Oops, I forgot to post about Sunday. I'm catching up, really!
What a great day! At the end of it Mag was standing tied, head down, immobile as an old school horse. “My brain is full.”
What a great day! At the end of it Mag was standing tied, head down, immobile as an old school horse. “My brain is full.”
It was a Sunday afternoon and it all
went exactly as I'd hoped – lots of activity and even for the first
time, someone shared the indoor with me. It blew his mind but we just
worked through it, and then ANOTHER horse came and re-blew his mind
and we worked through it. Mag, you must continue to jog a circle
around me on the lungeline despite the fact there are distractions.
And the more distracted you are, the longer we'll be at this.
Thankfully it wasn't too bad. He should know that from his past, but
I understand this is a new place and his brain is gonna cut out at
times.
I was in that arena a full hour and a
half but Mag never broke a sweat, it was mostly mental stuff today so
working on getting that canter didn't have to happen today.
See, yesterday I found this horse
training website called Happy Horse Training and I read this great article about correct lunging. I didn't quite agree with everything
in the article, but most of it, I did. And why didn't I learn this 20
years ago? They are proponents of Mark Rashid, as well.
I remember at the Legerete clinic they
tried to teach me some of this in-hand gymnastic stuff and I was
uncomfortable with it because it involves you being right there at
your horse's shoulder and I never wanted to be that close to Mara.
But the article explained that if your
horse is not bending its body properly on the lunge, your lunging is
counterproductive, actually damaging to the horse, because horses
will naturally lean and bend to the outside to balance around the
circle.
The article said,
The only way to get a correct
bend is through the use of a lunging cavesson.
(or Micklem bridle's nose ring), and,
equally important, you must have expert whip handling skills. Really,
can't I use a bridle and the traditional “through the inside bit
ring, over the poll attached to the other bit ring” configuration? That's all I've got at this point (but later Gabi said I can try out two of her cavessons).
As I cleaned his paddock, he positioned
himself, as usual, beside me, following me around, and when I bent
down to scoop, he'd put his nose in my hair and keep it there,
breathing my scent. Then he started chewing on the wheelbarrow
handles, as usual, but this time knocked the entire thing over and
spilled poop. He scared himself but I had to laugh.
He's bored in his private paddock. He
seems to be saying, “Let's go do something!” I love it.
I chose the Parelli carrot stick to do
the in-hand gymnastic work, what I call “The banana exercise”
where the horse bananas its body around you, with you keeping a
solid connection with the horse's mouth, bending it in, and keeping
the stick at the shoulder, keeping the horse from falling in.
It worked! Mag took a moment
but then caught on. I apologized that I was such an amateur. Then we
moved to the jog and he kept the bend and even began dropping his
head to the ground as I vibrated the line.
The article said that a slack lunge
line is completely ineffective, you must maintain contact and
conversation. I partly agree, partly disagree. I think for this
bending exercise you need that connection. But for
other types of lunging, like full-arena work over cavaletti, I think
it's OK if the line is slack.
So in my mind today, lunging split into
two types. 1: Full arena work over poles and obstacles, where the
horse can straighten on the long sides, and 2: Bending and crossing
hind legs over at a very slow speed.
The article said you absolutely cannot
achieve this bending and throughness if the horse is being
free-lunged, but I've seen expertly trained
horses doing just that – lifting off the ground from the hind end,
bent toward the center the entire time. Not that Mag is ready to go off line....
I'm mostly happy today that I was able
to do this exercise, walk and jog both directions, and that Mag is
really getting the requests to drop his head to the ground as he goes
around, because each time he does, I give the line and praise him and
let him make the circle bigger as a reward, and even take a break.
Then Birgit and her daughter Jasmin
(another teenaged girl) arrived with Moritz the Haflinger and
asked if they could also use the arena and well, that was
just perfect! I thought I was almost done, but this was too great an
opportunity to waste. I asked Birgit if she'd be so kind to hold Mag
as I scooped up our poop before their horse trampled it, and then I
asked if she'd continue to hold him while I set up an artificial
horse trailer. Well, I tried.....
I set up jump standards a meter from
the wall, and put the horsie pool in the middle, with wool blankets
on either side of the pool, to make it more interesting to cross
through. Then I thanked her and pointed to Mag, “Go through” and
he took a long look but then passed through the chute and didn't mind
anything. OK then. I said to Birgit, “That was obviously not nearly
enough like a horse trailer!”
Then the other way, I pointed, Mag went
through. I said, “OK smartie, if you think this is such a piece of
cake, let's do it backwards!” And I lined him up and said “Back.”
He said, “I cannot!” but eventually he did, step by step with me
praising him and in the end it was nothing at all.
Then this other lady wanted to bring
her horse in to let it roll and Mag lost his mind, so we started
lunging again (at a slow jog). I had planned to be done long ago but
these opportunities cannot be missed.
Then she left and I told Birgit there
was one more thing I had planned to do today, to try to back Mag over
a ground pole. Again she held him while I set it up and then I led
him over it, and backwards, and he really, really needs to learn this
cuz he has no idea where his hind legs are in the universe. I laughed
to J tonight, “Mag knows exactly where his forelegs are, cuz he can
see them with his eyes. His back legs...a mystery to him.”
As I chatted with Birgit, I asked him
to repeatedly come over and then back over the pole and he started to
get annoyed at the repetitiveness of the exercise. He started to toss
his head. Then he NIPPED me! I threw the lunge line at his face and
yelled at him and backed him up and told him that there is never an
excuse to nip or bite a person. He was sorry, and I understand
he was just trying out that form of communication but that's never OK
so we went back to lunging a jog a while longer. Someone led their
horse by the door and he flipped out a bit so we lunged a bit more.
Wow this was getting to be a lot of Sunday afternoon at a busy
barn!
But Birgit kept saying what a good boy
he is, and I kept thinking, “Well, I'd hoped he'd get a 100% on
today's test but it turns out to only a 95 and thank God I don't have
kids.....”
Then she offered more help and I said,
“Honestly since you are offering, I'd love it if
you'd help me get on him next week, because I am actually here in
this barn to restart this horse, with the help of others.”
She was very enthusiastic to help me.
I'm not sure if Birgit is the right person to help me, but so far she
is the most willing, verbally.
I should mention that as we worked
together in the indoor, I saw Jasmin push that Haflinger into more
work than he wanted, and do lots of cute circus moves too. Moritz
does the Spanish walk, and turns circles when she gestures. He's as
big as a house, I think, two of my horse could fit in his skin. But I
appreciated that she has very well fitting, very nice tack, and was
lunging him in a big Back on Track rug. She said he has back problems
and it helps. I said, “I've heard of people camping with their
horses, who actually sleep in their Back on Track blankets for
warmth!” Bettina also has the same blanket for her young Warmblood.
When I asked, she told me the Back on Track products made a huge
difference. I personally am not convinced they're superior to a wool
pad and a fleece lined rump rug, that should be plenty warm.
As Mag stood there like an exhausted
school horse (although he never broke a sweat today), a married
(?) couple groomed their big paint horses next to us. The man (a
man rides at this barn?) approached me and said his name was Michael
(pronounced differently than you think). I shook his hand and said,
“Like Michael Ende? Author of The Neverending Story and Jim Knopf,
what I'm reading now to improve my German?” “Yes,” he said,
“And we can speak English if you like. I have to cuz of my job.”
I said, “Why?” And he explained he works at Vodafone, and I told
him how Vodafone was my company's client back in 2001, and we made
software for Vodafone.
And then his wife came over to shake my
hand and since my hands were buried in the shampoo in Mag's tail, she
just grabbed my finger, and said she is Marin, and she asked me what
my mare's name is. I said, “HE is Mag, from Poland” “And you?”
I said my name and as always in Germany, they have no idea about my
name and so she said, “So you're from Poland too?” I've never had
anyone think my name is Polish!
They asked me about myself and I said
“If you go into the Reiterstube,
you'll see on the board a newspaper clipping from 2008 when I was
married here in Wuppertal and Gabi showed up with her horses at the
church, and they did a little story on me, “The girl from Seattle,
the Capitol of Washington state, who left her horse behind to live in
Germany.”
I told him I did not abandon him, I
actually got to fly on a plane with him.
They seemed curious about the flight on
the 747 to Germany, and then I realized that I had an audience behind
me too, people had stopped what they were doing to listen.
And my social anxiety didn't check me
back because I had no idea, I was just telling my favorite story.
And Mag just stood there, “My
brain....so full.” Then I stuffed a tube of Oxibendazole in his
mouth, poor thing.
I never dreamed I could enjoy boarding
again. I know it's not gonna be perfect, but so far this is way
better than I expected.
Oh, and Mag nickered at me as I arrived
today, that felt good. He might not tomorrow though, based on his
mental exhaustion, so I put a couple crab apples in my barn bag. Yah,
I've got a barn bag. Haven't had one of those in a while.
7 comments:
This is a wonderful post. Ah, something we all long for, someone to help with the arena work!
Yup, you filled his brain good. And I have a feeling the nickering is just going to get better. I remember mine always seemed to want me more when worked more. Sounds like you guys are in a pretty good place there.
KB, I must be honest and admit that I'm very concerned about getting the "wrong" help. You know what I mean, you've been around. Someone who is contrary to my goal for the day, which would be just mount and bend and flex and perhaps walk around a bit. Or someone who thinks Mag is a doll when he acts up!!! Oh dear! He nipped me again today during in-hand work to tell me NO, It feels like work! and I just ...well, I'm not used to horses who oppose work. *sigh* (No worries, he got in trouble!)
Camryn, I hope you're right. He didn't seem happy to see me today, but then again he dragged his feet all the way back to the paddock, I had to scold and slap and drag him to get him to trot by my side back up to his paddock. I was in a hurry to pick up my husband at the school, and Mag was like, "Why should I move my feet on the way back to my solitary paddock?" Eventually I got him to trot behind me up the hill to the paddock. But I thought we already had out trot-outs accomplished.
Yes!progress!
The point of BOT is not that they keep the area warmer than it would be without, it's that they reflect the body's heat back into the muscles at the places where the muscle is injured or sore. It's like a selective heating blanket that warms the injured muscles without creating so much heat it causes sweating.
I've used it to help rehab my lower back issues and it has had immediate and measureable effect on Ashke's right hamstring. Adding the long BOT saddle pad, which covers his hips and loin area, makes a huge difference in his being able to work without soreness in the arena.
If Mags doesn't have an injury to rehab, you can still affect his warmup by having a BOT blanket across his back while you are grooming. It will help keep the muscles warm and loose prior to under saddle work and especially in cooler temps, it will help reduce the amount of warmup needed before getting into work.
I know its expensive but in my opinion it is worth every penny.
Yay!! Such a positive post, after all the year's earlier frustrations!
I like your comment about Mag being totally clueless about his back legs. When Kate had her accident ( you might have seen it before I started neglecting the blog), she had to learn all over again how to use the injured leg (two severed tendons). One suggestion was to put a cheap cat collar with a bell on her pastern--being able to hear the movement was supposed to help with proprioception (I think that's the right word). We never got around to trying it. It was almost a full year before she moved naturally again (though there's a slight loss of range of motion to the rear, it's not really noticeable except when trimming that hoof).
I totally understand about wanting the "right" help with Mag! The trainer I sent Maddie to (for 120 expensive days) taught her lots of stuff, but NEVER got past what he called her "attitude"--which I think was mostly resentment of his demanding, rather than asking, style.
Really enjoying your posts about your barn adventures. Sounds like there are some really nice people there, and I am so glad about that. Looking forward to reading about some saddle time with Mag.
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