Training with the Lightening: Another Four In A Row!

DAY 41-44: We did it again! Four in a row!

Day 41 found us at the local arena again. It was a chilly afternoon! We groomed, tacked up and began our warm up exercises followed by our ground work. Our friends Angela and Sean joined us and helped work with Brody and Argent on the ground. We worked on Sending, Circle Driving and Leading Beside. Things went nicely. Working with the humans took more energy than with the horses because we had to work on position, intent and timing with body language. Brody was patient and willing even when the cues were a tad off. We then saddled up. I put Brody through some basics to make sure he was focused. We did some gait transitions, some direction changes/pseudo-roll backs and some Follow the Fence/One Rein Stops. Once we got some wins with these exercises I put Angela up in the saddle. She and Brody cruised a bit and cot comfortable with one another. Once again, Brody reflected the energy of his human and ambled along in a mellow fashion.. Couldn’t be happier with that attitude of his! Angela and I switched places and we did some conditioning work before Angel did some cool down exercises on the ground with Brody. A much appreciated brushing and some cookies wrapped up the session.

Day 42 was a bright and sunny day with temperatures in the high 40’s/low 50’s. We started off in the smaller arena which has some trail class obstacles in it. Lots of our usual ground work with the addition of going over and through some obstacles. The horses took this in stride. It is a blast watching them investigate, get curious and then get confident. Our friend Angela came back for round 2 today. The Fairground crew was moving some large equipment around and were kind enough to let us know that it might spook the horses. Of course we took that opportunity to desensitize the horses and expose them to new sights and sounds. Good times! I decided that Brody seems fairly comfortable with the trail obstacles and knowing that tomorrow at the Nor-Cal Downunder Brumbies practice we would, in fact, be doing work with obstacles, it might be best to ride him through some…we did just that. He did just fine over the bridge, through the gate and everything else the space had to offer. We then went to the large arena and did some conditioning work. As a wrap up Angela and Laurie did some exercises that had them working on seat/leg cues, timing, feel and gait changes. Things went well. Keeping a keen eye on Brody I could tell when his normally patient mind set started to go south. So we quit him before he quit us and I got on to put him through some more mentally stimulating stuff. We wrapped by doing some ground work at the walk and Leading Beside with the addition of backing and hindquarter yields just to keep it fun.

Day 43 found us in Lockford, California! Yes, it was time for the monthly Brumbies practice! We had eighteen attendees at the February Nor-Cal Downunder Brumbies practice (and horses of every experience level too). The weather was wonderful, being clear and crisp in the morning and by lunch the temperatures hit the high 50’s/low 60’s. The facility is surrounded by a vineyard and green pastures. It was a great way to start off our 2013 practice season. After a little cow wrangling we started the session with some warm up exercises and then got to work. There was work in the round-pen for those that wished it and we ran through about six or seven different exercises. We then focused on Sending Leading Beside and Circle Driving. Once everyone felt like they had the concepts down we did some troubleshooting. Horses and humans got support, coaching andshowed great improvement and growth during the day.

We then broke for lunch, made introductions, discussed upcoming events and gave the facility owner our Thank You gifts. The atmosphere was really positive. We discussed our challenges and our goals which really motivated everyone. We even shared creative ways to desensitize our horses on the cheap!

The group then tacked up. Everyone was pumped to play on the obstacle course!
After folks worked their horses in the arena, making sure that the thinking side of the brain was fully engaged they moved at their own pace to the large open pasture behind the arena. Some of the notable obstacles were the Jungle Gym, the Cowboy Waterfall, the White Foam Circle, the Serpentine Poles, The Zig Zag, the Logs, the Diagonal Cones and some very unique farm equipment. Folks did ground work and work under saddle for the rest of the session and every horse showed great improvement. It was amazing to se how quickly a horse went from scared to curious to courageous using the methods of Advance and Retreat and Sending. By the end of the session folks were riding all over the place with big smiles and glad hearts!

That is what the group is about: support, encouragement, coaching and improvement. Seeing horsemen and horsewomen get fired up and excited is always a blessing. Thank you everyone who came out to help make the day such a great one!

Pictures of this fun day can be seen at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.425093634235111.98782.123626137715197&type=3

            Day 44 was a short one. It was pretty chilly bordering on cold by the time we got to the arena. We had some goals for Brody and Argent and promised ourselves that if we got three wins at each goal we would quit. Ground work and work under saddle occurred. Brody decided to forget and over react to some of the Backing exercises on the ground and we had a discussion followed by lots of validation when he got them right or at least gave me an honest try. Be as gentle as possible, as firm as necessary and always reward the slightest try is a motto we believe in. Work under saddle went well and Brody seemed to have more steam in his engine, even after the rather long day he had at practice. He let me know he was getting tired through his body and we called it a day doing some ground work to cool down followed by lots of rubs, cookies and TLC.

Our vocabulary is getting better and better, even when we have those discussions. We get back to the wins faster with each session. Looking forward to warmer weather and longer days!