CALM is the Name of the Game
Played in Cover-All with Kelsey and Java in there too.
Brief OL stuff, then tacked up and rode. Overall very calm.
With riding, played with bridleless (reins resting on neck) communication and then one carrot stick riding.
Playing with getting more precise in my communication while still staying in freestyle.
At one point, I asked for a turn on the haunches and he got emotional during the yield. At first I released when he did the yield, but then I realized that he was emotional, so I asked again and kept asking until he relaxed. After that, he was making a point to relax with each request and I was making a point to look for that too.
The rest of the session went well. We even played with some canter to trot transitions and worked on getting those from my seat. And also some trot two steps, walk from my seat, sidepass from my seat. Also, move your ribs over from my leg and HQ yields (right side only) from a walk with just my leg and stick and no reins.
For groundwork, the main thing I worked on was backing from the tail on his right hand side. He went through his typical phases of not responding/not trying until I finally progressed to really getting after him for trying to drag me around. Then he "got" it. After riding I tested him and he yielded perfectly.
So the main things I need to take away are:
Calm needs to be my #1 priority. This is something that I used to focus on a lot when he was younger and I think that I drifted away from it because he was so calm and unflappable all the time. Un-laxed must have started creeping in, and I didn't notice it until it got bigger and bigger. Then when I noticed it, it took me a while to find the solutions that he needed.
For calm to be #1, that means that if I am riding a pattern and he becomes "un-calm", the moment that I notice it, I need to keep up whatever he became "un-calm" at until he relaxes again. So, if I put my leg on to ask him to move over and he gets tense, then I need to keep asking him to move over until he relaxes, even if I move off the pattern or away from my task. "It's not about the pattern" (!)
Keep moving forward and challenging what we can do too---so that calm doesn't become boring.
I also think that each person needs to decide what they want as an underlying goal for their horse within what they want to do with their horse. For me, with Gunny, I want a calm and confident trail horse first and foremost. Second, I want us to get our L3 (and eventually L4), and thirdly, I want to be able to do some dressage stuff for fun. But as I gain my second and third goals, I want to always maintain my first one.
When talking about the Patterns, Linda says that these are Pat's blueprint for creating a performance horse. When watching the Patterns, we see Pat release when the horse is putting more effort, more exhuberance (or is it emotion--I need to watch again more carefully) in. One of the basic premises of NH is that is is the release that teaches. So when we go out there and emulate Pat and release when our horse is putting more effort (exhuberance, emotion, it's all a fine line), we are teaching our horses to be more energetic and "go-ey". We each need to know ahead of time if that is what we want or not. When I think of Pat's horses, calm is not really a word that comes to mind. If we want our horses to be like Pat's horses (think Vrrooom, vrrooom!), then emulating Pat with the patterns would be a good plan.
For some people/horse combos, getting the horse into the habit of putting a little more effort in and being little more awake might be a good thing. But for most of the people/horse combos out there who are interested in trail riding and doing "stuff", the horse is going to have plenty of energy as long as the human keeps it interesting.
I am not saying that I think the Patterns are a bad thing. I think that they are great to help give people a roadmap to follow that is progressive and built in such a way that makes sense to the horse. It takes the guesswork out of it for a lot of people. But if you are a person who wants "calm" to be your underlying basis of your relationship with your horse, then when you do the patterns, you need to release when they do the pattern calmly.
Brief OL stuff, then tacked up and rode. Overall very calm.
With riding, played with bridleless (reins resting on neck) communication and then one carrot stick riding.
Playing with getting more precise in my communication while still staying in freestyle.
At one point, I asked for a turn on the haunches and he got emotional during the yield. At first I released when he did the yield, but then I realized that he was emotional, so I asked again and kept asking until he relaxed. After that, he was making a point to relax with each request and I was making a point to look for that too.
The rest of the session went well. We even played with some canter to trot transitions and worked on getting those from my seat. And also some trot two steps, walk from my seat, sidepass from my seat. Also, move your ribs over from my leg and HQ yields (right side only) from a walk with just my leg and stick and no reins.
For groundwork, the main thing I worked on was backing from the tail on his right hand side. He went through his typical phases of not responding/not trying until I finally progressed to really getting after him for trying to drag me around. Then he "got" it. After riding I tested him and he yielded perfectly.
So the main things I need to take away are:
Calm needs to be my #1 priority. This is something that I used to focus on a lot when he was younger and I think that I drifted away from it because he was so calm and unflappable all the time. Un-laxed must have started creeping in, and I didn't notice it until it got bigger and bigger. Then when I noticed it, it took me a while to find the solutions that he needed.
For calm to be #1, that means that if I am riding a pattern and he becomes "un-calm", the moment that I notice it, I need to keep up whatever he became "un-calm" at until he relaxes again. So, if I put my leg on to ask him to move over and he gets tense, then I need to keep asking him to move over until he relaxes, even if I move off the pattern or away from my task. "It's not about the pattern" (!)
Keep moving forward and challenging what we can do too---so that calm doesn't become boring.
I also think that each person needs to decide what they want as an underlying goal for their horse within what they want to do with their horse. For me, with Gunny, I want a calm and confident trail horse first and foremost. Second, I want us to get our L3 (and eventually L4), and thirdly, I want to be able to do some dressage stuff for fun. But as I gain my second and third goals, I want to always maintain my first one.
When talking about the Patterns, Linda says that these are Pat's blueprint for creating a performance horse. When watching the Patterns, we see Pat release when the horse is putting more effort, more exhuberance (or is it emotion--I need to watch again more carefully) in. One of the basic premises of NH is that is is the release that teaches. So when we go out there and emulate Pat and release when our horse is putting more effort (exhuberance, emotion, it's all a fine line), we are teaching our horses to be more energetic and "go-ey". We each need to know ahead of time if that is what we want or not. When I think of Pat's horses, calm is not really a word that comes to mind. If we want our horses to be like Pat's horses (think Vrrooom, vrrooom!), then emulating Pat with the patterns would be a good plan.
For some people/horse combos, getting the horse into the habit of putting a little more effort in and being little more awake might be a good thing. But for most of the people/horse combos out there who are interested in trail riding and doing "stuff", the horse is going to have plenty of energy as long as the human keeps it interesting.
I am not saying that I think the Patterns are a bad thing. I think that they are great to help give people a roadmap to follow that is progressive and built in such a way that makes sense to the horse. It takes the guesswork out of it for a lot of people. But if you are a person who wants "calm" to be your underlying basis of your relationship with your horse, then when you do the patterns, you need to release when they do the pattern calmly.
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