So I had been gone for five days, cheering on two friends at their reining show, briefly seeing J on the first and fifth day, but no quality time spent. I went out to the barn on Monday, not sure what I would find, half expecting a fire-breathing horse for not have been worked (except once by my trainer) for so long. But it was quite the opposite, J seemed truly content that I was back and was glued to my side, even when I gave him the chance to run like a maniac in the indoor. Unfortunately the past week has been close to a monsoon, so the horses have been inside and a bit full of it, but J was calmer than ever.
This sounds odd, but I swear that he is different than when I left. He seems more assured, more confident and more focused. I know this horse, I know him as I would know my own child. I can just look into his eyes and know when he is not feeling well, when he is tired, when he is excited, etc. And he is just different. More mature or something. And he seems very happy to be back to work and have me around.
He has put in two very solid days of work now, despite showing obvious signs of some loss of stamina, just from the short break. But I just feel like he is really trying his heart out for me and I cherish the relationship that I have with him. I hope to never take that for granted!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The next Anky? (part 2)
So it has been a little while since I have written anything. I had a lesson with Shelley about a week ago and while she was happy with J's response times, she noted that he was too short in the neck. So we really worked on stretching his neck while keeping the response time up. He's forever looking for a crack in the "door" from which to escape having to carry himself correctly, whether it be by throwing a shoulder out a little bit, getting a bit crooked in his hind end, bending his neck insignificantly, getting a hair too deep in the reins or shortening his neck. It is a constant game of "what is J trying to do now and correct it quickly to move onto the next correction". My lesson was a bit disappointing and upsetting because it made me realize that it will never be good enough and it will never be correct. J is not built to do dressage and I'm not the quickest rider with the best skills, so that combination makes it very difficult to get everything correct. Despite my horse having a huge heart and trying as hard as he can for me, it's never going to be enough. But we will keep plowing through and doing the best we can, even if it is not enough.
So... enough of me feeling sorry for myself... a majority of the past week and weekend I attended my first NHRA reining show at Gordyville! It was a whole different experience than dressage and very fascinating to watch the warm-up pen and the show pen. My barn owner (who has now become my good friend) Tawney and another boarder at the barn (who I have become friends with) Elizabeth were both showing. Tawney is making a come back to the reining scene after having some time off and Elizabeth was showing her first NHRA show with her new-ish horse, Jessie. Apparently the top names in reining were present because they were holding a derby on Saturday that had lots of prize money to be won, so the place was packed and had around 400 horses there! Tawney did awesome and won both her classes on Thursday! She won money, jackets, a trophy and a plaque. It was really great! Elizabeth did great too- she rode three times and with each ride her scores got better and better. She even won some money in one of her classes! But most important is that we all had a great time filled with lots and lots of laughing!
So onto the "Anky" part... I had previously taken a reining lesson from Tawney and got to (attempt) the movements like spins, sliding stops, lead changes, roll backs, etc. It was an absolute blast! And I love to show... so Tawney and I had a conversation on the way home and thought that it might be fun for me to do some reining along with my dressage. So we have a plan in the works that may allow me to learn and show reining, but we'll see if it works out. I would really love to have a sport where I can be competitive, but not have the pressure of scores counting for year-end awards and just enjoying it for the friends, adrenaline rush and showing. So we shall see!
And in the meantime, I'm working hard with J, just trying to do the best we can with what we are.
So... enough of me feeling sorry for myself... a majority of the past week and weekend I attended my first NHRA reining show at Gordyville! It was a whole different experience than dressage and very fascinating to watch the warm-up pen and the show pen. My barn owner (who has now become my good friend) Tawney and another boarder at the barn (who I have become friends with) Elizabeth were both showing. Tawney is making a come back to the reining scene after having some time off and Elizabeth was showing her first NHRA show with her new-ish horse, Jessie. Apparently the top names in reining were present because they were holding a derby on Saturday that had lots of prize money to be won, so the place was packed and had around 400 horses there! Tawney did awesome and won both her classes on Thursday! She won money, jackets, a trophy and a plaque. It was really great! Elizabeth did great too- she rode three times and with each ride her scores got better and better. She even won some money in one of her classes! But most important is that we all had a great time filled with lots and lots of laughing!
So onto the "Anky" part... I had previously taken a reining lesson from Tawney and got to (attempt) the movements like spins, sliding stops, lead changes, roll backs, etc. It was an absolute blast! And I love to show... so Tawney and I had a conversation on the way home and thought that it might be fun for me to do some reining along with my dressage. So we have a plan in the works that may allow me to learn and show reining, but we'll see if it works out. I would really love to have a sport where I can be competitive, but not have the pressure of scores counting for year-end awards and just enjoying it for the friends, adrenaline rush and showing. So we shall see!
And in the meantime, I'm working hard with J, just trying to do the best we can with what we are.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Giving up control... and learning to trust!
Dressage is such an interesting juxtaposition of giving and taking, control but releasing. Sometimes in my riding that fine line can get blurred to the point of there is none. The lengthenings are a perfect example of this. J did not have good lengthenings because he did not push off his hind end well, he was crooked, did not properly take a half halt and would flop straight onto his forehand while running himself into the ground, face first. Picture a bulldozer, bucket down into the ground, running full speed on the verge of tipping A$$ over front... and you've got my lengthening.
So the past couple of weeks we have been working on his responsivity to the forward aid, asking him to move off quickly and with power. We have also been working on his honesty of taking a half halt and truly lightening his front end while asking his hind end to power through it. And lastly we threw in the straightness and keeping his neck long and supple. So with all of this in mind, I have been schooling my lengthenings in preparation for the upcoming show season. And I can honestly say that we are on the right path... as long as I remember to TRUST him! This would be our typical attempt at a transition from a lengthened trot or canter to a working trot or canter; half halt with the seat and hhhhhoooooooolllllllllddddddd the rein (yes, for really THAT long) until the transition was felt, then give the rein. Then I would wonder, why the hell was he falling on the forehand? Why the hell was he breaking the gait? Slowly but surely, the lightbulb started to glow and eventually clicked on. When I hold the rein, waiting for a response, it gives J the perfect opportunity to lean on my rein, fall onto the forehand and leave his hind legs trailing a mile behind us, which won't allow him to come back to a working gait, so he's either running like an idiot on the forehand or breaks into the slower gait.
So my big lesson: QUICK HALF HALTS, GET OUT OF THE REIN AND TRUST THAT HE WILL RESPOND. And if he does not respond, just repeat until he does. No more ssssllllllooooowwwww aids that allow him to slow his response time or honesty of carrying himself. He needs to be held more accountable to respond and I need to give him the space to do it. So we worked on a few lengthenings last night with that thought in mind and he responded beautifully. It was like he was saying "FINALLY you get it you stupid girl! Let me do my job! Stop confusing me!" It was very hard for me to not push them and do a million of them because it felt so good, but I limited it and rewarded him with a break after he did really well and then went on to work on something else. I really think that until this aid is ingrained into my brain, body, muscle memory, whatever... I will have to think about this each and every time I swing my leg over a horse's back.
So the past couple of weeks we have been working on his responsivity to the forward aid, asking him to move off quickly and with power. We have also been working on his honesty of taking a half halt and truly lightening his front end while asking his hind end to power through it. And lastly we threw in the straightness and keeping his neck long and supple. So with all of this in mind, I have been schooling my lengthenings in preparation for the upcoming show season. And I can honestly say that we are on the right path... as long as I remember to TRUST him! This would be our typical attempt at a transition from a lengthened trot or canter to a working trot or canter; half halt with the seat and hhhhhoooooooolllllllllddddddd the rein (yes, for really THAT long) until the transition was felt, then give the rein. Then I would wonder, why the hell was he falling on the forehand? Why the hell was he breaking the gait? Slowly but surely, the lightbulb started to glow and eventually clicked on. When I hold the rein, waiting for a response, it gives J the perfect opportunity to lean on my rein, fall onto the forehand and leave his hind legs trailing a mile behind us, which won't allow him to come back to a working gait, so he's either running like an idiot on the forehand or breaks into the slower gait.
So my big lesson: QUICK HALF HALTS, GET OUT OF THE REIN AND TRUST THAT HE WILL RESPOND. And if he does not respond, just repeat until he does. No more ssssllllllooooowwwww aids that allow him to slow his response time or honesty of carrying himself. He needs to be held more accountable to respond and I need to give him the space to do it. So we worked on a few lengthenings last night with that thought in mind and he responded beautifully. It was like he was saying "FINALLY you get it you stupid girl! Let me do my job! Stop confusing me!" It was very hard for me to not push them and do a million of them because it felt so good, but I limited it and rewarded him with a break after he did really well and then went on to work on something else. I really think that until this aid is ingrained into my brain, body, muscle memory, whatever... I will have to think about this each and every time I swing my leg over a horse's back.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Great weekend of great riding!
Despite the lingering freezing temps and the few and far between days of sun and above 40 temps, I am trying to make the best of it and not be obsessed with when the spring weather will finally decide to make a more than one day appearance.
It rained like mad on Friday, including some great lightning and thunder, which made for a sloppy mess all around the barn on Saturday. And while it didn't really rain on Saturday, the heavy clouds were present and the chill was in the air, making it pretty miserable. But I had a great lesson in spite of it! Shelley felt that it was time to take our last lesson a bit further- we had been asking him to speed up the hind end when going forward, but now we wanted him to speed up the hind end while doing lateral work, AND keep a straight and long neck. J was still not happy with the initial work, so I thought it would be interesting to see what he thought of the added pieces. And he didn't disappoint when he decided that he had to get all four feet off the ground, in a very quick manner, while Shelley was on him. Thankfully he is inherently lazy, so while he was resistant nonetheless, it wasn't out of control crazy. But he eventually got with the program, much to my relief.
When I got on J, Shelley wanted me to confirm that the quick forward response was there, but this time more from small movements of my feet than tappings from my whip and confirm that the half halts were present. Then she had me work on the quarterline (which is mostly what we do anyway) and ask him for a quick half halt and then a quick leg yield, only two or three steps of really "scooting over" quickly (that was the official term- LOL!) and then back straight again. All the while trying to keep a very straight neck and long neck. J was very convinced that it was not possible to do all of this at once and would either respond too slowly when his neck was correct or overbend and shorten his neck when his response to move over was quick. But Shelley instructed me to keep at it, not changing the program and not changing the way I request what I want for he will eventually figure it out. And little by little, he did start figuring it out! We went to the left first and we got it down pretty nicely as his shoulder was really easy to keep straight onto the outside rein, but when we changed rein, everything changed. J inherently likes to keep his left shoulder to the right and not fill up my left rein. So Shelley had me think of a haunches in and basically keep his shoulder on the wall and his head pointing towards the wall while keeping his haunches to the inside by maintaining my seat. Once he was more reliable about keeping his shoulder on the wall, we started to straighten him out, a little at a time, until he was going straight but correctly. Then we did a few leg yields, but only from that correct positioning. He got very tired by then, so we did just a few and then let him cool out. It was a very good lesson and I feel like I am understanding the "bigger picture" in a much better way. Those pathways are really opening up and I can move back and forth between the exercises, depending on what I need to accomplish and what J is giving me to work with. I feel more and more confident in my ability to feel what is going on and have the tools to fix it, which is a big part of the battle!
I went to the barn on Sunday with the entire afternoon to putz around, which is a great feeling. And the sun was out, which definitely helped the day feel a little better then the actual 32 degrees that it was. The horses were able to get turned out after being inside for a couple of days, so that was really nice as well. J was very content and mellow when I brought him back into the barn, I could just feel that his mind was very relaxed after being able to get outside. I gave J a good grooming (he is still shedding out enough hair to cover a hairless cat with each grooming!) and tacked him up. He felt a little sore from yesterday- his back was a bit stiffer and he wasn't bending his hocks as well. I took my time to warm him up and then got to work. He got very fluid, soft and swinging after that. I worked on all of the work we did the past two lessons- asking him to quicken his hind feet to go forward and quicken his hind feet to move laterally, changing it up regularly so he never knew what I was going to ask and couldn't anticipate anything. He had a couple of mini-tantrums but nothing too serious and by the end he was doing some real quality work. We finished up with some decent working canter- canter lengthen- working canter transitions, which is tough for the both of us. I have figured out that I am holding him up too much in the transition back to the working canter and I'm holding the half halt too long. I have to ask for the transition and release with the confidence in him that he will respond. And if he does not respond, I have to address that issue. But if I hold the half halt too long and wait for a response too long, he will ultimately hang on my rein and either get on the forehand or break to the trot. So that was my big light bulb moment of the day yesterday!
There is a wonderful barn worker at White Spring by the name of Megan. She is around 17 years old and the must trustworthy, hardworking and appreciative teenager I know. A few weeks ago I had asked her if she rode horses and she said that she wanted to but it never worked out for her to learn. So I offered to teach her on J and she quickly accepted. So yesterday was her second ride and I have her on the lunge so she could focus on her body position while learning to post the trot and to canter. J was a little lazy, as I had worked him pretty hard, but Megan did a great job and was able to get the posting pretty quickly! She also cantered him quite a bit and her seat improved with each time she tried. She is such a great girl and I was happy that she had such a great time on J!
It rained like mad on Friday, including some great lightning and thunder, which made for a sloppy mess all around the barn on Saturday. And while it didn't really rain on Saturday, the heavy clouds were present and the chill was in the air, making it pretty miserable. But I had a great lesson in spite of it! Shelley felt that it was time to take our last lesson a bit further- we had been asking him to speed up the hind end when going forward, but now we wanted him to speed up the hind end while doing lateral work, AND keep a straight and long neck. J was still not happy with the initial work, so I thought it would be interesting to see what he thought of the added pieces. And he didn't disappoint when he decided that he had to get all four feet off the ground, in a very quick manner, while Shelley was on him. Thankfully he is inherently lazy, so while he was resistant nonetheless, it wasn't out of control crazy. But he eventually got with the program, much to my relief.
When I got on J, Shelley wanted me to confirm that the quick forward response was there, but this time more from small movements of my feet than tappings from my whip and confirm that the half halts were present. Then she had me work on the quarterline (which is mostly what we do anyway) and ask him for a quick half halt and then a quick leg yield, only two or three steps of really "scooting over" quickly (that was the official term- LOL!) and then back straight again. All the while trying to keep a very straight neck and long neck. J was very convinced that it was not possible to do all of this at once and would either respond too slowly when his neck was correct or overbend and shorten his neck when his response to move over was quick. But Shelley instructed me to keep at it, not changing the program and not changing the way I request what I want for he will eventually figure it out. And little by little, he did start figuring it out! We went to the left first and we got it down pretty nicely as his shoulder was really easy to keep straight onto the outside rein, but when we changed rein, everything changed. J inherently likes to keep his left shoulder to the right and not fill up my left rein. So Shelley had me think of a haunches in and basically keep his shoulder on the wall and his head pointing towards the wall while keeping his haunches to the inside by maintaining my seat. Once he was more reliable about keeping his shoulder on the wall, we started to straighten him out, a little at a time, until he was going straight but correctly. Then we did a few leg yields, but only from that correct positioning. He got very tired by then, so we did just a few and then let him cool out. It was a very good lesson and I feel like I am understanding the "bigger picture" in a much better way. Those pathways are really opening up and I can move back and forth between the exercises, depending on what I need to accomplish and what J is giving me to work with. I feel more and more confident in my ability to feel what is going on and have the tools to fix it, which is a big part of the battle!
I went to the barn on Sunday with the entire afternoon to putz around, which is a great feeling. And the sun was out, which definitely helped the day feel a little better then the actual 32 degrees that it was. The horses were able to get turned out after being inside for a couple of days, so that was really nice as well. J was very content and mellow when I brought him back into the barn, I could just feel that his mind was very relaxed after being able to get outside. I gave J a good grooming (he is still shedding out enough hair to cover a hairless cat with each grooming!) and tacked him up. He felt a little sore from yesterday- his back was a bit stiffer and he wasn't bending his hocks as well. I took my time to warm him up and then got to work. He got very fluid, soft and swinging after that. I worked on all of the work we did the past two lessons- asking him to quicken his hind feet to go forward and quicken his hind feet to move laterally, changing it up regularly so he never knew what I was going to ask and couldn't anticipate anything. He had a couple of mini-tantrums but nothing too serious and by the end he was doing some real quality work. We finished up with some decent working canter- canter lengthen- working canter transitions, which is tough for the both of us. I have figured out that I am holding him up too much in the transition back to the working canter and I'm holding the half halt too long. I have to ask for the transition and release with the confidence in him that he will respond. And if he does not respond, I have to address that issue. But if I hold the half halt too long and wait for a response too long, he will ultimately hang on my rein and either get on the forehand or break to the trot. So that was my big light bulb moment of the day yesterday!
There is a wonderful barn worker at White Spring by the name of Megan. She is around 17 years old and the must trustworthy, hardworking and appreciative teenager I know. A few weeks ago I had asked her if she rode horses and she said that she wanted to but it never worked out for her to learn. So I offered to teach her on J and she quickly accepted. So yesterday was her second ride and I have her on the lunge so she could focus on her body position while learning to post the trot and to canter. J was a little lazy, as I had worked him pretty hard, but Megan did a great job and was able to get the posting pretty quickly! She also cantered him quite a bit and her seat improved with each time she tried. She is such a great girl and I was happy that she had such a great time on J!
Friday, March 4, 2011
It wasn't pretty, but we got there!
So last night was an interesting ride. But first I will start off with a little background:
J is a paint/quarter horse, J has certain conformational issues when it comes to dressage work, J is lazy. That about sums it up. But I love the dork even so! So J can be lovely supple bordering onto TOO supple... J can get dull to the aids.... J does not like to engage his hind end as much as he should be. Dressage is like building blocks and it always feels like once I master one building block and move onto the next, that previous block (or any and all the blocks before it) would come crashing down and need to be readdressed. I suppose that is my amateurish issue, but I am learning. I want everything to be connected in a smooth and regularly uphill way... but it certainly doesn't work like that. So I am realizing more and more to keep those previous building blocks in place and then work on the new task if only the previous blocks are left in-check. They are all connected, but just not in the way that my OCD brain wants them to be.
So for weeks we had been working on J's commitment to the outside rein and bending him through his back. In this process we asked for him to be deeper, even over-flexed at times, all-the-while keeping his tempo up. I could certainly feel the improvements that were coming from this block, but after awhile I knew that it was time to add more. So that's where last weeks lesson comes in. Shelley identified that J needs to take a half halt more honestly (and seriously) and quicken his hind end much more before, during and after those half halts. J does half halt, but he slows his hind end in the process and his hind legs end up trailing miles away from his front end. So we tossed away all the exercises with suppleness and bending and moved onto the next step. Shelley wanted me to keep his front end lifted, through a series of half halts through my seat and reins and then gentle "annoying" tickles with the whip. Then with that posture, go to a big springy trot (well, springy for the little yellow horse) back to a half step idea, all the while keeping the hind end quick through the whip. Now I fully admit, I am not always the most suave with the whip and when I go to it, it is usually for some sort of "I used my leg a million times so do it NOW" sort of one-time-deal crack, so J has trained me that when I resort to the whip, he is in big trouble. So the process of using the whip to activate his hind end was two-fold, to teach me to be more subtle and deliberate with the whip and to teach him to respond correctly. Rides like this is an interesting paradox... I see the point of the exercise, I can see where this is going and how beneficial it will be, but in the meantime we look like CRAP to any bystander that happens to wander into our craziness. This is very difficult for me... I like to ride well, I like to at least look like I know what I'm doing and I fall into that trap of feeling like people are judging me. I am trying to get past that and just train the damned horse, knowing full and well that I'm doing the right thing. I am getting better, but I still have my moments.
So onto last night. I groom and do our usual routine that J seems to appreciate- stretch his front legs and adjust his shoulders, tack up, do "mint" stretches in the arena, which usually elicit a few "pops" in his neck, tighten his girth and hop on with rein in one hand and walk around the arena, two laps each direction. Then I will pick up both my reins (although still very loopy) and do some figures just off my seat or I do some walk/trot transitions, just depending on if he feels pokey or if he feels that he is not steering off my seat right away. Then we got to work... pick up the rein and keep them rather short, but NOT short enough to get in his way. Keep my leg on, but not pressing. Sit to the inside with whip in the right hand (if whip is in the left hand, he will inevitably throw his haunches to the right and keep going out the right side). I ask him to back from the halt, he can either just shift his weight back or I will actually ask him to take a few steps back and then I immediately send him forward with annoying tickling taps from the whip- keeping my reins out of his way and my seat ready to absorb the forward movement so he is not punished for going forward. Now in the beginning of the ride, J was not too appreciative of the whip. We had lots of legs flying everywhere- cow kicking, bunny hops and bucking. Lots of grunting and squealing in displeasure. But I kept on- never increasing the whip and not changing my seat. When he would give me the correct answer of going forward with a big step off the behind, the whip would immediately stop and he'd get a verbal reward. Then I would ask him to half halt, by stilling my seat and light taking/givings in the reins quickly followed by taps from the whip to keep him from slowing his hind end. Then I would give the reins a few centimeters and he would walk off strong. Before falling on the forehand (about 3-4 steps) repeat the entire process. Now J was not happy about this whole thing... he wavered between kicking out, coming to a dead stop on his forehand, being behind the leg or taking off. It really taught me to sit back because the second that I would get ahead of him in even the slightest manner, he would start going through his bag of tricks. I kept my cool and was patient with him to understand what it was I wanted. It took a while and it wasn't pretty. But soon he started to feel entirely different. His body was quivering, waiting for the next aid as I kept changing things up- transitions between gaits, transitions within a gait, lengthenings for 2 steps one time, an entire long side another time, he never knew what was going to happen. He was carrying himself- no getting stuck in his hole and dragging his hind end out behind him. Sure, we made mistakes, but I did my best to keep my cool, not get in his way and reward him a lot through verbal praises and breaks. In that process I felt the best and most honest half halts we have done to date. I am not saying that they were perfect, but they were better than before in all three gaits.
It was very exciting, despite him looking like a giraffe at times. I can definitely see how this is the next step in the progression of training and after really committing to this exercise and getting him to reliable, it will make our work so much better and more honest. I just have to remember all the previous training blocks that came before this and then, when the time is right, incorporate them all. These blocks are not separated by definite lines and stacked one on top of the other, they are all connected through doors that flow back and forth. So I foresee that the next step will be to open the door between these previous two training blocks- keeping the hind end active, keeping him responsive to the aids but doing it in a more supple manner where he is using his back in a more correct way.
J is a paint/quarter horse, J has certain conformational issues when it comes to dressage work, J is lazy. That about sums it up. But I love the dork even so! So J can be lovely supple bordering onto TOO supple... J can get dull to the aids.... J does not like to engage his hind end as much as he should be. Dressage is like building blocks and it always feels like once I master one building block and move onto the next, that previous block (or any and all the blocks before it) would come crashing down and need to be readdressed. I suppose that is my amateurish issue, but I am learning. I want everything to be connected in a smooth and regularly uphill way... but it certainly doesn't work like that. So I am realizing more and more to keep those previous building blocks in place and then work on the new task if only the previous blocks are left in-check. They are all connected, but just not in the way that my OCD brain wants them to be.
So for weeks we had been working on J's commitment to the outside rein and bending him through his back. In this process we asked for him to be deeper, even over-flexed at times, all-the-while keeping his tempo up. I could certainly feel the improvements that were coming from this block, but after awhile I knew that it was time to add more. So that's where last weeks lesson comes in. Shelley identified that J needs to take a half halt more honestly (and seriously) and quicken his hind end much more before, during and after those half halts. J does half halt, but he slows his hind end in the process and his hind legs end up trailing miles away from his front end. So we tossed away all the exercises with suppleness and bending and moved onto the next step. Shelley wanted me to keep his front end lifted, through a series of half halts through my seat and reins and then gentle "annoying" tickles with the whip. Then with that posture, go to a big springy trot (well, springy for the little yellow horse) back to a half step idea, all the while keeping the hind end quick through the whip. Now I fully admit, I am not always the most suave with the whip and when I go to it, it is usually for some sort of "I used my leg a million times so do it NOW" sort of one-time-deal crack, so J has trained me that when I resort to the whip, he is in big trouble. So the process of using the whip to activate his hind end was two-fold, to teach me to be more subtle and deliberate with the whip and to teach him to respond correctly. Rides like this is an interesting paradox... I see the point of the exercise, I can see where this is going and how beneficial it will be, but in the meantime we look like CRAP to any bystander that happens to wander into our craziness. This is very difficult for me... I like to ride well, I like to at least look like I know what I'm doing and I fall into that trap of feeling like people are judging me. I am trying to get past that and just train the damned horse, knowing full and well that I'm doing the right thing. I am getting better, but I still have my moments.
So onto last night. I groom and do our usual routine that J seems to appreciate- stretch his front legs and adjust his shoulders, tack up, do "mint" stretches in the arena, which usually elicit a few "pops" in his neck, tighten his girth and hop on with rein in one hand and walk around the arena, two laps each direction. Then I will pick up both my reins (although still very loopy) and do some figures just off my seat or I do some walk/trot transitions, just depending on if he feels pokey or if he feels that he is not steering off my seat right away. Then we got to work... pick up the rein and keep them rather short, but NOT short enough to get in his way. Keep my leg on, but not pressing. Sit to the inside with whip in the right hand (if whip is in the left hand, he will inevitably throw his haunches to the right and keep going out the right side). I ask him to back from the halt, he can either just shift his weight back or I will actually ask him to take a few steps back and then I immediately send him forward with annoying tickling taps from the whip- keeping my reins out of his way and my seat ready to absorb the forward movement so he is not punished for going forward. Now in the beginning of the ride, J was not too appreciative of the whip. We had lots of legs flying everywhere- cow kicking, bunny hops and bucking. Lots of grunting and squealing in displeasure. But I kept on- never increasing the whip and not changing my seat. When he would give me the correct answer of going forward with a big step off the behind, the whip would immediately stop and he'd get a verbal reward. Then I would ask him to half halt, by stilling my seat and light taking/givings in the reins quickly followed by taps from the whip to keep him from slowing his hind end. Then I would give the reins a few centimeters and he would walk off strong. Before falling on the forehand (about 3-4 steps) repeat the entire process. Now J was not happy about this whole thing... he wavered between kicking out, coming to a dead stop on his forehand, being behind the leg or taking off. It really taught me to sit back because the second that I would get ahead of him in even the slightest manner, he would start going through his bag of tricks. I kept my cool and was patient with him to understand what it was I wanted. It took a while and it wasn't pretty. But soon he started to feel entirely different. His body was quivering, waiting for the next aid as I kept changing things up- transitions between gaits, transitions within a gait, lengthenings for 2 steps one time, an entire long side another time, he never knew what was going to happen. He was carrying himself- no getting stuck in his hole and dragging his hind end out behind him. Sure, we made mistakes, but I did my best to keep my cool, not get in his way and reward him a lot through verbal praises and breaks. In that process I felt the best and most honest half halts we have done to date. I am not saying that they were perfect, but they were better than before in all three gaits.
It was very exciting, despite him looking like a giraffe at times. I can definitely see how this is the next step in the progression of training and after really committing to this exercise and getting him to reliable, it will make our work so much better and more honest. I just have to remember all the previous training blocks that came before this and then, when the time is right, incorporate them all. These blocks are not separated by definite lines and stacked one on top of the other, they are all connected through doors that flow back and forth. So I foresee that the next step will be to open the door between these previous two training blocks- keeping the hind end active, keeping him responsive to the aids but doing it in a more supple manner where he is using his back in a more correct way.
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