bit and bridle

Woohoo - we hit a bit of a milestone today. I lunged Lutallic in a bridle!
About a month and a half ago, I started trying bits and bridles on Tal.
I tried Boo's good Hubertus bridle on him, accidentally, three times............. Is it still an accident by the third time? Possibly not! But I was trying it on him for fit, and obviously I had to adjust it, so, I'd pop it on, work out if it needed to go up or down or whatever, take it off, adjust it and so on. Turned-out I got it right on about the 3rd go!
We were standing in the corral, no headstall or lead or anything, and I still had the reins attached. I can't remember for sure, but I had taken a bit from Saddleworld to try on for size, so that might have been on it. I had thought I would get Tallic a gold KK Trainer, and Kerry had the equivalent stainless steel one in stock, so that's what I was trying. It was a 5" bit, and turned-out to be a little bit too small (no punn intended). For some unknown reason, bits no longer come in 5 1/4" sizes, so a 5 1/2 is needed.

Anyway, back to today......... I finally went and bought the SS bit; it's a lovely small style, not fat like the Horseland ones. Apparently they could get a finer one in, but I get sick of having to order everything. I'd been looking on the internet and discovered I could buy the bit I wanted from there, but in the end I decided to give the good ol' stainless steel a whirl. (I did put Cruiser's old bit in his mouth, and I had a really good laugh. They really are like chalk and cheese those two!)

So, today I decided to attach the new bit to a bridle (I think it's Flame's; no reins, no noseband). He threw his head straight down onto the bit and into the bridle (after I removed the throat lash from his gob!!) He had a really good chomp and lots of little head-tosses, but allowed me to adjust the height whilst on him. I put it on over the top of the rope halter. And off we went....

We walked on up to the round yard, and he was a little bit surprised by the wheel barrow that was sitting up against the rails from where Darren has been working on a new drain near the shed. No big deal, but I got him to circle around me and walk forward again.
We walked a lap of the round yard, did some yields and to-ing and fro-ing, bit of trot, and then I swapped the lead for the lunge rein and lunge whip. I decided I wanted to work him on a longer line so that if he decides to do his little bucking thing I've got a bit more room and a tool to move him away from me. Turned-out I needed it too!
Tallic tends to have a run around with his nose along the ground, which, I realise is good in terms of him stretching his back, but not so good in terms of safety (I DON'T want him putting a leg over the rein) and I'm also not sure how 'with me' he is when he does this. Therefore I tend to try to bump his nose back up when he's doing this. He also likes to go around with his nose poking to the outside. I dont' like this because I feel too much pressure on the rope, plus, I don't think his attention is on me when he does this (and his bum faces in towards me a tiny bit. I know that's 'fussy' but it doesn't seem right). Therefore, I find myself bumping his face back towards straight or inside. When I do this, he sometimes mistakes it for a slowing down signal, so the whip is handy for saying "no, go forward, I just wanted your face". I'm not sure whether I'm going about this the right way, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Overall, I think it was a really successful lunge session, with bit!!, and I think he'll get used to working with it on very quickly. I just need to be doing more of it.

Right, now I better go back and do the posts that belong before this one. I would have sworn I had done more than one since Nicole and I started our playdates, but where are they?

Post Script: Christine and I went to look at bridles at Horseland and then Saddleworld back when I was going to send him off to the breakers. H/L had one on sale that I thought I'd get, but after measuring better quality ones before I found the sale item, I realised I just can't stand the idea of buying yucky Indian leather (even though its usual price is $100, it left black crap all over my hands - yuek)
When we were in S/W, we found a Kieffer bridle made out of synthetic material. It was a hanovarian style, and I want a cavesson noseband, but I love the concept of having a bridle that's good enough to compete in and doesn't need cleanig, oiling and creaming the night before. I've since been looking into getting a weymouth bridle in the same style, called Seku, but cannot find a photograph of one anywhere. I think I shall persist in my endevours to find one, as it's my first preference.

But wait, there's more! I also decided to give Tallic a mini-wash after his little work session. I go the old purple shampoo of Cruiser's out (there's almost 5 litres sitting there) and gave his mane and neck a good scrub. He loved it, I think he's been a bit itchy from some dandruff, so that should feel better now. It's funny how well he handles these little adventures. I hose his lower legs after I remove his work boots, and that's also no drama, so I think all these bits and pieces I'm doing with him are adding up to a well handled neddy!

Buddy Day

Today was the first day of Tallic having playdates with Joe!
My good friend Nicole who lives about 1km up the road is keen to learn horsemanship skills and then improve her riding. I've already given Nicole and Joe a mini-lesson at their place, late last year, where we discovered just how green the 'quiet' Joe really is. Nicole and I would love to be able to go trail riding together, but seeing as I decided not to get another riding horse while I wait for Tallic to grow up and be broken in, I thought it might be a good idea to train us together in the meantime.
First expected hurdle was how Tal would cope with having a new horse on the property. He was quite interested when Joe arrived, but stood well to be groomed and booted when they returned to the RY. Leading him into that paddock, he was a bit excited, but walked quite well toward the RY. We stopped outside of it, where I proceeded to get his attention with some corrections, a bit of backing etc while I talked to Nicole.
We decided to work them both in the RY together, but we left the gate open. Tallic behaved REALLY well, doing his yields, changes, backing and standing like a true champ. He required a lot fewer corrections than I expected and stayed a lot more foccussed than I expected too. Looks like the ground work we've done previously has been successful - yay.
Some of the things we did while I was helping Nicole with Joe include:

• backing with wriggly lead
• going out to the left and right, stopping on the circle without turning in
• as above but sometimes facing-up
• swapping from left to right with minimal cues

I'm sure we did more, but I can't remember anymore! and it only happened today.

I packed him away after approx 20mins as Nicole needed some help, and he'd been such a good boy and coped so well, I wanted to quit while all was good.

Overall - very happy with the little man. I think he coped with his first play-date really well.

I'm back!

How slack am I hey! I suppose we all knew it would happen, but as the kids would say "whatever".
The lovely Tallic turned 3 last Friday and I headed off to the Dandenong Ranges to drop Dale off at my parent's place while I went to visit and stay with my friend (and cousin by marriage) Louise. Lou had invited me to share a weekend with her fence sitting a clinic with the marvelous Harry Whitney. The clinic was one of a few organised by her instructor/trainer Ross Jacobs. I always enjoy reading Ross' articles in Chaff Chat and was keen to see their training methods in person (rather than via the phone with Lou!)
So, after a tiring but very interesting weekend sitting in the stalls watching various horse owners and Harry at work, I've come home with a new vigor, interest and confidence in training my own horse!
I have in fact been only moments away from sending Lutallic off to the horse breakers, and have even got an appointment with them tomorrow to go and have a visit and watch Bruce O'Dell working some youngsters. My good friend Christine is coming with me, and it will be very interesting to see the property and find out if Bruce's methods will complement my own ideals. I certainly hope so, and from what his wife Jane has told me in our two conversations I think they will. My farrier is the one who first put me onto Bruce and I have since talked to quite a few other people I know and all reports have been good so far!
Anyway, over to tonight's efforts:
It was getting late, for various reasons, but I figured that I didn't need to make it a marathon, so just 'do it'!!

• After getting the rug off and giving my little fat buddy a groom I began by asking him to back off the wash with a gentle lead wiggle. So far so good! I also made sure when i initially put the halter on that I had his attention and his willingness to do so. I did.
• At the clinic, I was reminded that the horse should be able to go out on the circle with just an indication of direction. I had the feeling that I usually helped the horse out too much by lifting the driving rein as well, so I made sure that I didn't do that. My little star responded beautifully.
• Another point I'd noticed at the clinic was the precision with which the rein was changed on the circle. No stepping in to the handler's space, and only very subtle cues. We did it!! Yay.
• Problems were exactly where I expected them to be: softening thru the neck, particularly backing off lead pressure from the halter (nose) AND leading off. I knew that was going to suck and it did! These are definitely our focus points for the moment. I got him moving forward a little more crisply, but no-where near well enough. The backing up from under the chin is terrible! No 'giving' and softening - yuck. I ended up backing him out of the corral (didn't bother taking him to the round yard as my intention was just to do a bit of training work at the walk). We went into one paddock, and Boo ventured into another. I suppose on the bright side, Tallic did stay quite focused on me.
• Did some backwards and forwardsing, but need to figure out how to get him to soften with the nose pressure. Will do some work in the round yard so that I can get into him a bit more without the fear of him nicking off!

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the session and where he is at.