to ask him to yield his hind quarters. Not even a big yield, just so that the horse is bent to the inside. He corrected how I used my whip at times.  And showed me some things. Like how choppy his steps get when tight and worried and not stop the ask until he showed even a small reduction in tension. 

Quaid, was slightly distracted but really was quite calm.  He was 10 times better than last year when I brought him, right out of the gate. CJ said that I had done some really nice work with him (which is always nice to hear). Quaid was passed back and forth between me and CJ and dealt with that really well.

One thing CJ shared that really resonated with me was 'notice what happened right before what happened happened'.  That's where you make your correction. So if you're riding down the long side and the horse just starts to bend to the outside that's when you start asking them to connect back, not wait until it's a big disconnect (like a spook). I left Quaid to chill back in the stall after and then took him home. He didn't really want to self-load to come home. I tried a few times and then led him on. I probably could have worked through it but I needed to get home and I didn't need to pick that particular battle. He follows me on easily enough and stands tied so it's not critical. 

When we got home Carmen was quite excited. So was Quaid but he walked quietly beside me back to the barn. When I let him out, Carmen was all over him but he was like excuse me ma'am and he headed out to the field to frolic a bit. He was so happy to be back out. Carmen looked a bit offended but then went and ate her hay. When Quaid came over to share she pinned her ears so everything was back to normal, lol. 

 CJ may have wondered why I came but to me it was totally worth it. I got a few exercises, some tips, some encouragement that I'm on the right path and it was a really solid, positive outing for Quaid. I think a lot of people believe groundwork is for when your horse is a problem. And it totally is. But it's like the riding basics: we all need it and we should always be working on it, no matter what level we're at or how calm our horses are.