Dan Monday

Devon

• Four months opportunity to ride a horse with a very different trot and canter and one who will maintain coming up through his topline for a soft touch.
• Likely naturally RBI but LBI confident about the hunter career he has learned.
• Very sweet horse. Less extraverted than Try and more than Keystone. Has a tendency to stop much more than Try and less than Keystone.
• His canter is slow and relaxed sort of like a lope than a canter. However, as once he decides he has had enough he will break gait if I don’t catch it in time. But in so cueing him, he will get revved and emotional and get going. I am fine with the bigger canter as it fits my RBE needs but not the emotion and he does not need the bigger canter for his hunter career. So I am trying to figure out how to remain neutral when all is well with enough energy/leg contact to maintain and to stay relaxed when I need to ask for more energy/to maintain so as not to ask rudely with too much energy nor just be nagging him with too little a phase.
• Moments of true passenger at trot and canter a dream.
• Riding in connection with the bit—I am keeping the connection and thinking of being ultra-light and breathing cool air from my elbows to the bit. He rounds up immediately and maintains.
• I only have permission to take this soft feel and only in lesson with Kathy or if BA is in the ring as BA has worked long and hard to correct issue of his being behind the bit.
• He doesn’t learn as well as Try. DUH
• His ground manners are ok but nothing like Try.
• He does like to play tricks which is fun as it gives me a challenge and I can think and plan how to make changes. Draw from intention. Bit and treat. Mounting block fun. Head down for haltering.
• From video etc, I have been able to see that I am most in sync with Devon in no-stirrups posting trot. Also BA has noticed I ride him with too much energy. Since Kathy, Try and I have been working on my finding and releasing tension I am seeing if I can do the same with Devon. Not over riding and pushing with each stride but passenger i.e. as learned from Dan. Then the priority for me is studying what is happening with tension in my body when I ask/cue. Walk and trot are already improved. Gorgeous trot in lesson with Kathy.
• Also for both Devon and Try—new habit of visualizing with relaxation before asking/cueing.

Notes:

Using Parelli philosophy and beyond having to start 7 on line games

To truly earn the right to lead you must be a good follower—so I can follow and be in sync with his movement as a good passenger. The warmup is a good time to establish this.

Important to not get frustrated as he sometimes wins the game: i.e. breaking gait at the canter.Important also to expect he will learn differently than Try—he has had a lifetime of specialized learning unlike Try’s concentration in general learning. Also as a hunter he has not been encouraged to express his thoughts and feelings the way Try has.

Analyzing this photo Dan saw the same areas of tension at Kathy. Shoulders, hip, lower back. We talked about muscle engagement not tightness/tension. Later in the session we played with isolations to release my need to control/keep tension I didn’t know I had: i.e. ankle rotation, in the saddle doing ballet type leg lifts and circles, weight forward and back in the saddle, and froggy legs lying on my front on Try’s back. THIS MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN MY FLUIDITY AND FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN THE TROT AND CANTER WITH DEVON THE NEXT DAY!!

We also discussed forward position for hunter and Kathy using forward position in posting trot to prevent being behind the motion vs being on the balance point. That jumping requires the rider to match the horse’s acceleration and deceleration in the jump. Hills: Dan suggests it is more helpful to the rider to remain perpendicular to the sky rather than match the angle of the hill.

Try

• August confusion – not knowing what is wrong with Try and having hocks injected and finding peace with the idea that it’s not the end of the world and then gradually seeing that a new plan doesn’t mean a huge change in what we are doing.
• To be healthy, Try still needs exercise for fitness i.e. Moving out in walk/trot/canter, suppleness of shoulders and HQ  and some to be determined amount of dressage learning and coming up through the topline and engaging her HQ. To be emotionally healthy she needs mental challenge and purpose and social connection.
• Current plan has been one lesson with Kathy, one session with me for big trotting and canter, and one fun walk/trot session with Dawn as rider. My two rides including just a big of ground games for fun and for Try to show off how cool she is.

Transition: Osteoarthritis and eventual aging

• Does Try get a new deal because she is 22 and been my levels horse for 9 years? Earned the right to a new sorta semi-retired life?
• Task: something to do for amusement and variety. Can/should it be done without much pressure? Mounting block #2 wait or demand: Wait to allow her to choose the good deal—not a slave—she knows I understand her feelings but we will do what I want. Also I observed Dan play with Try using facial expression and body language only as phases—that was not a make/cram her thru it/high pressure method to achieve the task. Continuum playing on her terms and my terms with many many ways to play—judgement call as to how to play in the moment.
• Riding: I want to learn to accomplish task with cues perceived to be polite by Try.
• Lisa/Tiara falling leaf, S bends: I can do this on the ground and we are happy. I don’t want to do it riding if I feel I am just hauling her around. I am hoping the new book and Kathy will help me with visualization before asking and finding lighter and lighter cueing while riding.
• Try is always connected but not always willing. LOL

Fun

1. Sticking together acting exercises
2. Can you (puzzles) The Gate
3. Creative dwell time
4. Lots more passenger of various types
5. Praise and recognition may not motivate Try BUT …
6. Hanging out with humans and horses: social needs.
7. ACTHA obstacles
8. Try’s idea of fun different from mine: including playing LBI tricks on me?

Note:

• Expect continued pursuit of quality of excellence—physically smaller perhaps but not mentally.
• Try can be mentally stimulated without having to be learning something. i.e. new scenery
• Try appreciates precision.
• Insulting her to say she is old and over the hill.

 Cool Stuff

• New career as a landscaping assistant. LOL
• Testing distance and picking me up from the middle of the paddock BB/BL—no stick or string—including moving FQ/HQ to get into place and side stepping to me. Also backing from my seat only. This according to Dan is some greater than level 4 stuff. However, this is when Try is in the mood! LOL
• Try is going out of her way to follow cues from intention only. i.e. vertically straddling the pole
• Riding with the stallion Richmond in the ring. WOW—Try had so much energy—did not want to stop cantering! I assume she will get used to him—she is very relaxed about being with Devon now.
• Bareback confidence: I now know I can ride in bareback pad for a full canter fitness session i.e. 3 laps—a mile and can handle using her HQ/pounding on her front end, stumbling/whatever.Me

ME

• I matter too.
• I want to pace myself so I can have fun as being tired its work not fun—struggling to keep it together mentally.
• I do not lack ambition—unlike Try.
• Fall goal: improve my riding: We worked on isolations to free up my holding on (controlling) tension.
• Take advantage of opportunity of MH being at Rollover in some way.
• Winter: ? Try only and house renovations/Spring a 2^nd horse as project horse or even a project horse for on line and a different project horse for riding.
• 3 hour sessions: continue if not working toward level 4 auditions?
• Yes, owe it to Try
• Continue learning and expanding my working knowledge of horse psychology

The New Try

• When she gets emotional, I am using allow rather than cause so she can get rid of that energy herself. The last three rides she has been really extraverted—feeling good? Bad? Wanting to move? Influenced by stallion?
• We spent much of the 3 hours observing the new Try:

Not fear
Not dominance
Not angry, nor directed toward me
Excited happy exuberant at times
Motivated to be with yearling or go to barn/be social with horses.

• SO THE GOAL IS TO USE THIS ENERGY POSITIVELY AND GIVE HER A CHANCE TO LET GO OF IT AND RELAX.
• Express it, Use it, Recess to relax and release the energy
• Fabulous opportunity for me to expand my horsemanship

Strategies

Allow Try to go with the energy as long as I feel safe—then perfectly ok to shut it down and not feel guilty.

• Small circles—set the area and then use the energy for something I want to do—be creative
• Dressage movements: bending/HQ/FQ moving out of the circle, change of direction
• Shaping: HQ and FQ isolations big steps in front, swing the shoulders, falling leaf and S bend
• Anything else but contained space helps—Try would have taken that energy and galloped across the big field to the gate otherwise.
• Get off and play on the ground—could be circling or whatever as long as she can move and use the energy. i.e. use to improve quality of gait etc
• Coming in down the drive extreme energy: played with HQ/FQ yields always MOVING INTO HER—stepping back is retreating/draw.

Other from lesson

TRY READS MY MIND SO WELL THAT I NEED TO WATCH MY THOUGHTS TO BE SURE THEY ARE FRIENDLY LOVING AND PLAYING WITH HER AND NOT AT HER OR TO LET HER KNOW AS NEEDED THAT I AM SERIOUS ABOUT WHAT I AM ASKING AND ABOUT TO UP THE PHASES. I really saw this in the catching games.