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.

SCARY TREES AND USING THE CARROT STICK

I thought I would teach Lutallic to lunge in big circles in the round yard using a real lunge rein instead of the 22' rope today. As usual, I changed my plan, but this is OK.

As we walked up the arena paddock, Tallic grew a few hands and got rather 'excited'. I thought he was staring at the paddock lice across the road, but it turns out I had forgotten all about the freshly trimmed trees at the fenceline near the road. Powercore send a mob out to cut the trees back from under the powerlines every so many years, and they were here the other day, but as yet have not returned with the branch muncher.

Tal did do one little take off and turn, but I rubbed his whither region and talked to him, and we walked up to the arena. He tends to put his head up high, stop and stare, and then rush forward to see what he's worried about. He listened and kept pace with me quite well considering; much better than he would have done 2 weeks ago.

We did some walking/leading exercises for a little while, progressed to trot, and only had one little 'shy' at the nutty dogs next door. (They have recently acquired another dog and the crazy thing grabs the fence with its teeth and pulls violently at the wire. God help us if it ever gets out, I can imagine what it would do with a limb.) Anyway, off to the round yard we go.

I grabbed the carrot stick and string which I'd already placed on the peanut gallery and proceeded to rub it along and over his body, allowing the string to dangle and tickle etc. He's not overly keen on it being on his ears, but he put up with it. I did do this sort of work with him very early on, I think when I was preparing him to wear a rug (2 days after getting him!!) I probably used the lead rope though (I think) as I can remember winding it around his legs and all over.

We then progressed to walking along with the carrot stick on his back and rump, string trailing. This was going well, so we moved on to trotting, using the stick with a 'tap tap' motion to ask for the next pace. If he dropped his head to eat (he is WB) I used the stick as an aid to go forward. Same if he backed-off for any other reason.

Lutallic figured all these things out quickly as always, so when Nicole arrived with the kids, I decided to take the halter and lead off and leave him in the round yard loose for a while. Well, off he went! Tal managed to do quite a few laps of the round yard, quite fast, and I managed not to panic! Yay for me!

I watched him for about a minute and decided it was safe to leave him galloping around. He eventually slowed to a trot (I watched him from inside). Although he was only on his own for a few minutes, he managed to work up quite a sweat and was still huffing and puffing minutes later when tied-up in the corral again. What a goose.

I decided today was the perfect day to give him a hose down. He was hot and sweaty, and, it was still hot enough for him to dry before nightfall (we're getting a few warm days now). Hosing him was no problem, he acted just like a grown-up! Afterall, we have done it maybe 2 or 3 times before. What a champ!!

It seemed a good idea to leave him tied-up to dry, so I checked that my tie-up knots were safe (no loops for him to stick feet in if he pulled-back) and left him in Boo's capable care. I kept an eye on him, and visited and brushed him, before finally returning and releasing him.

Overall, another successful adventure.

Lunging - oooh

On Monday (today is Wednesday) I took Tal into the round yard for a bit of a go at lunging. He actually did quite well. I took the 22' lead instead of a proper lunge lead, so that meant that I had to do a lot of walking to allow him the full use of the RY. I tried not to let him do too many circles without asking for a change of some sort, and he did seem to stay fairly focussed. Quite frankly, I've seen broken-in horses do a much much worse job. Hopefully that means I'm doing something right with him?
Only down-side was when he launches himself into the canter. He still tends to stick his rear end in towards me and look like he's going to buck. I then have to turn his head toward me to disengage it, and then he returns to the trot. Maybe if I use the lunge lead and have him further away from me it might work better, because I am going to have to let him canter! I might also just let him go loose in there and see what he wants to do.
He got a fright again with his back boot slipping down, and the dear soul came to me. I didn't fix it though, just rubbed him and talked to him, and sent him on his way again. He got over it.

Tallic has been a bit of a grumpy bum yesterday and today, and I think he's hungry. He's in the lock-up with Boo, and they're being fed chaff and speedi-beet, and Tal gets to go into the grassy paddock for a while, but I still think he's hungry. I put out some hay again, as I think that's what is different to last week, but he really is quite the tubster.

LESSON NUMBER 3

Well, it has been over a week since our last 'training' session, but I think if anything, the time has allowed what has been learned to sink in.

When I led Lutallic up to the arena today, I had the 22' lead with me as well (I didn't really have much of a plan in mind!), so I wanted to drop that at the round yard entrance for use after walking on the arena. Tallic spotted the short-arses in the paddock across the road at this moment, and he got a little excited, quite tall and started to trot - BUT instead of being strong and dragging me along etc like he did previously, a very light correction worked, and he walked up to the arena like a grown-up! (oh yeah, and he 'tacked-up' like a grown up too!!)
It's so exciting to discover that he has taken-in what we worked on last week and he's really bonding and looking to me for the leadership. So much better than a few months ago when I was working him in the round yard and he spotted the 'oxygen thieves' and I had so much trouble getting his attention and getting him to respond. He was so storng that day, and wouldn't stop unless he was facing what he was interested in (the ponies), much like when I was trying to walk him up to the arena last Monday. (He had preciously been inclinded to run to the end of the lead and need to be pulled around so he didn't run off.)

We started today where we left off from last week's lessons. We walked on the arena changing direction and pace regularly (to stop him from getting bored and losing focus,; they're basically transisitions) and moved on to including some trotting soon after begininning (I yet again had a very small time frame in which to work, so it was great to be able to get on with it all so quickly). I think I only had one scary moment when trotting where he moved his rear end in toward me, but he yeilded away quite well, much lighter aids than required on previous occassions.

Did have one or two scares from the noisey dogs next door where Tallic jumped and did a little run off, but he faced-up readily and I just soothed him and continued. At one point his protective boot slipped a bit and he was kicking out and trying to escape it, but I was really pleased to find that a soothing rub and re-assurance got his mind off it and we could keep going.

At some times I ran a little with Lutallic (for some trot work), and other times I had him circle me. He came back to a walk with voice command and a lift of the hand, and same to halt (I've been saying 'whoa'). He really is a very clever little horse and is looking for recognition. I think at first he thought he was going to get carrot treats (like he did at the end of the other arena session), but he certainly seemed happy with his rubs and kind words.

I am absolutely rapt with how he went today. The only problem is, I think I'm falling in love with the little fellow! Damn it!! That wasn't supposed to happen. He's great. He's smart, he tries and he remembers. Wow. And it doesn't hurt that he happens to be so pretty!!

I'm going shopping tomorrow, so we won't do anything for a couple of days, but I suppose I'll just keep going slow and steady with his training. It's working so far.

And, I've got to say, I'm really glad that my good friends Louise and Christine have managed to give me the tiny shoves necessary to get me out there playing with Tal. Thank you both! You were both right, I am loving it.

More Leading Training

GOAL: Follow-up on yesterday's leading lesson. KISS, just re-cap on the basics of yesterday.

HOW DID IT GO? Believe it or not, as planned! I decided to take Lutallic into PJ's paddock in front of the house (as PJ was in the round yard doing some munching), and I thought it would be a good idea to test out what we learnt yesterday in a different environment, with new stressors.

I really didn't have a lot of time, maybe 1/2 an hour including catching and grooming, so it was never meant to be a long session, and it wasn't. I popped his protective boots on (just in case), I'd alread shut the front gate (just in case) and I'd locked Boo out of the corral so that I could lead Tallic out without fear of Boo busting thru (just in case!!)

He actually walked very politely from the corral (although I was awfully fussy and made him back up a tad when he didn't wait for the gate to completely open, I don't want him learning to rush through) and he did this nice and softly so we proceded to the next gateway which he manouvered through well using prompts I would use on an older, more experienced horse (like Cruiser). It's making me realise that the ground work that I have previously done with Tallic is paying off, he's tuning in well when not stressed.

Walked quietly up the driveway to PJ's paddock, even though Boo was calling out and he spotted PJ in the round yard. Had to walk past Tony (the painter's) car to get into the paddock, and although he got taller as we went on, he managed to only need a couple of corrections around most of the paddock. (Boo was still calling out I might add.) Tallic was a little worried about the corner where the stable is, there's also some firewood and manure piled up, and he could see into the neighbour's place, but he didn't jump into or lean on me like I was expecting him to do, so I was very pleased.

It started to rain, and I was very pleased that we basically took up where we'd left off yesterday, so we walked back again.

Overall, a short and sweet session - we had far less stress and more focus, pretty much from the start. Yippee.