Side Reins - A Quandary

Thanks to Horseproblems.com.au for the photo!

Every now and then you just have to bite your tongue, swallow your words, take things back.  I am now doing something I honestly never thought I'd do and have actively disapproved of and criticized from time to time.

I started using a "tie down" - in addition to my regular lesson with Daniela my dressage instructor I also requested a "minilesson" from her on lungeing since she has always told me to use side reins and finally convinced me, but I didn't want to start without her showing me how.  So now when I lunge Starbuck (Daniela has instructed me to lunge every other time I ride, so Sunday ride, Monday lunge, Tuesday ride, Wednesday lunge... although with the rain we've had and barn kitties to neuter it's been more like Sunday ride, Monday lunge, Tuesday lunge, Wednesday lunge, Thursday take the cat to the vet, Friday get the cat back from the vet...), after warming up in a "long and low" position at walk and trot without anything at all, I put on the side reins so her nose is just a couple of centimeters in front of the vertical when the reins are taut and do about 15 minutes of work (mostly trot with some transitions) before detaching them and doing some trot and canter work without them, then cooling off "long and low" again.

Instead of buying fancy side reins, Dani assured me I could simply use some old reins I had lying around - the kind made of cloth webbing with leather nubs every 4 inches or so - and tie them to the saddle girth or the surcingle.  They go straight from the bit to the girth (fixed point reins) and at the moment I'm tying them a little below the height where the girth is attached to the saddle.  The nubs help me remember exactly what length to tie them, too.  The idea is to see how this goes and then decide whether to keep using them and how, change to another type of auxiliary rein like sliding side reins or drop them altogether.  So far so good, right?

But here's the thing - even though I said yes to this, I am still terrified of the side reins.  I mean having-anxiety-dreams-about-them, keeping-my-hands-from-shaking-when-I-attach-them terrified.  In the past I've used elastic reins noce or twice when lungeing Starbuck and even a couple of times riding her in the roundpen for seat improvement exercises (no reins or no stirrups or no saddle or a combination thereof).  But they've always been loose enough that she could put her head up as much as she wanted, and I've never dared to use any other type of "tie down" mostly because I think it's the kind of thing that can very easily turn into a disaster by someone who's ignorant of how to do it.  I'm afraid I'll put her into a false frame her body won't be able to handle or ruin the sensitivity of her mouth or make her sore or sour or give her irremediable back injuries or cause her to flip over backwards and all other kinds of bad things.  However Daniela has assured me that none of these things are likely to happen as long as I use them correctly and responsibly at the exact length she's shown me to set them at for now and keep Starbuck moving forward.  Also, I figure with so many people I admire and respect using them (Daniela herself, Reiner and Ingrid Klimke, Sue Morris, Will Faerber, etc...) I shouldn't knock them until I've tried them.  And I have to admit, Starbuck looks so gorgeous in them that sometimes I get distracted just looking at her.

So here I am swallowing my words and steadying my hands, and hoping both that the benefits (like improved topline musculature, actually tracking up, steadier rhythm, better acceptance of contact, more impulsion and rounder movement) outweigh the risks and that in fact, the risks themselves will prove to be mostly a figment of my overactive, anxious imagination.  I'll keep you posted, in the meanwhile if anyone has any experience using auxiliary reins with their own horse for lungeing I'd be thrilled to hear it.



By the way two other random things to mention:

I changed bits a couple of weeks ago - started using a 13 mm three-piece full cheek snaffle.  It's thicker than the old D-ring and even though it's 100% stainless and doesn't have the fancy copper insets the D-ring does she definitely seems to like it better.  More slobber, more chewing and as soon as I put it in her mouth when bridling her she drops her head down.

And on the ridden portion of last Saturday's dressage lesson, Daniela pinpointed leg yielding and walk to canter to walk transitions as things to work on in the next two weeks, as well as continuing the shoulder in at walk to trot transitions.  I'm so glad my friend Cinthya decided to offer to take these lessons with me since Dani will only come for two people (she lives halfway across the island) and I feel like we learn so much.  On top of what I'm learning, Dani is very encouraging about Starbuck which makes me feel like as clueless as I was going into this (and still am now) I haven't screwed up too bad.

You Can Classic Online Dressage Portal

As you guys know, every now and then I like to give a little shout-out to folks who I feel provide an excellent service for horsepeople, like Marina the NH guru at my stable or the folks at Gredos Ecuestre who organize such fabulous long-distance horseback rides.  So here's another one - my dressage instructor Daniela has finally launched her new international online interactive dressage training portal at www.youcanclassic.com.

Now I've honestly never been much of a fan of video learning - my impatient and ADD brain prefers books and articles to videos as I'd rather scan ahead and pinpoint exactly what information I'm interested in rather than watch an entire 10 minute video in order to find the 2 minutes which I actually end up finding useful.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I found that nearly all the videos on the portal are under 5 minutes and many are just 2-3 minutes long.  And each video is dedicated to just one exercise you can do with your horse, with condensed instructions on how to best do so and basic troubleshooting - no long and rambling introduction or conclusion "selling you" on why to do it or summing up all its possible benefits.  The first time I visited the site I found myself viewing one video after another until I discovered I had spent about an hour watching without ever getting bored or impatient - and those were just the "preview" lessons.

Here's an example preview lesson I found especially useful working on teaching the meaning of the outside rein.

As you can see, in just two minutes I have a new exercise to apply while riding Starbuck, easily incorporated into our daily routine.  And the nice thing about a video rather than a book or article is that the movement you're looking for from the horse as well as the correct rider position is visible throughout.  Also, more and more I'm learning to try to visualize (literally, create a picture in my mind) what I'm trying to get Starbuck and I do when I ask for a certain movement which is proving difficult for her to understand - and being able to simply replay the video either in my mind or -since the website is optimized for mobile use- even pulling my phone out of my pocket to quickly refresh my memory is a big help with this.

Daniela recorded the videos, which are available in English and in German, with her two horses - her fabulous Prix St George level warmblood and his son, a 6 year old colt who's just starting out.  So there are videos for nearly all levels of dressage, from beginning groundwork both on the lunge, double lunge (ground driving) and in-hand or the young horse's first lateral steps to tempi changes and collected canter.  And not only dressage is covered - gymnastic jumping, games and warm-up, winter, obedience and stretching exercises to keep your horse interested and supple are also featured.  There's also a blog where you can get a better overall idea of her training philosophy and a forum to share your experiences or ask questions, and aside from the free "preview" lessons and blog posts there are several subscription levels with a huge library of "Pro" videos, from a one-day pass to a "gold" subscription which includes video coaching, direct contact with Daniela and discounted clinic prices.

I highly recommend the website to anyone who's looking for some fresh ideas to incorporate into their training or riding routine (especially if you like groundwork as much as I do) and can personally attest as to the effectiveness of Daniela's training style and her knowledge, feel and experience - in the past two months Starbuck's movement, attitude and even her conformation (yay topline muscles!) have improved unmistakably and I feel much more confident about working on our own now that I have these new resources at my disposal and have started to reap the results.  And what's most important to me is that she's very sensitive to the horse's comfort and future wellbeing as well - for instance at the moment she has me using side reins when lunging but we warm up and cool off without them and only use them for short periods of time, and when riding after 10 or 15 minutes of "hard work" (i.e. lateral work or using more than a light contact) she always reminds us to have a rest walking actively on a loose rein.  And I can honestly say that Starbuck enjoys her work more now that she's starting to build the muscle to make it physically easier and is learning that her body can do new, powerful and fun things.

So if you have a minute, trot on over to www.youcanclassic.com and check it out - you won't be sorry!

Positive

Lately I've been having second thoughts about my relationship with Starbuck.  On the face of it, things seem pretty great - she neighs at me when I get to the stable, she comes when I call, she generally sticks her own head into the halter, she's much more affectionate (well, at least more tolerant of affection) than she was a year ago, she's obviously comfortable with my presence and she generally behaves quite well under saddle.  And I would say that 80% of the time, I'm really proud of what a well-adjusted mare I have.

Of the other 20%, part of that is just basic mare/fillyness like screeching or pinning her ears at other horses when they get in her personal space, which I'm honestly not too worried about - I kind of like her bitchy.  But there's also a residual rebellious streak where she'll just decide to try to do whatever she wants, then I say no, then she says "you're not the boss of me", then I say "wanna bet" and it escalates into a "who's the stubbornest of them all" battle.  For example on the ground when she wants to run around me in the other direction instead of calmly walking by something scary or when there's a yummy looking patch of grass she suddenly veers off towards.  Or while riding - she'll very deliberately cut a corner or go from a canter to a full out gallop interspersed with rodeo bucks or decide that she just doesn't feel like trotting.

But what really lurks in the corner of my mind, slowly eating away at my confidence is her spookiness - it's improved but is still definitely there.  Something I've read again and again about spooky horses is the idea that if they have a good enough leader, they generally trust this person not to put them in dangerous situations and thus don't tend to spook.  If this is the case, I obviously haven't gained Starbuck's unconditional trust yet.  And maybe I never will, and maybe like Marina claims, sometimes she spooks "for fun" or at least as a momentary distraction from the hard work of a lesson.  But I do think that reducing the amount of conflict between us and increasing her trust in me are two things definitely worth working toward.

I was trying to explain the conflict thing to my husband this morning giving the example of me trying to train her not to scratch her neck and chest against the tying post.  At first I just started punishing her ("ssht" noise, then a louder "ssht", then a "ssht" with a slap) every time she scratched herself, which worked OK as long as I was there, but as soon as I walked away she would start scratching herself again.  And of course it makes me the wicked witch of the West - always nagging and saying "no".  But then I thought, instead of telling her NOT to scratch herself, what if I gave her something else TO DO which prevented her from scratching?  So I've been reinforcing her early training of "stand still" and now when I tie her at the posts I back her up a few feet until she can't reach the actual post anymore, and tell her to "stand still".  If she moves forward, I simply back her up and ask her to stand still again, and if she stays where she is I praise her periodically with a "good girl" or by giving her sporadic cookies.  And it's working pretty well - I can now leave the tying post and as long as she knows (or thinks) I'm paying attention to her, she'll stay where I put her.  As soon as I start talking to someone she moves back and starts scratching again, but as far as I can tell this strategy is much more effective than constantly punishing her for something I can't blame her for in the first place (poor thing, being itchy sucks).

So I basically want more of this, which I think will improve our relationship, reduce my "pigheaded frustrated dominant hag" moments and perhaps eventually will even lead to her increasing her trust in me.  The trouble is that it's easier for me to be reactive than proactive and I'm not terribly creative about finding positive ways to structure her behavior, so I got an e-book yesterday called "The Power of Positive Horse Training: Saying "yes" to your horse" by Sarah Blanchard.  So far the theory seems pretty sound and there are a bunch of different exercises to discover the rewards you have to offer your horse (neither food nor clickers are featured which is a plus as far as I'm concerned) and to learn how and when to give them appropriately.  I already have plans to spend some quality time finding which spots she likes to be rubbed on can be reached from the saddle, to be able to give her a good reward while riding.  If I find something which works particularly well, I'll share it here.

By the way we're progressing well on the Spanish Walk front - for a couple of weeks she just picked up her feet but finally she figured out the "striking" motion and we're currently practicing this.  When I can get her to do the striking with just a voice command ("march"), we'll try to add some forward motion.  So one-two-march-march, or if that's too complicated, one-two-three-march.

Also lately I've been riding her with a running martingale so she can't throw her head up and avoid contact with the bit - Marina recommended using one for a few months and like everything else, we'll try it and see how it goes.  Try different things :-)

Dressage Lesson

My friend José, son of Gredos Ecuestre guru Gaby Mendez, is amazing at dressage.  Not only has he helped his father train horses for his trail riding business and fix clients' problem horses since he was a kid and given riding lessons at his dad's stable more recently, but he's also ridden and trained professionally at a couple of breeding operations in Spain, so even at the tender age of 23 he's got loads of experience.  And he's also a really nice guy and fun to be around, so when he told me he was coming to Mallorca to work at a very exclusive stud farm I was thrilled.  So yesterday I showed him around Palma, and in return he very generously gave me a dressage lesson after lunch (hopefully the first of many if I have any say about it).

Right off the bat, he told me to raise the snaffle as it was apparently hanging too low in her mouth to act effectively, and I had to put the noseband back on my bridle (I don't really care for nosebands and had taken it off) and tighten it way more than I had ever tightened it before.  I was worried that Starbuck would find this uncomfortable and fight it, but it didn't worry her at all - no nodding or head shaking or pulling, and right off the bat she started to have a little foam at the corners of her mouth and munched on the bit a little.  Then I mounted up and started riding and he started giving me some pointers which I'll list below in more detail.  But here's a quick summary: We started out taking up much more contact with the bit than I'm used to, and as a result I haven't worked so hard physically while riding for years - I think Starbuck thinks that bit=brakes and when she has more than just the barest contact she has to be pushed to keep going.  Also, any time I change anything about my posture, the rest of my body seems like it has to work overtime to keep from falling out of place.

To make a long story short, both Starbuck and I (and probably José as well!) worked much harder than we're used to yesterday, but got some really positive results - for example I figured that her accepting a steady contact and flexing at the poll correctly would take weeks if not months to achieve, but yesterday after only 20 minutes or so she was starting to get the picture and carry her head more vertically, even if only for a few moments.  And even though I had to constantly push her harder than I normally have to and he wouldn't let me use the whip as much as I wanted to, I could still feel at times that I had much more "horsepower" at my disposal than usual.  So here are the pointers I can remember as well as the exercises we worked on - it looks really basic but believe me, it was extremely exhausting!

Warming up - walk / trot

• Spread hands to width of my body, elbows bent.
• Exterior hand remains still and firm with fingers closed, interior hand slowly spreads towards the center of the arena / circle flexing the head and neck inward and then back again, straightening the head and neck. Elbows remain bent!
• Repeat until the head and neck go down, then release (open fingers slightly) and add leg to maintain impulsion.  
• Repeat every time the head comes back up.  Walk and trot with this "lengthening" pattern.
• After several circles of her doing the exercise correctly, go large and release the reins so she can stretch down and forward, then change diagonal and repeat.

Normal work - walk / trot / canter

• Hands together near the withers, elbows bent.  Hands still.
• Fingers closed, leg on to maintain impulsion.
• If she fights the contact, keep elbows bent and fingers closed and wait.
• If she leans on the contact, give her more leg to move her forward until she lightens, then release (open fingers slightly).
• If she looks at something outside the arena, flex her head to the center by opening my inside rein as in the warm-up and then straighten her back up.
• Build up impulsion but don't allow her to advance before transition, then ask for transition with steady building leg pressure (not kicks) while maintaining contact.  Maintaining contact is key for a good balanced transition.
• I can use the whip lightly to increase / maintain impulsion, but always using the leg first.
• After several circles of her doing the exercise correctly, go large and release the reins so she can stretch down and forward, then change diagonal and repeat.
• End with forward trot on a long rein (but still with contact) several times around the arena.

Overall pointers:

• Never cross hands over the withers - one hand on each side of the withers
• Keep my elbows bent
• Keep my hands closed except for release
• Maintain steady but flexible contact at all times, even with long reins
• Sit up straighter (3 point seat)
• Legs behind the girth so I don't have to kick and can simply squeeze
• Steady leg pressure instead of kicks
• More leg than whip and always leg before whip
• Use whip more lightly, only enough to get a little more energy, not enough to startle

Try Different Things

This is Gladys with my mom standing next to her and aunt (to whom I owe this photo) sitting on the grass

My great-grandmother Gladys was a pretty amazing woman.  Born to a middle class family in a small town in low-country South Carolina, one might have expected her to lead a pretty uninteresting life, but she was determined to live the way she wanted to - travelling to places like Bermuda and pre-revolution Cuba (we still have some of the letters a lovesick Cuban she met while she was there sent her), entering dance contests and marrying a man whose job (a highway construction engineer) would take her all over the state.  And even though she passed away when I was a teenager and as far as I know she wasn't particularly horsey, I still have her to thank (vía my mother) for one of the best pieces of advice anyone could have given me about training horses or life in general.

I don't remember exactly which context it came up in, but years ago my mom and I were talking one day about caring for children - maybe when I was teaching English and had some challenging younger pupils.  I've never been much of a hand at keeping kids in line and my mom is the exact opposite - children are drawn to her and she knows how to maintain their interest so that they aren't even tempted to misbehave in a way which seems downright magical to me.  So when I came to her for help she passed on her grandmother's advice to her from years ago - the three magical words "Try different things".  Of course, at the time this wasn't the answer I was looking for - what I really wanted was a sort of magic bullet to keep kids enraptured with my presence with little or no effort on my part.  But what I realize now is that this attitude was really the problem - if I wasn't willing to expend the effort to try to keep a child's attention, how could I possibly expect them to go the extra mile and pay any attention to me?

I now (thank God) no longer have to deal with children except at holidays and when we have visitors, but those three little words have stuck with me through the years and when I got Starbuck and started reading up on training methods, I was so glad to have that advice.  Because what I've figured out is that although I really respect John Lyons as a trainer and I've learned so much from him, his methods just don't work for us 100% of the time.  Same goes with Pat Parelli, Alois Podhajsky, Carolyn Resnick, Reiner Klimke, you name it.  There are all these books and websites with surefire methods for training horses and I love the fact that all of this is available and am constantly reading up on new training theories and techniques.  But sometimes these recommendations just aren't right for you, or the horse, or your situation, or whatever.  So maybe what ALWAYS works for Carolyn Resnick because she has an amazing sense of timing and great connection with the horse, won't always work for me because I don't have the same talents.  I often find that even the most inspired method from an amazing trainer just isn't working, which can get frustrating until I remember my three magic words and I try different things.  In the end, trial and error takes longer and requires a lot more effort than just sticking entirely to one training method but I learn so much and like to think that I don't waste too much time (or Starbuck's good will) persisting in an attempt which just isn't working.

For instance this bit thing.  I had initially hoped that by using a stronger bit, Starbuck would become more sensitive and reactive to my rein aids so that I could go back to using the hackamore with a light contact at all times.  And this seemed to work great for a while, I've ridden her for a couple of weeks with the butterfly bit and at first it was a downlight delight.  But last week we had a couple of iffy moments culminating in a rodeo ride around the arena at a full gallop with me losing my stirrups and hanging on to her mane for dear life - the only way I could finally get her to stop was when she nearly ran into another horse.  And it's not like I had the reins flopping around, there was a definite strong contact the entire time but she just ran right through it.  And even when she's not freaking out I've noticed her starting to need more contact when she's fired up.  So graduating to a stronger bit?  Not working for us, but no biggie - it's just time to try something different.

So here's my new plan - to keep her guessing I'm going to alternate between the old D-ring snaffle I started her in, the hackamore and the butterfly bit.  No more than two days in a row with any of them for at least a few weeks.  I'm going to work a lot more on activating her hindquarters to keep her from leaning on my hands - the second she starts to get heavy on the bit I give her the aid for shoulder-in or haunches in until she lightens up.  And finally, I have to be really really careful to not give her the kind of constant contact she can "get used to".  We already started yesterday with the snaffle - she was obviously a little surprised by the change but responded pretty well.  There were a couple of scary moments where it would have been much easier to pull on the reins rather than to give her more leg and use less contact, but it worked and she lightened up nicely.  Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be on here complaining about something completely different and this whole running through the contact thing will be forgotten.

And even if we are still working on this weeks or months from now, we'll just keep on trying different things.

Trust

This is us a couple of years ago...

Trust is something that Starbuck and I still have to work on a lot.  To really get rid of her spookiness, I eventually need to prove to her that no matter what crazyness might be going on around us, I won't ever make her go anywhere truly perilous.  And I also need to be able to show her through my body language that what she sees as spooky (dogs barking, a flapping awning, garbage trucks) are not in fact anything to be worried about.  When we were out on our trail ride the other day Marina explained that Starbuck sees or hears something that scares her and however hard I fight it my immediate instinctual reaction is to tense up, which makes her think that I'm confirming the scariness of the object when in fact what I'm worried about is her reaction.  Marina broke it down as "you have to make her think that these scary things are like her own hallucinations - if she thinks that you don't see them at all she'll eventually start to ignore them."

But not being worried about her reaction is a lot easier said than done, especially for a nervous nellie like myself, so it also goes the other way - I need to be able to trust her as well.  And although technically last night's lesson was pretty disasterous I think we took a big step forward towards that goal.  Starbuck was a little spooky - at one point she actually bolted and we had to return to our "circle-circle-circle" routine for the first time since I changed to a bit - and I was a little tense both because of this and also for unrelated reasons.  So when Marina set up an excercise for jumps at a trot, the first few runs were pretty bad - Starbuck spooking in front of the bar and zigzagging in front of the jump, me leaning forward too soon and putting her weight on her forehand so that she runs through the jump instead of going over it, "goat jumps" as we call them here in Spain which is basically jumping from a standstill, me losing my balance and bumping her in the mouth with the bit - you get the picture.  After some coaching from Marina I was finally able to relax my body enough to go through the exercise without actually getting in Starbuck's way, but I was still far from happy with our performance.

The Exercise

The exercise was to ride an S-shape in trot through three low jumps - the first was a cross-rails obstacle to the left, then to loop back to a vertical bounce and then turn right to another cross-rails obstacle - see my lovely diagram above (I really should have been a graphic artist, dontcha think?)  Those little dots represent cones on either side to make sure we were straight through the bounce, and Marina asked some of the students with more reliable horses to close their eyes from cones to cones.  She explained that if you can see the jump, your body will automatically anticipate the jump and you'll lean forward too soon instead of letting the horse's movement "push" you into suspension.  If you can't see the jump, you have no option but to rely on "feel".  I liked this idea and so on our last run, I asked her if she thought it would be downright dangerous to take Starbuck through just the bounce with my eyes closed from cones to cones and when she said "no problem, go ahead" I took a deep breath and nudged her into trot.  We turned early and made it to the cones nice and straight, so I looked up ahead of the jump, closed my eyes and felt.  And we did the bounce pretty much perfectly!  Starbuck judged the distance perfectly, I moved when I was supposed to move, I didn't land hard on her back or bump her in the mouth afterwards and best of all I was rewarded by this amazing feeling of trust and accomplishment.  And after the lesson, Starbuck was rewarded with an extra large ration of the dried grass mix I give her as a treat.

In conclusion, I know it seems like a small achievement to some, but I think being able to ride my crazy little filly through a jump with my eyes closed is a major step forward for us on a path which will hopefully one day lead us to my ultimate goal - for us to trust each other enough to be able to do anything we set our minds to.

Vet Check

Just a quick note to record Tuesday's (24/04) vet check:

• Flu and Tetanus vaccine given.  We're not sure if she had her standard vaccinations as a baby but Marta the vet says that as long as she's healthy there's no reason why at this stage we should give her any more than the annual vaccinations.
• Manual checkup shows her to have some TMJ, neck and lower back pain and tension, probably brought on in part by the fact that I've started riding her a lot more, for longer periods of time and with more rein contact lately.  Marta recommends lots of massages with long, heavy strokes along the tense areas and plenty of relaxed groundwork to build the muscles she needs to carry me well.  Apparently she still needs to build a lot of muscle in her lower back, croup and quarters.
• I mentioned her movement was a little wierd sometimes, so the vet took a look at her while she trotted around the roundpen and said that she had some intermittent irregularities in both back legs which she thinks is being caused by the back pain more than anything else.  So more of the same, building muscle and trying to relax all that tension with massage.
• As far as all external and vital signs go she's AOK and Marta also says her weight condition and feeding regimen is good (I always think she looks skinny and worry she's not getting enough to eat).  So my plan is to do at least a little work every day, even if it's only 20 minutes of walk and trot in the roundpen, and also do a little bodywork every time I groom her.  And start incorporating long trot sessions of at least 5 minutes into our longeing and roundpen routine to build up that muscle.

Dressage followup

I thought this was so funny and just had to share... in Spain offices will often supply an annual medical checkup for their employees - basic bloodwork, vision, hearing and vitals check along with the doctor's advice for keeping your work environment as healthy and safe as possible, you know, all that having good posture, getting up and stretching once an hour, staying hydrated kind of stuff...

Anyhow today I had mine and the doctor after looking at my spine and posture said the following to me:

• You tend to keep your arms straight to get to the mouse and keyboard - try bending them at a 90º angle and you won't have as much shoulder tension.
• You're also hollowing your back and sticking out your butt too much, standing and sitting this way causes lower back pain.

Sound familiar?  It's almost word-for-word what Daniela told me in my dressage clinic on Sunday... These ladies have me pegged!  Apparently my riding posture and my office posture are similar, which is actually great if you think about it because I'll be able to "practice" a correct riding posture all day long :-)

Shameless Publicity and Inner Peace

When I was a teenager I remember hiking up Stone Mountain (the one in North Carolina) with my dad and him telling me that he would take that moment-- being up on top of the mountain breathing in the fresh clean air and watching the hawks circle above the beautiful patchworked landscape-- and savour it, bringing it back into his conciousness during the week at the office and using it to dispel moments of stress or boredom.  When you're a teenager such things seem wierd and cheesy-- you're too busy concentrating on the moment (is my hair ok? do I look fat? is she calling me stupid?) to think about anything else.  But more and more I've come to learn from the lesson my dad unwittingly gave me years ago and when I'm in a particularly beautiful or peaceful place I'll attempt to take in as many details as I can to be able to call up the sensation of being there at will.

One of these places which always inspires a feeling of inner peace and wonder at the beauty of our planet and the life which inhabits it is the Sierra de Gredos mountain range and foothills in central Spain.  It may not be as majestic as the Himalayas, as rugged as the Rockies or as picturesque as the Alps, but its understated yellow-dotted meadows with babbling brooks running through, its green-grey peaks often dusted with snow and its honest-to-goodness subsistence farmland and olive groves give it an element of absolute authenticity which makes one feel privileged to be permitted to take part in.  Its towns are charming, rustic and display many historical elements from centuries past, but you'll find few "reconstructions" catering to tourists.  Far more common are 200 year old private houses whose owners invite you in for sangría, medieval cathedrals still in use or half-ruined castles standing guard over the stoplights and subdivisions of modern life.

So what does this have to do with horses?  I've been lucky enough to discover a wonderful stable (Gredos Ecuestre) in the heart of this incredible countryside whose cheerful and caring owner, Gabriel, specialises in showing both outsiders and locals the hidden treats Gredos has to offer.  With the healthiest, happiest and most spirited herd of horses I've ever seen and always accompanied by midday tapas and sips from a shared wineskin, Gaby leads his groups through a surprising array of landscapes, over crystal clear rivers, along sandy creekbeds, up and down rocky mountainsides and through fairytale forests, ending nearly always with a shared picnic with his family back at the stable.  I've been on many routes with Gaby now, not least of which was a 5 day trek along the Camino de Santiago from O' Cebreiro to Santiago de Compostela, however when I need inspiration or inner peace I always bring up the feeling of riding through Gredos in good company (both human and equine).

At any rate, a while back Gaby sent a preview of some of this year's routes to me and I want to share them here, I highly recommend any and all of them and am more than happy to answer any questions you might have about travel plans, accommodations, the horses / facilities / skill level required or whatever.  You can contact Gaby for the prices but they're more or less in line with what you'd pay just about anywhere else in the region.  I'm saving up for the Full Moon Over Gredos ride myself and my big goal for Starbuck is to be able to take her on the Camino de Santiago with Gaby and friends next year...  He'll also "handcraft" a route for you based on your interests and group size if none of these work into your schedule.

• FEBRUARY: LA CANDELARIA AT EL ROCÍO

Horseback riding through the wetlands of Doñana National Park and in the picturesque village of El Rocío.
Days 2, 3, 4 and 5

• MARCH: FOLLOWING IN VIRIATO’S FOOTSTEPS

3 day ride through Mediterranean pasture land and oak forests, following the ancient paths and roads which Viriato used in his struggle against Roman domination of Iberia. Sierra de San Vicente (Toledo).
Days 17, 18 and 19

• MAY: CRISTO DE LA LUZ ROMERÍA (PILGRIMAGE)

Festive weekend filled with cookies, lemonade, ice-cold beer and great paths for galloping!
Days 26 and 27

• JUNE: CAMINO DE SANTIAGO-VÍA DE LA PLATA

First of several stages in order to travel by horseback from La Parra to Fisterre (the very end of the Camino de Santiago whose Latin name means “End of the World”). This year we’ll ride as far as Zamora.
Days 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9

• AUGUST: FULL MOON OVER GREDOS

We’ll ride up the Sierra de Gredos by moonlight yet again this year and enjoy a night camped out under the stars.
Days 2, 3 and 4

• OCTOBER: GR-10 FOLLOWING THE ALBERCHE RIVER

New territories await our discovery along the banks of the Alberche river.
Days 12, 13 and 14

Training Vid Tuesday

Two days later, I find that I'm still dealing with the aftershocks to my self-confidence and concience after our spooky ride on Sunday.  I've watched the video a few times and think that she's actually a lot calmer and behaved a lot better than I was giving her credit for, but I have a nagging unease which won't let me quite look forward to our next big-arena ride and am sure that my tension will be evident to her as soon as I climb into the saddle.  When reading stories from other trainers one of the phrases that stands out to me is "holes in their training" or "incomplete foundations", and I think that the spooking thing is just that-- something I should have focused more on from the start but just basically ignored, hoping she'd "grow out of it".  So I think that before I retry a ride in the big arena, I need to go back to basics and work up from there, not only to fill in these holes in her foundations but also to build my own confidence so I can be the fearless leader she deserves.

With this in mind, for the next couple of weeks we're going to go through some lengthly desensitizing sessions as well as drilling some under saddle exercises in the roundpen; here are some examples of things I hope will help us set up the building blocks for confidence and control while riding in an open space:

• Run up and rub
• Sack out with plastic bag while in motion (moving backwards, forwards and while longeing)
• Sack out with something noisy (shaking a can with beans, set my ringtone to loud, etc...) 
• Work on "spook in place" on scary side: Walk toward the house, rest and rub when she relaxes facing the house.  Longe for at least three circles when she spooks.  
• End sessions grazing on the scary side only.
• Drill simple patterns from saddle in roundpen (circle, figure eights, turn on hind- and forequarters, rein-back, walk with lateral flexion).
• Ride over cavalletti in the roundpen.
• Ride in roundpen with plastic bag on end of stick, sack out from saddle.

While I feel good about this plan, I also don't want the roundpen to be a crutch for us, so I also need to research some strategies for how to reassure and control Starbuck when we go back into the arena.  Enter today's training video featuring Clinton Anderson (yeah, yeah, I know, but you have to admit he's got some good ideas and is a great communicator) on how to handle a spooky horse under saddle.  He first refers to really getting your horse sacked out which I covered above and then talks about redirecting your horse's "spook" energy by moving her feet purposefully.  The idea is that every time she spooks, she gets a good ten minutes of serpentines, rein-backs, circles, and other exercises, with the final result being that she stops looking for things to spook at and starts striving to not give you any excuses for the extra workout.  One of the reasons I want to drill those patterns in the roundpen is so Starbuck can recognize the cues when I need to repeat them in the big arena.  I'm also going to ride with some cones or markers set in a triangle pattern which I think will make do cloverleafs, circles, eights, etc... much easier for ditsy ole me to remember to do.

Anyhow enjoy the video and happy training!

Training Vid Tuesday

Since Starbuck learned how to buck me off on Sunday I decided that today's training video should deal with just that-- it never hurts to be prepared just in case she decides to try to make a habit of playing rodeo.  This is obviously classic young horse stuff and the idea is that as soon as they figure out that it doesn't get the desired results, they stop doing it.  But a lot of greenies get nervous or tetchy about certain things (especially transitioning into canter) and keep bucking from time to time, which is the case of the horse in the video.


Lindsay Forkun of LFE Equestrian uses Natural Horsemanship techniques to break this horse's habit of bucking when cantering.  The idea is to first get a good solid canter without bucking while doing groundwork, then with a rider start out cantering for just a few strides and giving him a rest when he canters without bucking.  Since horses are conditioned reponse animals who learn by repetition, increasing the amount of strides bit by bit but allowing him the reward of resting after doing it well gets the horse to "practice" cantering without bucking, instead of "practicing" endless boring laps at the canter with intermittent bucks thrown in.   In other words, making the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy.

Hopefully Starbuck won't turn into a bucking bronc and thus I won't need to school it out of her, but I'm glad to have this elegant new trick in my arsenal anyway.  Also, a freebie I really enjoyed finding in this video is the "you can eat grass now" cue which I plan to teach Starbuck at some point... at the moment I've only got the "you CAN'T eat grass now" cue which only works about 70% of the time and I'd much rather she didn't try to graze on her own initiative.  But you gotta start somewhere, right?

And now for a something completely different:
This is just a random "training journal" note I wanted to record... While training during lunchtime today on the "scary" side of the arena near where the stable managers obviously keep ravenous yet invisible lions, tigers and bears, Starbuck freaked out, whirled around in her habitual spooky circle and slipped, falling smack down on her hips.  We had been doing some leading work up and down the side and when she finally relaxed a little I decided to let her graze along the fence line as a reward.  But something off to the side made a little noise and she absolutely panicked.  Since this happened when she was doing something she actually wanted to do (grazing) I guess the spooks are 100% real and not played up or a behavioural issue, I only hope that somehow she can come to trust me as her leader and realize that when she's with me she's not in danger.

She limped a little afterward and the first time I asked her to trot after the fall seemed like she was about to collapse on the leg which was under her when she fell, but then we walked around a little more and by the time I could ask stable owner Marina about it she was moving pretty well both at the walk and the trot.  So I hosed her down with cold water (it was pretty warm today and she was real sweaty from being so nervous) and gave her a little massage, but I'm going to go see her tonight to see how she's doing and give her some bute if she's stiff or swollen-- hopefully tomorrow she'll be fine but if not I'll call the vet.

I guess it's normal for young horses to be clumsy but I hope she grows out of this slipping and falling stuff or learns that these crazy sudden movements aren't all they cracked up to be, before she breaks something or I have a heart attack.

The Peanut Gallery

Thanks to ReelFilm.com for the pic!

• "You're gonna ride THAT?!?"
• "When are you going to stop spoiling her with all this groundwork and make her 'earn her keep'?" 
• "Don't let her run around like that-- make her stand still"
• "She'd lift her hoof better if you used treats"
• "You should be cantering, jumping, sidepassing, rein-backing, ${fill in the blank-ing} her by now"
• "Don't let her put her head down when you're leading her"
• "Whack her on the nose if she gets ahead of you"
• "Whack her with the whip if she acts up under saddle"
• "Whack her on her chest if she won't back up"

...and the list goes on...

I try to be impervious and optimistic and zen-- in other words a natural "herd leader"-- when things go wrong.  I figure that if I'm jumping around, waving my whip and yelling, there's no way Starbuck's going to calm down enough to pay attention to what I want.  Don't get me wrong-- while I have no problem at all cranking up the pressure with a well-placed swat if I see those hindquarters swing my way or if my more subtle cues are being completely ignored, I strive to be judicious and calm and never let anything get me riled in front of Starbuck.  But when she's acting up (as I may point out, even professionally-trained 3 year olds tend to do from time to time) and just about anyone other than my instructor criticizes her behaviour or gives well-meant but unwanted advice, I have to admit I get my back up.

Often this ends with me pretending I haven't heard or understood whatever was said (one of the perks of being a foreigner) and if I'm already in a bad mood or feeling frustrated I have a bad habit of biting the speaker's head off.  I really need to work on changing both of these reactions though, since I'm lucky enough to be at a barn where my mostly-successful attempts to train a crazy-green horse have been not only allowed and indulged but encouraged at every step by wonderful and caring friends and every one of these comments have been made with the best of intentions.  I also need to remember that I've learned so much from trying different things out and seeing what doesn't work for Starbuck and I.  But the real reason I need to stop telling myself to "just ignore them" is that on the few occasions when I've kept myself under control, my civil and reasonable reply has made for some really valuable discussions about different styles of horsemanship.

So what started out as a "bitch-post" has morphed into the following idea: If we could all get off our high horses and use these moments to have some truly soul-searchingly honest conversations about the training or riding methods that have worked for us as well as why we reject or suggest certain techniques, keeping an open mind and not trashing other people's perspectives in the process, I think the equestrian world would be a much better place.  And this starts with listening to everyone, no matter how much experience or technique or money they have and no matter how "harsh" their criticism or "useless" their advice seems to be.  If you decide to go with your initial instinct, no harm is done.  But when we listen to others and consequently start an exchange, you open the door to a whole new world of possibilities.

And if you get really lucky, you might just find that you've been decieving yourself and really do have a problem which you can now fix before it becomes even worse, or your response to a piece of "advice" or "critique" just might make someone else reconsider a long-held but ultimately mistaken belief.

Training Vid Tuesday

Lately I've been having some trouble with Starbuck getting all worked up and squirrelly, especially around the tying posts and the "scary" side of the arena.  For instance, for two days in a row she's gone completely crazy when I was grooming her and then the walk from the tying posts to wherever we'll be working in the arena is adventurous to say the least.  She no longer barges into me or tries to run over me (yay!!!) but she still prances around in a circle and won't stay in leading position at all, getting ahead of me and swinging her hindquarters around and whatnot.  So I've been rereading everything from my Resources page on teaching your green horse to lead and looking for new tactics.

My mentor Marina (and John Lyons for that matter) say that this is normal for a young horse, that they'll do well for a few weeks or months, then get worse, then get better, then go not so bad and only after all that will they finally internalize a skill or cue 100%.  So I guess she's just on the downside of her overall learning curve-- that and we've had a lovely, windy, sunny and crisp winter so far-- just the kind of weather which makes even the retired 30 year old lesson horses kick up their heels.  

Anyhow I found this video from reining trainer Jodi Wilson which I liked due to its somewhat novel premise: you teach your horse to lead backwards with her head down and in line with the human's shoulder, then start taking a few steps forward.  I especially like it because of the importance it places on your horse's posture when it backs up so that it doesn't turn into a flight response or cause your horse to hollow out his back which can lead to soreness and bad habits under saddle.  Hope you enjoy it, I'm going to give it a try by working around the arena towards the scary side!

Approach and Retreat

A few days ago I got ahold of Clinton Anderson's Starting Under Saddle DVD series and I've been checking it out.  This guy drives me crazy trying to sell stuff every 30 minutes and he's got the same cheesy catchphrase charisma that Pat Parelli does, but he sure is good at getting his ideas across and teaches useful solution for common training problems.  Yesterday I already taught Starbuck one of his sending exercizes, where the trainer stands to the side of the horse and gets them to move forward back and forth between the trainer and a fence.  I think that in combination with the other nuggets of information these DVDs are going to be really useful!

One of the things that this guy preaches along with nearly all the other bastians of Natural Horsemanship is the "Approach and Retreat" method.  Basically, you move forward with your training until you get the response you want (either for the horse to stand still and do nothing for desensistizing exercizes or for them to move some body part for sensitizing exercizes).  So if your horse is afraid of the flyspray, you just keep spraying at them until they stand still and then take it away.  Of if your horse won't move off when you tell them to, you just increase the pressure and consistently cue them to move until they do, then instantly stop whatever you were doing to "convince" them.

Sound familiar?  That's right, it's the old "the release is the reward" concept.  But what really came home to me with his method is that concept can be used even for lesson planning.  In other words, you get your horse to move her feet, then reward her by letting her stand still, then you reward her for standing still by letting her move her feet, and so on.  So before and after each and every sensitizing (get the horse to move) exercize, he adds a desensitizing exercize.  And I'm not talking about just giving your horse a quick rubdown with the longe whip, I'm talking about 5 - 15 minutes of sacking out with different stuff after every "workout".

I tried this yesterday in a loooooooooooooooooooong training session with Starbuck and it went great!  She usually gets a little burned out after about an hour of training, even when I switch it up a lot and do different stuff.  But before I was just paying attention to her mental and physical state and making sure she didn't get too tired or bored and actually was making the mistake of quitting certain exercizes when she "told" me she didn't like them (pawing the ground or whatnot), thus rewarding her for being uncooperative.  So up until now a standard lesson plan would be like this and would last between an hour and an hour and a half:

1. Grooming, tacking up and lifting hooves.
2. Start with a little low key longeing at the walk and trot using the rope halter.
3. Low key porcupine game, then a quick rubdown.
4. Some more longeing at the walk, trot and canter using the bit.
5. Backing and leading work.
6. Some more porcupine game for fore- and hindquarter yielding and sidepasses.
7. Finishing with a rubdown from the mounting block and / or a brisk walk around the stable yard or parking lot with lots of stops, turns, circles and back-ups.
8. Grooming, untacking and lifting hooves.

Yesterday however I made sure to squeeze at least 5 minutes of desensitizing exercize (sacking out, rubbing, grooming, etc...) between each sensitizing exercize; so the lesson plan went like this and lasted about 3 hours, without her ever getting too bored or tired:

1. Grooming, tacking up and lifting hooves (D).
2. Low key longeing at the walk and trot (S).
3. Flapping the longe whip back and forth to her right and left (D).
4. Some more longeing until she cantered easily in both directions (S).
5. Twirling the longe whip overhead (D).
6. Sending through between me and the fence where that scary new lamp post is (S).
7. Rub down with longe whip and hands, adjusting tack (D).
8. Roundpenning to get consistent direction changes toward me (S).
9. Rubbing and lightly slapping hands all over body, lifting hooves at liberty (D).
10. Sending at liberty between me and the roundpen fence (S).
11. Putting on and taking off bridle, lifting hooves (D).
12. Yielding the hindquarters to indirect feel (craning head towards hindquarters, pointing with longe whip), direction changes (S).
13. Putting on and taking off bridle, lifting hooves, bunny hopping (D).
14. Porcupine game on fore- and hindquarters, lateral flexion of the neck (S).
15. Adjusting tack at tying posts, rubbing, putting on and taking off bridle (D).
16. Longeing with the bit at the walk and trot, giving to the bit to the right and left (S).
17. Rubbing "from above" and half-mounting at mounting block (D).
18. Sending one step at a time from mounting block (S).
19. Grooming, untacking and lifting hooves (D).

I think if I can make sure to remember to plan lessons in this way in the future and to NEVER quit an exercize because she's not doing it well or is bored but just go back to the starting point and practice where she was doing it well, I'll have a much easier time of it!

How to...

Build a roundpen for less than 50€!

1. Buy, beg or borrow 8 to12 thin fiberglass posts (preferably 6 feet long and no less than 4 1/2 feet long), 2 screw-on insulators for each post, two insulated handles and about 300 feet of electric fence tape (our horses respect this kind of fences so we don't have to connect it but if your horses aren't familiar with or don't respect electric fencing, you'll need an energizer to electrify the tape).
2. Get out a 20 to 30 foot longe line (20 feet for a 40 foot diameter roundpen, 25 feet for a 50 foot diameter roundpen and so on...).
3. Find a friend and ask them to stand in the center of where you want your round pen to be holding one end of the longe line.
4. Hold the other end of the longe line and walk around them in a circle, imagining that your friend is the center of a compass.
5. Mark the ground clearly (the actual direction doesn't matter, this is just to visualize where to put your marks) at N, E, S and W, then at NE, SE, SW and NW (if you make a 60 foot roundpen you'll have to make two marks between each "cardinal" direction).
6. Choose where you want your "gate" to be and mark the ground accordingly.
7. Hammer your posts in at each mark (helps if you do it after a particularly rainy day) until the posts are firmly set in the ground.
8. Screw your two insulators on each post at roughly the same height; the upper one should be about 3 1/2 to 4 feet off the ground and the lower one about halfway down.
9. Tie the tape where your "gate" opening will be and wrap the tape all the way around the top of the fence, snapping it into the upper insulator at each post, then looping completely back around the bottom of the fence, snapping into each lower insulator.
10. When you get to back to the door, tie or fasten the electrical tape firmly to the gate "hinge" post so that when the door is opened, the rest of the fence won't droop.
11. Tie or otherwise attach your handles so that they can just be hooked around the far gate post with a little stretching.
12. If you're using an energizer, connect it up and voilà!  You've just built a roundpen in under two hours and for less than 50€ (not counting the energizer)!!!

Before you get started, be sure to check out these safety tips:

• This roundpen is NOT sturdy enough for wild, extremely green or very spooky / nervous horses who are afraid of humans: they'll run into or over it in a heartbeat.
• It's a good idea to wear a helmet, especially if it's the first time your horse has worked in the roundpen: they tend to get rebellious at one point and can kick or strike out at you.
• The most dangerous situation is when your horse won't move off and you have to get in close to make it drive away from you, so be sure to use a flag, longe whip or your twirling rope as an extension of your arm.
• Extended roundpen (or longeing) sessions on extremely hard or soft footing are bad for your horse's legs-- hard terrain jars their bones and soft terrain can cause muscle and joint strain.
• If your horse is sweating profusely, having trouble breathing or stumbling constantly, back off and let him rest!  If you make sure he's facing you while he's resting, he learns that standing still and looking at you is a good, comfortable thing.

And here is a link to my previous post on different NH roundpenning techniques, so go out and enjoy your new toy!  

Stop!

Recently a lot of people have been asking me when I'm going to ride Starbuck for the first time and I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll do it in the next few weeks.  She's starting to really respect my personal space-- I've achieved a bubble of about 1 foot (I need to expand it but it's a good start) and is much more controllable when leading in new environments.  I've also been longeing her in different places to get her to practice focussing on me and my cues even when there are wierd new things around.

One of the most frequent questions I get about the first ride is "What will you do if she starts going and you can't stop her?".  Well, according to John Lyons and Elisabeth de Corbigny, the hardest part of a horse's first ride is usually getting them to move their feet, not getting them to stop moving.  But I've been reading up and the basic idea is to take advantage of changes of direction using the reins to cause a natural slowing down and keep working on that until it develops into a stop.  In other words, instead of just hauling back on the reins which will cause the horse a lot of pain and could cause her to bolt or at the very least stick her head up in the air to avoid the pressure, you keep on riding her with light contact and changing direction using one rein at a time until she stops of her own accord, then you release the reins to let her know she's done the right thing.

Here are some videos from John and Josh Lyons (John's son) which talk more about improving those stops and gaining control over your horse's speed.  Enjoy!

Report Card

A few weeks ago I found an interesting website with different forums for horse issues like conformation critiques, training advice and lots of other stuff.  So I posted a question about Starbuck spooking into me or dragging me around and got a lot of answers, some more useful than others.  But one great thing that came of it is that I got some terrific advice from someone who's trained a lot of young horses and now manages a ranch (Colored Cow Horse Ranch) dedicated to breeding Quarter Horses with distinctive paint patterns.

She has a list of things that any young horse should know how to do before he or she is ridden for the first time and that this list allows the will-be rider to make pretty darn sure that the horse will be ready for just about anything you can throw at it once you're on its back.  The idea is to give your horse a grade from -5 (Horse tries to kill you when you ask him to do it) to 5 (Horse does it easily and eagerly), with 0 being that you haven't tried this yet or the horse has no idea what you want him to do.  If you do this right, you don't get on its back until you get consistent 4s or 5s on all the items.  Now I'm anything but patient and am pretty sure some things like trailering will have to wait until after I've ridden her (not least because I don't have access to a trailer), but I do plan on trying for a good grade on most of the issues before I hop up on Starbuck for the first time.

So here's the original list; I like this idea so much that I've created a page where I can keep track of our "grades" over the months and years, adding some of my own requirements along the way:

1.)  Horse steps back from stall or pen door/gate and allows room for person to enter.
2.)  Horse accepts person within stall or pen without resistance (no evasion, no aggression...pinned ears, ugly faces, butt turns, tail lashing etc.)
3.)  Horse drops head with touch cue to poll or verbal cue
4.)  Horse puts nose into halter on his own, stands quietly for buckling or tying of halter
5.)  Horse waits for stall door/pen gate to open and does not move toward/through until handler indicates...either follows or goes ahead as indicated by handler....does NOT crowd.
6.)  Horse stands for grooming (cross tied, single tied, ground tied) including face, ears, mane pulling, mane/tail braiding if indicated by breed/discipline, clipping, bathing, sprays of water or fly spray incl. pressurized spray cans
7.)  Horse picks feet up with verbal or touch cue (all four) and doesn't put them down until told to do so...does NOT pull back or attempt to remove foot from handler/farrier hands....tolerates tapping, nippers, hoof knife etc.
8.)  Horse leads with head in location accepted/expected by handler (will vary by breed/discipline) without any pressure on lead, stops when handler stops, turns with handler without lead pressure.
9.)  Horse stands without pulling, fussing, fidgeting while tied or being held by handler or ground tied.
10.) Horse moves out on lunge line as asked without hesitation or resistance at gait requested.
11.) Horse works loose in round pen on verbal cues for speed/direction, changes of direction, inside/outside turns, stops on "whoa", stands either parallel to rails or facing handler (depending on how he's trained), comes to handler only when called.
12.) Horse moves shoulders, hindquarters to minimal pressure (from "look" to direct hand pressure to cue from lead rope end or presence of whip) without fear or fussing...from both sides.
13.) Horse sidesteps to pressure to shoulder/hip alternated or to pressure mid barrel or to verbal cue, from both sides and without fear or fussing.
14.) Horse steps back with verbal cue, hand cue, slight halter pressure.  Does so with diagonal steps and without resistance and does so in straight line.
15.)  Horse stands for desensitizing with tarps, pool noodles, balloons, saddle blankets, horse blankets, umbrellas, noise makers, ropes under/over/around feet/tail/belly/head without fussing or evading.
16.)  Horse tolerates ropes around legs/body/under tail, over head/ears, will lead with one front leg rope, will stand hobbled without fighting, fussing.
17.)  Horse leads without halter or bridle (bare headed) through trail obstacle course including backing through patterns such as serpentine poles.
18.)  Horse goes through narrow spaces on cue from trainer (sends) and returns.
19.)  Horse loads into various types of trailers...stock, straight load. slant load, ramp or stepup, stands and waits to be tied, hauls without fussing, waits to unload on cue.
20.)  Horse stands for tacking without fussing....cross tied, single tied, ground tied.
21.)  Horse drops head and opens mouth on touch or verbal cue to take bit and waits for crownpiece to go over ears.
22.)  Horse responds to light contact with bit to move head laterally (single direct rein).
23.)  Horse flexes at poll with light contact with bit (both reins)
24.)  Horse ground drives straight, circles, figure 8's, through obstacles, backs, sidepasses, stops, goes at all three gaits on cue, without resistance.
25.)  Horse stands for stirrups to be moved back/forth and slapped against side
26.)  Horse stands for rider to step into stirrup on both sides and "half mount", lean over saddle, brush over rump with arm.
27.)  Horse stands tied or ground tied to be untacked without fussing.
28.)  Horse opens mouth and drops bit on cue without pulling or throwing head or rubbing on handler/rider.