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!

ex. 33 from book

So, here's exercise 33, prep for sideways. I did talk during it, but not sure if you can hear the sound. You might have to turn your volume up.
I do not hold the rope as closely as the book says, I find it too constricting. Take your time and move the hind, then the front. If one breaks, abandon the exercise and fix the end that broke and go back to the exercise.




Below is ex. 39, slipslide and ex. 24, changes of direction along a line. I needed to put a pole down because I needed to know what the camera could see...this was a "hit record, run do my thing, then hit stop". (the farm kid who was shooting wasn't around for today's shooting!) The pole also helped me see if I was going straight, which I see now, I was not.

In ex. 39, you will see I have to use a wiggle rope back up to correct her forward movement. When I see her move sideways, I offer a release to her by standing still, allowing her to move sideways away from me as I exhale and think positive thoughts.

I actually use 24 (hinds to fronts along a straight line) a good bit when wanting to make sure I have separation from front and back end and when my horse has way too much energy when I am leading or driving and I want to get to the mind but I need to get somewhere.

I am trying to learn to edit, but have yet to figure out how to do sound...I am not talking during this one, but there are lots of back ground noises I tried to turn off, but wasn't sucessful, so turn down your volume, otherwise the annoying leaf blower in the back ground will drive you crazy.



Hope these help you a bit, I see I need to smile a bit more! I am actually having fun!

and something funny

thought I would share my horse Whimsy and what she thinks of a good belly rub! Gave all of us a good laugh!



That Whimsy is a funny girl!

hindquarters

So here's an example of two requests for hindquarter yielding (indirectly, meaning not touching the horse when asking). The first you will see not much stepping under, watch the horse's feet, they do not consistently cross under and the horse sort of wanders out of it. Watch the position of the person in relation for the understanding from the horse. Think about rope angles in relation to what you want from the back end of the horse. This is Linda Crookshank and her morgan Chase in Big Indian, NY.



In the next video, she does not get the hq all the way around, but with a loose rope and positioning her body, watch the feet really step under. I would not recommend bending over quite so much, you don't want to get in the habit of getting your face 'in there' in case a horse kicks. The real difference between the two videos of hq is how Linda's position effects the footfall of Chase.




Thanks to Linda and Chase!

learning with others

So, in my never ending quest to keep up with technology, I will attempt to use my blog to help illustrate some points brought up by questions from the online book forum class I have been teaching. The class is reading 101 Horsemanship Exercises by Rio Barrett.

I have short some short video segments I will post. Now I am not yet clever enough to add music, so you'll have to listen to my comments...so the first is hq to fq. This is Carol Fitzpatrick and her horse Twinks. Watch the first, then see what looks better in the second. Notice the position of Carol's shoulders, see how that directs her horse.





That was not so clean for a hq to a fq. She had to use her rope to back the horse up, then the horse wasn't sure where she was supposed to go. Separating the hind from the front is critical in really "getting to your horse's feet". This kinda follows exercise 50 in the book. You should take your time, if you do not get a clean hq, do not go on and ask for the front, just hq to a stop.



In the second video, you can see how the horse is following the feel. The hind is moving separate from the front. And the horse's footfall follows that of Carol's. When Carol's feet stop, so do her horses. Very nice, thanks Carol and Twinks!