DAY 51: Of the
twenty-seven (27) exercises in the Fundamentals level of the Downunder
Horsemanship Method, it seems to be a common consensus that Yielding the
Forequarters is “of the devil” and one of the hardest to get your horse to want
to do willingly. Because horses “dominate” one another with their head, neck
and shoulders, getting them to move it from the slightest pressure is
difficult. This is the exercise that brings out the frustration, the tears, the
swearing and the desire to quite horses all together. Yes, today was one of
those days! But let me back up…
Today we
did some groundwork outside of the arena. We did some Leading Beside, Sending,
Backing, Flexing Yielding the Hindquarters (1 & 2) and Lunging for Respect
1 & 2. We used the trees, the hills, the paths…anything we could find to
get Roscoe thinking. It went well. We even got more energy in his feet. Good
times and good results! Then we saddled up and worked on One Rein Stops, more
Flexing with the Bridle, Follow the Fence along with circles and serpentine
patterns to help with is muscle building. All these went well…a solid C to B in
grade. Because Day 50 had LOTS of trotting we split the saddle work up 60/40…with
the 40 being trotting. We loped a tiny bit. I could felling both willingness
and fatigue in Roscoe so we ended on a win, dismounted and took a break to
watch Laurie and Argent make significant strides in both skill and confidence
(Laurie shut down one of Argent’s little crow-hop fits and moved his feet with
energy. He was a gem after that.).
Now, on to
the Dread Exercise 6! On Day 50 it was introduce on Roscoe’s left side. Today
he seemed to get it at a high D low C grade…but he tried with out fuss. It was
like watching someone move in new shoes. It was cute and entertaining to be
sure. He was rewarded for the slightest try and slowing pushed to a new level
of understanding. Then me moved to the right side. Wow! He TOTALLY checked out,
freaked out and lost his brain! He firmly believed that this exercises would
eat his face off! We kept at it and had a couple of “almost there” moments…and
then he got aggressive with his head. Well, that was a mistake. There was LOTS
of moving of the feet and changing directions with a HIGH level of energy. Yes,
he bumped into the handy stick a time or two as well. In short he saw the error
of his choices and calmed down. As long as he tried to figure out what he was
being asked in a respectful way the pressure stayed low and every effort was
rewarded. We actually got four solid attempts (in a row) in a calm/respectful
manner. We ended there, got brushed off and he was treated to some apple slices
and baby carrots (his two current favorites). Whew! Hard work but we had a
break through. We’ll do just that exercise tomorrow and if we get two solid
tries each side we’ll call it a win. Baby steps.
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