It stopped raining, and
all the horses were in the pasture again. The grass is becoming worse
and worse, but they use it while they still can. They have started to
change their coat. Autumn is coming...
I took Karina along with
other horse from the pasture, so I cannot really say that she
followed me, because she might have been following her mate. I
groomed her as usual, and at that time she played with her lead rope,
pulling at it with her teeth. This is her new habit and I can't tell
for the moment what does it mean. Is she angry, bored, frustrated,
impatient or just playful? Sometimes it seems to me that she is
irritated or impatient, because she paws the ground with her front
leg. That habit seemed to be gone, and recently it returned, I can't
really tell why. Anyway, this time she quickly stopped doing that,
because I introduced cavesson to her and she was curious what it was.
I showed her how it worked, and at first she tried to force its
pressure, but she quickly realised that I wanted her to lower her
head. Karina knows that when I put my fingers to her poll I'm asking
her to lower her head. I used that reaction to explain to her how
cavesson works. And I must admit that it is a wonderful tool. It
prevents the horse from tilting its head sideways, it keeps the head
perfectly straight. While using the rope halter I had to be extremely
careful with the head position. Cavesson saves me that trouble.
I had to remind Karina,
that if I'm asking her to lower her head, she must remain thus until
I ask her to lift the head. It works now worse than in the previous
training, but I'm not worried about that, because Karina must get
used to the cavesson and different work routine. Anyway, about the
training: I overdid it. Karina offered me much and I failed to see
when I passed her limits. I pushed her too far. I'm afraid that next
time she won't be that eager to train. I failed to pay enough
attention to every detail. However, this is our first real ST session
and I could hardly have hoped to succeed at every point. Fortunately,
this time I had camera with me, so I can watch the training video and
analyze it thoroughly. I also compared this video with some of
Marijke's – especially those with Prince Elmelund. They are mighty
inspiring, because they show the complete beginnings of ST. Prince,
however, was at that time an unbroken horse, while Karina has had a
lot of bad training in the previous years. She has a lot of bad
habits and it will take much time to repair it by slowly rebalancing
her and making her carry herself with ease and grace. I know that she
has it in her, and it is my task to make her realise it.
It was really hard for
Karina to start moving in a totally different way. She stayed focused
and paid a lot of attention to my directions. That was so sweet of
her, she is such a willing and obedient horse. In the last two
minutes of training she could focus no more and I have noticed that,
but unfortunately not quick enough. Analyzing our video further, I
have also noticed that I should really pay much more attention to the
inside hind leg movement – Karina tends to place her leg just
beside her body, not underneath her point of weight. I kept on
touching her obliquus abdominis muscle with my riding whip, and it
worked great – she started putting her leg more towards her weight
point, but now it seems to me that I was not precise and persistent
enough. Sometimes I touched her hind leg joints, to show Karina that
I wanted her to close her joints more. Though we worked in a
standstill and walk only, the training was indeed hard and Karina was
tired in the end. And mentally she was just exhausted. I have to work
more on my attention to such details, I have to notice such things
immediately. I want Karina to be interested and focused on what we
are doing, and under no circumstances I want to force her to do
anything. I wish I could train more often, but at present I can't.
That is the cause why I'm trying to squeeze out of every minute of
training all I can. Five minutes up to three, four times a week is so
little... But I really need to chill out a bit.
It seemed to me after the
training, that I asked too much of Karina, when I asked stelling on a
small circle. I worked much more on a big circle (and again I've made
a mistake there – I shouldn't work so close to the fence, because
the horse may be reluctant to bend) And when I watched Marijke's
videos, I have noticed that it was all right. Karina now and then
tries to avoid bending her body as asked, and sometimes she walks
sideways, keeping her body perfectly straight (or at least as
straight as her crookedness allows). She tends to fall on her inside
shoulder (more on the right side), but now I think that I know how to
prevent it...
After the training I took
Karina for a walk through the fields. I worked a little on lowering
her head, leading, stopping and backing up. Then we went to see the
tent which recently was built up in the stableyard. Karina seemed to
be really interested in it, she peeped curiously inside it. Then I
gave her a massage of neck muscles, which she seemed not to like (I
must stop doing massage for some time, as she seems not to be very
happy with any kind of massage, even that with her plastic brush,
which she always enjoyed). Then I washed her legs, and for the first
time she was completely relaxed during that procedure.
At last I took her to a
place where the grass is always greener than in the pasture ;) A
couple of minutes grazing and away she went to join her herd.
Finally, as to the the photos: in the three of them you see Karina doing LFS on a circle for the first time. In
the first picture, you see Karina trying to bend her body laterally.
She is stepping under her point of mass with her inner hind leg, she
is keeping her head pretty low and forward. She is leaning very much
on me, and is not on her own legs yet. In the second photo Karina is
resisting the cavesson pressure, as you may notice – her upper neck
muscles are very tense. But soon she yielded to that pressure and she
released the muscle tension and lowered her head, allowed it to just
hang freely on the nuchal ligament. And in the third photo there is
Karina dragging her feet behind her, just after a couple of minutes
of ST. That showed me how hard work it is for a horse to change long
years habits, to change her way of moving. And may I always keep that
in mind, before I ask Karina to do more...
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