Ride 20: Wilson arena

It is Wednesday. It is Wilson arena day. And yes, it's back to ground school. People probably don't back up and work on ground school as much as they ought to. I attribute this to the fact that most people don't really know what ground school is. A lot of people think that ground work ends with "longing" the horse to wear it down so they aren't afraid to get on it. In fact, this has a negative effect. In reality, pretty much anything you do in the saddle is built directly from ground school. Ground work is the basis for the communication that forms a partnership between horse and rider. It is one of the things I am learning from all of the natural horsemanship people out there. Whenever these people encounter a "problem horse", they always begin on the ground. These techniques work, but they take time, schooling, mentorship, and patience. You can't tell someone, or explain to them how or why natural horsemanship works. Well, you can try, but for some reason no one listens until they experience or see the results for themselves. That's kind of how it was for me. When I first got Amigo, I would stand out there and longe him round and round before I got on. What I was accomplishing, I will never know, but that's what other people were doing. Then, I joined the mounted patrol and began learning a different way to train a horse. Then I went to Gretchen's clinic. Talk about a whole 'nother world. Between the two I am light years from where I was even half a year ago.

Dan and Gretchen's Parelli clinic is coming up soon. I don't have the money or time to take a full clinic course, so I am going for a one hour lesson with Grethcen on next Saturday. My goal is to send in a video for my Level 1 assessment this fall, but first I need to hone and polish some things. To find out where I'm at, I brought a copy of the Level 1 assessment sheet with me and went through it step by step.

I was surprised to find that we are still lacking on a basic communication level. Smooch still thinks he can be in control in some certain situations. Either that or he is confused and I haven't communicated what I am expecting of him well enough. Probably a little of both. We went through most of the "games" fine until we came to the driving game, backing up. Then things broke down for a while. What I like about Smooch is that even during a melt down, he is very thoughtful, as in he is thinking about what is going on instead of reacting. To a point. Most any horse will become an out of control crazed maniac when he is scared and not sure of what is being asked of him. Even when Smooch gets to this point, if you can figure out what is wrong and give him a way to succeed, he is right back down to his normal self within seconds. He doesn't dwell. I think maybe that most horses are actually like this to varying degrees. It's the stupid people factor that makes things volatile. Having such a good, solid minded horse makes it easier to get through things and continue on, even if I mess up. I didn't fully get through backing him up to the polished level I wanted, but I got him through enough to continue on. And guess what, he was fine afterwards. We will work on the polish with Gretchen, that's what she is there for.

I went through Liberty (horse is unhaltered) and Online (horse is haltered with rope halter and lead line). All of this work is on the ground. I decided to stop short of saddling him and just opted to do a little bareback work before quitting for the evening. One of the things Gretchen taught us was how to side pass a horse. INTO you. From the ground. So guess what, I can sit on a pipe fence and side pass my horse right into me so I can hop on. One of these days when I figure out how to download video from my video camera onto the computer, I'll have someone take a video and I'll post it. In fact, maybe I'll put my level one assessment on Youtube and post the link here. Would you like that?

So bareback is not as scary as people make out. If the horse is broke enough to ride in a saddle, it should be broke enough to ride bareback. With some caution, of course. Smooch is at that point and I really enjoy riding bare back. I didn't ride long. Just long enough to do some basic direct and indirect turns, and then I rode him up to the gate and stood him there. I know he has mental problems with gates, so I've decided to back up and master step by step until he is 100 percent bomb proof. So for now it's just making him sack out next to the gate. Once he can do that every time solid, I'll work on opening the gate and progress from there. The key is to avoid anticipation on his part.

The next thing I worked on was leading. For some reason, Smooch doesn't lead well. Never has since the day I got him. He has a tendency to sit back with pressure to the rope halter. He'll walk with you, slowly, but forget about trotting. This is one of the main things I'll be having Gretchen help me with. I am coming up with my own ideas on how to handle this (and I think they are working), but I'd like to hear the expert's advice.

The thing about my training sessions, is that I never consider them over until the horse is home and turned loose in the corral. So loading and unloading are definitely part of my training curriculum. Every time I load a horse, I am training it. I have Smooch where I can send him from about ten feet away, into the trailer. I also have him where I can get in the trailer and call him in, and I can pull him out backwards by his tail (not cruel like it sounds). BTW, I don't tie my horses in the trailer. The very afternoon I was loading Smooch for this work out, some people came by the house to pick up a piece of equipment that Robins ex-husband had sold them. I was hitching up the trailer as they pulled up, and the trailer was blocking the equipment they were after. So after opening the trailer gate and opening the partitions, I pulled the truck forward, put it in park, and ran out to get Smooch (I was in a hurry, it gets dark so early now). When I got to the trailer with him, I discovered that the partitions had locked shut when I had moved the truck. Not even thinking, I left Smooch at the back of the trailer, climbed in, opened both partitions back up, and looked out to see Smooch standing there looking at me. Well, I thought, why should I get out of the trailer to send him in, only to have to get back in to shut the partition? So I just called him in. And just as natural, he came in, parked himself in his spot, I shut the partition and got out of the trailer. Maybe I was just lucky. When I jumped out of the trailer, the woman gave me a start because I had forgotten about the people standing there getting their equipment. The woman was dumbfounded. She couldn't believe I had just left my horse untied and then called him right up into the trailer. Then I told her he was only two and didn't wait around for the response before I got in the truck and headed off. The point is, that I enjoy taking his training to that level. Not every one does, that's just part of things. Hopefully I'll be lucky if I can accomplish a fraction of the things I see some of the natural horsemanship people doing. I have been watching RFD a lot. It's the rural cable channel (I especially love the tractor auctions). Robin has it and I can't get enough. The other day I saw a preview for a training video or show or something, I don't remember. I was half paying attention when I saw a guy sitting in the driver seat of his truck with his horse on a long line, and he sent it right into the trailer. Right there from the driver seat. Yeah, that's next!