09/11/2013

There is Life in Karina's Back! - October 10th

I thought that there was a crisis approaching, but it appears that I was wrong :) The progress may now be a little less visible, but nonetheless each time I work with Karina, we're making a step forward :)
This time Karina came to the pasture gate on her own. My husband took her on a lead rope and groomed her in the stableyard. I played with Karina's tail a little; she was not particularly happy about that, but her tail was loose and I could make little circles with it. Karina protested slightly when I dressed her up in cavesson. We went for a walk just as usual; during the walk I worked a little on backing up, stelling and bending. Then we went to the roundpen (this time she didn't rush there, as she was doing for the last couple of times) and worked for some eight minutes on LFS on the circle. Karina tried to lean on me a little, on both sides, for some cause she was searching for support from me. But towards the end of this session she was more on her own legs, especially to the right. She tilts her head a little, but this is caused not by tension in the neck, but by problems with stretching the whole side of her body, especially in the hip area. Improvement will come in time, of that I'm fairly sure.
I have still to pay attention to her stepping under with hind legs, because when I'm not reminding Karina to step under, she tends to place her inner hind leg beside her body (not so much as she used to in the beginning of ST, but still that is not what I want). Her LFS to the left is still very imperfect, but it is improving. I'm afraid that I'm putting too much pression on Karina and that I'm not enthusiastic enough when she is progressing. I should praise and reward her more intensively, just as I did in the beginning, and she was much more motivated to work. Now she becomes a little impatient sometimes, and perhaps... disappointed? I don't want to fail her. Just as I've said in some previous posts, it is much more working with yourself, on your reactions, than actually working with your horse. If you improve – your horse improves.
In the end of the session Karina could focus no longer. There was something going on in the nearby bushes, and there was wind, so she kept on stopping and looking there. I therefore asked her to make one last effort, and I stopped ST session right there. Then we went to the riding arena to work on some TTEAM exercises – Star and Labyrinth. I started with Labirynth, and it went pretty well, though we were both rushing through it. Next time I must pay more attention to the precision of every step and turn. I should stop Karina much more often, so we could both have time to think on our next move instead of rushing blindly through the exercise.
The Star, too, could have been better, though I confess I have not much to complain about. We worked on the poles flat on the ground, and then every second of them was raised at one end. Karina fell out on her outside hind leg, no matter what the direction. Maybe that was too hard for her and too soon I went closer to the centre of the star.
A couple of times I went with Karina to the wall and worked a little on shoulder-fore. Karina overbent to the inside and the shoulder-fore became something like a shoulder-in. She rebelled a little, I think not because I asked too much of her, but because she had problems with understanding what I wanted. I stopped her, bent her neck and asked her to step under. She made a step forward and then lowered her head. Her shoulders became visibly more free and her range of motion increased. After three steps or so I stopped her, because that was AWESOME! I rewarded Karina and took her to the stableyard to dress her up in her stable halter, so that we could go to look for some apples under the apple trees :)
When I watched training videos, I've noticed that when I led Karina from one place in the riding arena to the other, she started to let the movement through her back; it gently swayed, and her forelegs moved more softly and with grace. Her steps are becoming lighter and her motion range increases. She likes now to move with her head down, at least on straight lines, less so on curves. I no longer need to remind Karina to lower her head all the time.
Conclusions: I should have worked a little more on backing up. In fact I planned to, but since Karina gave me that wonderful shoulder-in, I decided not to force her to do any more that day.

02/11/2013

Repairing Mistakes - October 6th


Fortunately, nothing serious. I went to Karina to the pasture and took her to the stableyard. She came with me eagerly, on a loose lead rope (must try one day to take her without rope). I groomed her, inspected the thrush hoof and treated it with hoof spray. The ground has dried now, and I hope that it won't be raining for a next couple of days, so Karina's hooves will improve.
Anyway, I dressed her up in a cavesson and we went for a walk. I stopped her a couple of times and worked on stelling in a standstill. Karina tried to bend her neck in an 'S'-shape, and I didn't know why (at the moment, because now I know). Fortunately, I managed to correct it. I did some backing up, which is still improving (baby steps, but nevertheless some progress), and I'm thinking on starting backing up over a pole (front legs first), and backing up in a labyrinth (TTEAM methods).
Then we went to the riding arena to work on poles and cavalettis and of course that cross-rail obstacle. Since that was a problem for Karina, I broke the exercise up in three parts. But first I did some warming-up on poles. There were four of them this time, all on the ground at first. Then my husband lifted fourth pole just a little (some 10-15 cm), then the second one, and then all of them. After that we put a cavaletti at the end of the poles and finally we got to the cross-rail. At first, there were only the standards and one pole, hanged asymmetrically between them. That Karina accepted easily. Then we hanged the pole asymmetrically in the different direction, and when that was accepted, we added a second pole. This time there was no problem with the obstacle. Karina trotted over it easily and I stopped training at that. I know that there is still much more to work on – we crossed the obstacle only once, and towards the stable, so I used a little trick here; I made horse's natural motivation work for me. I don't know how would it work if I asked Karina to go over the obstacle the other way. But that may come in time. Now it is important not to loose Karina's interest and motivation. She is pretty eager to work in that way.
Then we went to the roundpen to work on our LFS. This time, just as I've said before, I focused on the L of LFS, that is the lateral bending. First I started with stelling in a standstill. I've noticed that Karina's hip on the inner side of the bending (when she bends to the right) is much lower than on the outside, which is great. That means that she's stretching her side muscles, which is the goal of this exercise. I failed, however, to notice if on the left side it works as well. Then we moved to work in walk, and I've noticed that Karina's self-carriage has visibly improved – but on the right side. She is no longer leaning on her right front leg, and she manages to keep herself on a circle instead of falling inside. I'm not sure, however, if that is because the size of the circle we're working on corresponds the degree of her crookedness to the right, or is it due to our ST progress. Because according to Marijke, I may expect severe changes in the horse's asymmetry – even that the horse will display symptoms of precisely the opposite asymmetry. If I only knew which case this was...
Anyway, circles to the left are much worse. Karina doesn't seem to support herself with her left hind leg. I know that this leg is weaker, I know that she avoids putting much of her weight on it. On the longe, in the canter, she was always falling outside with her left hip. People often think that this is caused by insufficient engagement of the inner hind leg, but it is exactly the opposite. It is because the inner hind leg is so strong and pushing, that it pushes the hip outside over the weaker outside hind leg. Karin Blignault in her Equine biomechanics for Rider. The Key to the Balanced Riding confirms that it is so.
It occured to me also that Karina may be avoiding the stretch of her short, stiff right side muscles. Well, that tells me only that I need to work on that. And if I caused Karina's asymmetry to change, it only means that we're getting somewhere.
And about that S-shape neck bending: it may not necessarily be that I caused it by some unconscious directions that I gave Karina (as I feared at first), but it may be that she is just trying, just as all animals do, to get release in an easier way, by putting in less effort. It is pretty common in horse training.