Though it looks like I am laying down on the job, my blog has moved to www.julierobins.com
on my new website!

See ya there! Julie

Student's Corner

If you are looking for a fun exercise to try indoors, this one is great. It really helps you see how much direction you have to an individual foot. Don't let yourself get frustrated if your horse does not get this at first. In this video, I have to abandon the foot placement exercise to clean up some heaviness with Whimsy. Then I go back to the exercise, and since the "feet are cleaned up" things go a bit better.
This is from "101 Horsemanship Exercises" by Rio Barrett.

learning with whimsy

Over the past few weeks, Dezi has been a wee bit off, so I have used the time to progress with Whimsy. She is a 7 year old Connemara, 14.2HH and full of girl drama. Patience is not her best virtue, so we have made a project out of that, and the results are paying off.
She now ground ties most anywhere and waits on me from a distance of about 20-30 feet. In a group setting, she prefers to hang closer to me (like when she works with me while I teach workshops), which work fine too.
How did we "make a project out of it" you ask. Well, I started by taking Whimsy with me to places where she could hang out and letting her hang out on the end of the halter rope with the middle of the rope on the ground. If she moved, even one foot one step, I politely corrected her without moving my feet. As she got the idea, I began to drop the rope and increase my distance. If she moved, I would ask with my body language first for her to go back to exactly where she was and if she did not, I would pick up the rope and correct her with the rope, then return the rope to the ground. Once she could stand for a nice amount of time (at first this was only 60 seconds), I would pick up the rope and go to another spot and start over, gradually increasing the time she could stand in one place. Now (a few weeks later) she can stand for as long as I like. The longest I have asked is around an hour. And overall, she is much more settled in her skin.

foot placement ex. 40

I still have not figured out how to delete the sound or better yet, add music...but wanted to get this up. You will get to see us work a bit to get this. In the beginning she is heavy, pushing on me with her nuzzle and then her shoulder. I decide to abandon the exercise and send her shoulder out, work her in a circle, get a better hq and start over. I find when working on the isolation of a foot, if things get sticky, it is easier to move the feet a bit, then go back to the isolation exercise.
Looking forward to getting to the riding exercises!