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.
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