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Getting Your Horse’s Groove Back

Yesterday’s entry was about my riding confidence and the tools I use to improve it.  As I was writing it, it occured to me that I use many of the same tools to help a horse get their confidence back too.

To refresh your memory of yesterday’s post, my section headers were:

  1. Just Say No
  2. Ride someone else
  3. Mitigate your pain
  4. Warm up, literally
  5. Have a ground support person
  6. Fake it ’till you make it
  7. Be your own cheerleader
  8. Be honest with yourself

Here’s how they relate to the horse’s confidence

Just say no

The advice for the rider is to not ride a horse that makes them anxious.  The same is true for the horse. If the horse is in a place where a rider will make them anxious, they should spend some time doing groundwork to prepare to carry a rider again.  The type of ground work that can be done is a whole other topic for another day.

Ride Someone Else

The advice for the rider was to switch to a confidence building horse for awhile.  The above for the horse is to switch to a rider that gives them confidence for awhile.  There principle is the same.  Develop a habit of confidence that can carry over to a different partnership.

Mitigate Your Pain 

Advice for the rider was to get pain killers on board so as not to ride in a way that protects your body and induces discord due to rigidity.  Not only will the horse have a similar response to pain, they also bear the burden of being a prey animal.

If a prey animal, like a horse, is in pain, they know they will be the first ones to be picked off by a predator.  So buy your horse the joint injections, get him dental and chiropractic treatment.  Make sure that your saddle fits and his feet don’t hurt.  Heck, throw some NSAIDs his way.  Make him comfortable in his own body so he isn’t left feeling vulnerable.

Warm up, literally

Advice for the rider was to ensure  muscles are warm and loose before mounting so it’s easier to follow with the horse.  The horse should also be warm and loose before being asked to carry a rider.  Keeping his large muscles warm with a cooler, quarter sheet, or heat lamp while getting ready may help.  Being turned out and getting a good roll is a great way to stretch.  If that’s not possible, do a longe before saddling.

Corny and Blue warm up togetber



Have a ground support person 

Just like riders, an anxious horse may find comfort in having a back-up leader near by.  That could be his trainer on the ground, or another confident horsey buddy standing close.

Fake it’till you make it

Riders clench their butts, snatch the bit, take their leg of, tense their face, and stop breathing.  Horses tighten their backs, lift their neck, tense their face, and stop breathing.

Just like riders faking  a posture  of confidence and relaxation, we can train our horse to do the same.  When his body is put in a posture of relaxation, his brain will begin to think that he is relaxed!

So teach your horse to lower his neck when you ask.  This may be through flexion, or giving to poll pressure.  Either way, a subject for another day.  Watch his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose for signs of relaxation.  Encourage a steady and forward tempo.  Teach him to look like a confident horse.

Blue was a bit worried about my flag, so I asked him to lower his head



Be your own cheerleader

While this is harder for your horse to do for himself, you can certainly do it for him.  Find something he is doing well, even if it’s simple, or just a little try.  Then make much of him, “you’re so good, all the mares like you, what a clever boy!” Praise a lot.  Like enough that people walking by think that you are a head case.  

Be honest with yourself 

If you’re horse is faking confidence and relaxation, try to spot it. If he shuts down and goes to his happy place he may not be scary at that moment in time, but when he snaps out of it, watch out!  Those are the horses that seemingly blow up out of nowhere.  Try to snap him out of his comatose impression of calm, and address his low level anxiety before it escalates into something harder to manage.

Often horses and riders lose confidence at the same time.  To address all these steps to regain confidence, it may be best to part company for a little while and come back together when you each have more confidence.  

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Losing My Groove, and Getting It Back Again

Like many riders, I have more skill than confidence.  I wish it were the other way around.  I’ve seen lots of riders with more confidence than skill, and most of the time they are having way more fun than their worried counterparts. 

 In my observations, the more confident riders don’t get hurt as much as the more skilled riders.  I chalk this up to the horse feeding off the confidence of their rider and being happy with having a strong leader.

For my confidence, some days are better than others.  After a couple decades of anxiety in the saddle, I’ve learned some ways to recapture that golden snitch of confidence.

Yep, that’s the face I make when trying to get my confidence back

Just Say No

As a professional, my job is to ride horses that require a professional ride.  Since I began working for myself ten years ago, I’ve said no to several requests to ride horses I didn’t feel confident about riding.  Saying no is unfortunately a career limiting move when working for someone else, but it has far less repercussions when self employed. For most riders, fun is the primary objective.  Getting in the saddle should be something to look forward to, not dread.

Ride someone else

If you feel anxious riding Dobbin, perhaps you should ride Cupcake for a little while.  Even if you own Dobbin, riding a horse that is steadier will help steady your nerves.  This is especially true after taking a break from riding. I inexplicably lost some confidence last week, so now that Corny is ready to be ridden, I owed it to him to be a confident leader.  I was able to get a good ride on River in to boost my confidence.  

River has been in training with me for about a year.  He’s never done anything I couldn’t easily handle when riding him.  That makes him a great choice for my confidence boosting horse.

​​My confidence building ride on River.  



Mitigate your pain

It is tough to be brave when you feel pain.  Typically, we tend to guard ourselves and protect our injured parts.  This makes harmony with the horse challenging, and without harmony there is discord.  So get those pain killers on board before you get in the saddle.

Warm up, literally

I have a hard time with my back (and most other parts of my body).  When my back is cold, it gets stiff.  That makes my hip rigid, and then I can’t flow easily with my horse.  If I don’t let my back get cold (I wear 3 coats) and stretch it out before I get on, my confidence improves.

Have a ground support person

This might be your trainer.  It might be your friend.  I use my groom.  My horses all love her, so I can have confidence that if I start to lose my confidence as a leader, I can point them towards her and they will easily transition to looking to her for leadership instead of useless me.  This being said, her presence alone usually does the trick and I’ve never actually pointed a horse at her.

Fake it ’til you make it

If you aren’t confident, try to pretend you are.  Instructors can easily spot a rider with anxiety because humans all do the same thing when we get tense on the horse.  First we clench our butts, then we take our leg off, grab hold of the reins, clench our jaws, and hold our breath. To the horse we’ve suddenly changed the three points we communicate with them in an unfamiliar way, effectively abandoning them in a time they most need our confident leadership.  Our seat becomes hardened on their back, the hug of our draped leg disappears, we snatch at their delicate mouths, our faces show our discomfort, and our center has shifted upwards with our shallow/non existent breathing.  

My second ride on Corny.  I didn’t have my groove going this day. I’m trying to fake relaxation via a cheesy smile, but my leg is sticking way out and my clenched butt is pushing my body forward.  Corny isn’t buying my attempts at faking confidence.

So when you are anxious, fake confidence with your body language.  

  1. Imagine your butt had become large and jelly like.  Picture it oozing of the sides of your saddle.
  2. Consciously leave the reins alone.  It’s handy to have something else to hold on to that the horse can’t feel.  Monkey straps (or bucking straps, or oh shit straps, whatever you call them) are great for this.  That way you can satisfy your urge to grasp something without your horse being the victim of your scared hand.
  3. Make sure you’re leg is touching your horse.  Don’t grip, but let your leg confirm to your horses sides.  Think of how a blanket drapes on a couch, it takes the shape of the couch, but doesn’t squeeze the couch.
  4. Relax your face.  I’ve got one bearded student whose lips disappear when he gets anxious.  Move your jaw, make horse lips, look around.
  5. Breathe deeply. Feel you’re abdomen below your belly button go in and out with each breath.  Make your exhale last more steps than your inhale.

Be your own cheerleader

I may not be Charlotte Dujardin, but I’m Ali Kermeen, damn it. Chances are you’re  pretty special too.  Remind yourself of previous riding situations where you impressed yourself, or someone else.  Think about this before you get on the horse so you have some ready to go.

Be honest with yourself

I’m not afraid to tell a client that I’m nervous riding their horse.  Having something to hide is a whole other anxiety trigger.  If I do share my anxiety with a client, they usually don’t look pleased.  But that is me, it’s who I am.  Again, career limiting when working for someone else, but less so when you are working for yourself. I like to think that anxiety makes me relatable to clients, and working through anxiety helps me to help others work through theirs.

That’s a lot of things!  Tomorrow’s post will be about these same principles used to help a horse regain confidence.

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What you want for Christmas

My last post was about my lesson with Ellen Eckstein.  Years ago, I went to a dressage show in Pebble Beach with her.  It was fourth of July weekend, and one of Ellen’s local clients had invited Ellen’s whole group to her home for a Fourth  of July barbeque.  That client turned out to be Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Jane Smiley.

July 4 at Pebble Beach Equestrian Center.  A damp affair.

When we arrived at her home, Jane greated each of us warmly.  She took me by the shoulders, looked me in the eye, and said something like, “wonderful, you are tall too!” She told me to follow her to her office where she showed me a book she was writing a forward to entitled, “The  Tall Book: A Celebration of Life on High“.  I was unable to provide any unique perspective on being tall, after all I’m only 5’11”, but I was very flattered that Jane took the time to show me something she was working on.


At dinner Jane talked about the new project she was working on, a series of young adult novels about the daughter of a horse trader.  She was calling the first one, “The Georges and the Jewels.”  In it, the horse trader father and his daughter buy cheap horses, train them to be kids horses, and sell them for a profit.  Dad didn’t want daughter getting attached to the horses, so each gelding was named George, and each mare was named Jewel. I’ve had a few Jewels in training, but no Georges yet.  Closest I came was Jorge/Giorgio.

We sat at the table and Jane told us about the formula for writing a strong going adult book.  “You gotta make the kiddies cry” she said.  We also talked about our shared fondness for illustrators of young adult horse books that we read as kids, Sam Savitt and Wesley Dennis.

This is the Sam Savitt poster I had in my room as a kid

Anyway, after a wonderful time at Jane’s house, I decided I should probably read some of her books.  I started with the novel that won her the Pulitzer Prize, “A Thousand Acres.”very well written, but what a downer!

Next, I switched to audio books.  I shared (mooched) an audible account with a friend and was excited to listen to “Horse Heaven.” It is a fantastic story centered around thoroughbreds.  I rode some training horses while listening to it, and I remember the sluggish Arabian pony I was on never moved so fast as she did when I was listening to one of the racing scenes!  I definitely recommend the book, however the audio version has some jarring pronouncing errors.

After several years, “The Georges and the Jewels” was finally on Audible along with the rest of the Horses of Oak Valley Ranch series. 

Wow.  WOW.  I’ve read a lot of horse novels, especially young adult horse novels, but never ones like these.  These books are special because not only do they have compelling stories and character development, but there’s some really great horse training instruction in there too.  I learned some horse training techniques from listening to these novels, and I still practice them today.  

My experience with the ex-racehorses I’m working with has reminded me of these books.  There is a chestnut thoroughbred in many of them, and even a thoroughbred named Blue!

So if you are a young adult, or a horse lover of any age, I highly recommend you add the books in this series to your Christmas list.  

The Horses of Oak Valley Ranch series, by Jane Smiley

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A session with the guru

No one has made a greater influence on my horsemanship in the last ten years than Ellen Eckstein.  While most riders go to Ellen for her expertise in dressage lessons, I get giddy at the anticipation of a ground work lesson with her.

If you don’t know who Ellen is, read her biography here.

I brought Blue to my lesson with Ellen because he has been more committed to bracing against me than Corny.  Happilly, the previous day’s session with Blue had given us a break through.  I could now turn Blue’s neck without his body turning.  I could also now have an influence over the direction his ribs roll.  I was excited to build on this in our lesson with Ellen.

First we worked on yielding Blue’s haunches while he was at the end of the line.  I had been striving to do this over the last month and made some progress.  In my session with Ellen, she made some minor changes, that made a huge impact on blue.  She told me to step backwards and towards Blue’s haunches when asking him to yield.  It went so much better!  We even got him to step away from his body laterally with his outside hind a few times!

Here’s a clip of that work https://youtu.be/23H8dN0U1A

Of course, none of this would have been possible without all our hard work on longing on a circle.  This was the first day that I’ve worked Blue that he didn’t make an unsolicited direction change, and didn’t pull hard on me every time I asked him to turn his head.

After we longed and yielded haunches for a while, we put on Blue’s bridle.  She  took Blue and did some rein yields.  A rein yield is where you ask your horse to move his head to the side and he responds by moving his hind feet laterally away.  I didn’t recognize it at first because it looked different when a shorter person does it (Ellen) than a towering monster does it (me).

The rein yield from the ground is something I have been doing with all my horses.  In this session Ellen made me aware of the precise feel on the bridle that I needed to have from Blue before I give my release.  Blue’s habit when asked to yield to anything is to brace  against it.  This exercise was no exception.  Blue tended to brace his outside hind, and just before picking it up and unbracing it he would lift his nose and pull on the bit.  It was reminiscant of a racehorse leaning down into the bit to move his legs faster, a habit that had previously brought Blue much success.  By the end of the session we got him to softly turn his head and move his hind feet without this additional tug.

Ellen coaching me through a rein yield while Blue’s owners look on.

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Rorschach testing

Blue has a cool roan splotch on his shoulder.  Anyone know what it is called?My Google search only came up with “roan patch.”

He didnt seem to have this mark at birth, check out this cute baby picture of him:


My groom, Nel, thinks the marking looks like a Santa face.   I think it looks like a portly stick figure running with his arms up and a fart cloud coming from his butt.  What do you see?

Fart man diagram courtesy of Leah Deffenbaugh 

Incidentally, last year, well before I meet Blue, my then 16 month old daughter drew this on her magna doodle.  I may be reaching, but I think it bears a striking resemblance to Blue’s marking, if the image was flipped.


Do you see it?  My husband and I titled this masterpiece “man runs out of butt”

Ok, enough about butts.

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Standing on stuff

I’m not into 100% arena work.  With two months of groundwork for the brothers, it’s got to be more interesting than circle after circle.

Luckily, we have some good stuff to practice standing on.  I like to have the horses stand on things for a few reasons:

  1. Get accustomed to doing things for seemingly no reason, just because I asked it of them
  2. Get enough control of their feet to place them exactly where I want, even if it isn’t convenient or natural for the horse.
  3. See how they respond to pressure of placing their feet in a very specific place.
  4. Gain some skills to help them load into my trailer, an inconvenient, not natural, unsensical, place for a horse to go (according to the horse).

  I tend to stand on things first as an example to the horse that they are acceptable to stand on.  It will also give the horse an idea of the sound the object will make when their hoof hits it. In future sessions, I will try to get the horse to step on something novel before I do.

Here we have a mock bridge for the horses to stand on.  I like starting with this obstacle because I can ask the horse to crosd the broad side of the bridge first.  That way it is easier for me to make it clear that the horse is to go over the bridge.

After Blue went over the broadside of the bridge, we approached it from a narrow side.  Blue didn’t mind the hollow sound the bridge made under his feet.  He also had little resistance to stopping on top of the bridge.  
Next, we went over a tarp.  So easy for Blue!  He obviously had tarp training before.  We did it both on the line, and off the line in the round pen.  I’m glad we did it though, even though he was pretty good at the tarp, he still hesitated a little before it and sped up going away from it at the beginning of our session.  

If you want to see video of that, look here https://youtu.be/4h4aybZPZPU

​Blue on the tarp

Finally, Blue stood on the low pedestal.  This was the most challenging because it was the easiest to go around, or over without touching.

Nope, that’s not it.
Blue and I had some struggle about wether he should stand on its or not.  During the session, I stopped to reach in my pocket for my phone so that I could take a picture of Blur straddling the pedestal with his front legs.  This is the photo I ended up getting:

 

I had been putting too much pressure on Blue bell!  I guess it was clear what I was asking him to do.  He just needed a chance to take a breath and step up on his own.  In keeping constant pressure on him, whether it be moving his feet, or having clear intent that I wanted him on the pedestal, I was providing him with opportunities to resist.  When the pressure was off, he was no longer resistant, and he stepped right up!

What fun it is to work with this horse. Like any horse, he’s going to make me a better horse trainer.

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TPR: Temperature, Pulse, Respiration

A couple years ago I was at my in laws house for Thanksgiving.  My baby was about 6 months old, and I was nursing her when I noticed my phone was blowing up.  Seemed like one of my clients was having a veterinary crisis with her horse.  I excused myself and called her back.  She told me that her horse was behaving oddly, and doing something funny with her leg.  She was getting ready to call the vet.

I really like my vets, I consider them friends and I don’t want them to have to leave their families on a holiday for no reason.  I also really like my clients, many of them are friends too.  I don’t want them to have to needlessly pay a huge emergency call fee.

So I asked some questions to determine if the horse needed to see the vet right away.  Is she breathing normally? Does she have a fever?  What’s her pulse?  The answer to all of these questions was “I don’t know.” I was able to walk her through the procedures on how to collect this information.  With the assistance of a more knowledgeable boarder who happened upon the scene, I was able to determine that there was no real emergency taking place. 

This incident got me thinking, how was this client supposed to learn to do these tests to determine if her horse is ok?  If she were in pony club, or horse masters, it probably would have come up in preparation for a testing.  Even the D1, the most basic test that the walk/trot kids take, includes a portion where the kids had to know their mounts’ temperature, pulse and respiration (TPR). Many riding lesson students don’t want to pay for lessons in horsemanship, they want lessons in how to jump higher and dressage better.

So I started requiring everyone who leased a horse from me to take a lesson to learn how to take the following measurements:

Temperature 

Have a digital thermometer on hand as well as some lube.  If no lube, use spit.  Many years ago I was in a class at UC Davis where we examined a mare’s cervix.  The instructor told us the motto at the horse barn was “when you think you have enough lube, put some more on.” Pretty good life advice, if you ask me.

To take your horses temperature, stand to the side of his haunches, lift his tail, and slide your well-lubed digital thermometer into the rectum until only the screen is visible.   A horse’s normal body temperature can range from 99-101·F. Elevated temperatures can be signs of infection or illness. 

Last month Mark learned to pick his horses’ hooves, this month he learns to take a temperature.  This should be a basic skill for every horse owner.

Respiration 

Watch your horse’s sides, not his nose, to determine breaths per minute. 8-15 breaths per minute is considered normal for a horse at rest.  Some horses breathe faster than that so it’s important to know what is normal for your horse.

Ann watches Blue’s flanks and counts his breaths per minute.

Pulse

The”P” in TPR is the most difficult for most horse owners to assess.  Practice finding a pulse by pushing a vein under the horses jaw into the inside of his cheek.  For shy pulses, it’s often easier to find a vein around the eye to push gently on.  

The average adult horse’s pulse is 30-40 beats per minute when at rest.  Higher than that is an indicator for pain or other physical distress.

Ann finds Corny’s pulse near his eye.



The brothers both had very difficult pulses to find.  If the horse was in pain, it would probably be easier to find if it was throbbing.  The difficulty finding a pulse might be a sign of well being!

Normals

It’s important to know your horse’s baseline metrics for two reasons.  The first is so you will know what is normal for them.  The second is so you will have experience finding TPR when you are freaked out about your horse’s health.

I keep track of all the horses in my program with an ap on my iPhone.  The one I use is called Equi Sketch Records.  Blue’s record looks like this 

Compare his medical normals with Poni’s:


You can see the difference in what is normal for each equine. Poni’s resting  respiration is way out of what is considered normal.  If Blue was breathing 42 times per minute at rest, I would be very concerned.  For Poni, it’s just how she is.

If you don’t know your horse’s healthy TPR, please make a point of checking it the next time you visit him.  Write them down, and keep it in your tack box just in case.

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A little bit about bits

I love talking  about bits.  Last year I did an unmounted lesson for our pony club and the leaders had to shut me down after I had been going on for an hour and a half about bits.  While I don’t intend to be a hoarder, I think everyone should be allowed to have a collection of one thing.  My one thing is bits.

I started both geldings off in my go-to bit for green horses.

A three piece D ting snaffle bit

I choose this bit for green horses because it works on their lips and tongue.  It may also work on the bars of their mouth, depending on the position of the rider’s hands.  Because it had three pieces, it does not have a center joint that pokes the horse in the roof of the mouth.  The dee ring shape encourages green horses to learn to take a cue  for turning by pushing on the opposite side of their face from the activated rein (e.g. when pulling on there left rein, the right side of the bit will be pushed against the right side horses jaw).

Did you follow all that?  No?  Here are some diagrams that may help you out.

Anatomy of the horse’s lower jawParts of the snaffle  bit

Did that clear some things up for you?

Well, niether brother liked my choice of bit for them, so it was time to go to my bit box.

Blue’s bit

Blue accepted the bit easily.  He seemed to fuss quite a bit with the mouth piece though, so I decided to put him in a slightly more rigid single joined snaffle. His new bit had a thinner mouthpiece and was a few sizes smaller than the original bit.  In subsequent work outs he seemed very happy with the way his new bit fit and carried the bit quietly with a relaxed mouth.

Corny’s bridle on the left, Blue’s bridle on the right.

Corny

Yesterday’s blog entry talked about Corny’s tongue acrobatics when wearing a bit.  He would twist his tongue, flip it over, draw it up, or loll it out his mouth when wearing a bit.  After one of his early workouts I noticed that his tongue was purple on the bottom.  I don’t typically study the underside of horse’s tongues, are all horse tongues purple on the bottom?  I checked out the other horses that were currently on my tie racks. Neither Dom, Poni, nor Blue had purple  bottomed tongues.  While my sample size was very small, I felt confident that the purple  tongue was not normal.

My theories for why Corny’s tongue is purple were:

  1. Bruising from getting his tongue over the bit
  2. Some kind of dental problem
  3. Lack of circulation to the tongue
  4. Metal allergy or sensitivity

I decided to change Corny’s bit to one that offered plenty of tongue relief, without encouraging fidgeting.  I choose a Mullen mouthpiece (no joint) with a port (an upwards swoop in the center).  To address the metal sensitivity post of my theory, I selected a plastic covered mouthpiece.

It worked!  While the tongue issues have not gone away, they have drastically reduced.  Corny showed improvement the next workout with the new bit.  After he got dental work, he improved even more.  

Bridle set up

You may have noticed that there are no nosebands on the brothers’ bridles.  I could probably cover up some of Corny’s mouth issues if I slapped a noseband on him.  However, it would only be a cover-up and not resolve any of the issues that cause the mouth issues.  I’d rather address the issues and solve them in the early stages of training , rather than fight against them for the rest of his riding career.  Niether horse actually needs a noseband until they begin jumping or competing.

Since they don’t have nosebands, there is a danger of pulling the bit all the way through the horse’s mouth.  To mitigate that risk, I’ve attached a chin strap connecting the rings of the bit.  I simply use a spur strap, but purpose built chin straps do exist.

I’ve been working the horses with their halters under the bridle so I can hook my lines to the halter, or to the bit.  That way the horses can learn to move with the bit in, without also being responsible for responding to it.

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Management Strategies, part 2

We got some much needed rain in the brothers’third week of training.  California horse people have a love/hate relationship with the rain.  We love rain because our state is in a constant drought that requires mindful water rationing at all times.  We hate it because when it comes, it dumps too much water on our riding surfaces.  HC Equestrian is located at Indian Hills Ranch; we are lucky to have a nice indoor arena there.  However, it is very difficult to get good photos or video marking the brothers’ progress in there.

During week 3, I took off one of my long lines and worked again on longing with one line.  The thoroughbreds are really getting the idea, especially Corny.  However, as we continued to work, there consistently became signs that the brothers had discomfort in their bodies.

Teeth

It had been a year since the horses had their teeth floated, so I scheduled them to get done. 

 Corny has some issues with the bit and does acrobatics with his tongue when wearing a bridle. I’ve noticed that sticks his tongue out the right side of his mouth. Before I try to pick up reins, he needs to learn to accept the bit and hold it steady in his mouth. I want to rule out, or address, any physical issues that could be causing this behavior.
Corny’s tongue. Notice that I have the lines on the halter, not the bit.

I got them scheduled for dental work as soon as I could. Both horses were reported to have needed lots of work done. 

Amy Scripps floated both horses

It worked!  In two workouts since their dentistry,Corny has gotten much quieter with his tongue.

Chiropractic 

In his first month of work, Blue had a hard time holding a canter lead, especially with his hind legs. Corny always started off extremely stiff. Both horses acted as inverse Zoolanders and had a hard time turning right.

Derek Zoolander can’t turn left

Fortunately, I can get Wally Palmer, DVM, to come to my barn. Some of you local folks may know him as the guy who took over Mike Gleason’s chiropractic practice. Anyway, Wally is great. He gave me a good assessment on both horses, adjusted them, and sedated them for Amy to do dental work.

In the next two workouts Blue has been holding his canter lead better, and Corny is more capable of bending.
The brothers are up to date on vaccinations and shoeing, so we don’t have to worry about that right now, though there are definitely some improvements that can be made in their shoeing.

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The Double Longe and Interpretive  Dance

Blue and Corny are the thoroughbreds I hope to take to Kentucky in October for the thoroughbred makeover competition.  Niether of these full brothers longed very well, so my last entry was about how I taught them direction and speed cues while they were loose.  Now it’s time to put the lines back on and try longing again.

Both horses might have had a little bit of Parelli training at their previous farm. My guess is that this is why they turn in to face me as soon as they feel the slightest pressure on the longe line.  Usually when a horse does this, I hurry to get behind them to send them forward again in the same direction.  I tried that first with these two, but that seemed to confuse them more and make them a bit frantic.  That certainly isn’t going to help me.  Being frantic is not a mindset that fosters learning, so I’ve got to figure out how to explain things more clearly to the brothers.

Enter the double longe!  Sometimes called long lining, it’s a way to have influence on both sides of the horse independently.  I am fairly it experienced with double longing, but it’s best to learn on horses that already longe pretty well.

My set up is:

  1. A surcingle 
  2. A folded saddle pad 
  3. A halter
  4. A slip (a snaffle bridle without a noseband or reins)
  5. Long lines

Corny ready to learn double longing

In an ideal world my surcingle would have turrets, but I get by without.
 Unlike longe lines, long lines are rolled, for the first few meters.  The first couple years that I did double longing, I preferred to use two different colored longe lines.

I have already gotten the horses used to ropes moving around all their legs and tail.  I also introduced their boots previous to this session.

Week 2, day 1

I worked both horses in the roundoen wearing all the equipment, but not hooked up to the long lines.  I noticed that Corny has a real problem with holding the bit in his mouth and keeping his tongue steady.  I’m not going to attach lines or reins to his bit until he learns to hold the bit calmly and quietly.  

After a quick review of speed and direction cues, I attached the long lines.  The line closer to me clipped directly onto the side of the halter, or inside bit ring.  The line on the opposite side ran over the horses back, through the top surcingle ring, and then to the bit.  Now I could  influence the horse to turn to the outside, while they could still see the inner line run from their face to my leading hand.

Here’s some footage of Corny’s first session on the long lines.

https://youtu.be/tw4zT-KwjlU

Week 2, days 2-3

Long lining went well in the round pen  yesterday, now it’s time to try in the arena.  I was able to keep the horses moving forward by using my outside rein to keep them from turning in or cutting in.  I could also use my outside rein to keep them from drifting out to some extent.

However, both brothers are pretty convinced that the”circle” I want them to do looks like this:

Corny and Blue’s idea of a longing circle

They are super consistent about making this god awful shape! It’s the same in both arenas, and flips over when we change direction.

Seriously, what is that?  Are they football fans? 


Or maybe it looks like 

Virginia

Oh, I get it!  They are trying to tell me they want to go to

To see Corny’s interpretation of the circle, check out his first day on the double longe:

This clip shows the 3/4 circle where he turns to face me when he hits the inside rein.  This happened pretty  much every time before we started the double longe.  It also shows me using my body language to shoo him away.  This is the dance of the giant demented bird. thehttps://youtu.be/4eMHL92f8Z8

Now he’s getting the hang  of ithttps://youtu.be/rInC4yrrKzE

https://youtu.be/L-s52N2h0Fg
In any case, that’s not a circle. However it’s great progress and I will take it!