The Art of Natural Dressage

Sorry Brittany, I was referring to the video...I wasn't very clear on that.

I was sure some of the same horses were in the book too, but now I'm at work and my book is at home.

The Kladruber (proper spelling according to Google) horses that I can find on Google (try Google Images with this name) don't seem to be built the way the one is in the video...with the front legs angled so far back. So it must be something individual to the Kladruber stallion in the video. I thought it might be a breed trait.

New videos up:

Tam's fourth ride:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9zjoPr9mJ8

Spanish Walk (with and without a pool noodle)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3ZG-2QNHno

Karen that is so awesome! I really hope this is how Cody's first ride goes. I think you did amazingly well. I am so impressed. Keep the videos coming, I really like them!

You are saying about the horse with his legs way under him, this is actually a very common stance problem, and usually has nothing do do with the posture, but the feet. Horse's with any kind of heel pain will stand with there front legs behind their shoulder to weight their toe. The opposite of a founder stance, where they are weighting they're heels. Usually once you fix the hoof problem, the posture corrects itself. Of course a horse who is built very back at the knee is quicker to stand this way, but still if it is done a lot it is usually a sign of heel pain.

A lot of gaited horses stand like this, and a lot of gaited horse have extreme heel pain (causing heel pain makes a horses action higher, thus they gait quicker). So of course now most people think it is a gaited-breed stance to stand like this, while it isn't at all, it's a hoof problem.

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If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.

Karen, you and Tam look amazing! WOW, this is fantastic

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Best wishes,
Jolanda
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our introduction with photos: http://www.artofnaturaldressage.com/viewtopic.php?t=744

Thanks Brittany and Karen for the feedback! I was thinking about this position in Yoga class and it seems similar to the Cat, where you are on all 4s and arch your back and hollow your abdomen????

Anyway, I worked on front feet on a pedestal(sort of...an upsidedown water trough!) today, and Lucy loved it! Wow is she BIG when she's standing on it! Also worked on just getting her to lift and /or move her hind feet a bit forward. I like how it is making her think!!

Brenda

Karen this is just super! You really did a great job preparing Tam for this early riding! He is so attentive and eager it's just beautiful! Love the 'almost' canter! Do you wish (a little?)you could have just went with that???

An inspiration to many of us I'm sure! Thanks for sharing your experience!

Did anything interesting happen in rides #2 and 3??? Did you have any lightbulb moments? Do you remember what your first steps were when you got back on???

[quote]Spanish Walk (with and without a pool noodle)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3ZG-2QNHno[/quote

This was great too! I was just working with Lucy yesterday with more knee targeting and felt that I didn't know where to go next so watching you with Tam gave me a good picture!!!! I think I need to progress from standing to walking with the targeting?? It seems like they get some momentum going and it helps bring the shoulder into play and gets more height??

Were you using your whip across his legs the same as the noodle?? I couldn't really see... Also, do you have a cue in mind for when you ride???

VERY nice, great training! Thanks!

Brenda

Wooow, this is really wonderful and he's so flexible and attentive and sensitive! Perfect! I like that you reward him a lot

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"Never just follow the crowd." Margaret Thatcher

You can see in my diary that the stepping under of the hind legs went better in my mind than it did in reality !

But I have to remind myself that this is not magic...is good, steady, careful and kind training, and everything we do will take as much time as it takes. When one has no real control other than what the horse will allow you to have, you really don't want to be getting pushy, forceful or impatient! Dear little Tam is being a very good boy to work through all this with me, and I'm best off never to forget that

I have pieced together the last bits of video footage that I had.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2r6U_3wDGI

No riding in this one...just some ground work.

I would still like to video some of our work in hand. As soon as I can, I will!

Karen, again, this is great!
Tam is so willing and so attentive, he is a joy to watch! I find him a real talent!
Very inspiring for us, so thank you for sharing this video too

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Best wishes,

Jolanda

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our introduction with photos: http://www.artofnaturaldressage.com/viewtopic.php?t=744

Very nice video again!! And great that you have found a way to practise circling around his own axis! He already looks very professional while doing that. Did you use the tiger for practising it as you had planned to? Really great, I will certainly try this with Summy.

Romy, do you mean the circles where I am next to him and neck-reining him with the cordeo?

For that movement, that is basically how he chose to respond to it. I had more of a "turn on the haunches" in mind, but he chose differently

The turns where he turns away from me, then comes back to me (without using the cordeo), yes, THAT one stemmed from using the tiger-on-a-stick. We're still refining that one. He's turning a little faster and more sure than he was a few weeks ago, but it would be nice if he would agree to put a little more energy into it yet. A spin would be REALLY nice, but I don't think he has the confidence in his own feet to do that yet. We'll have to see how that one develops.

The little bit where I ask him to jump one way, then the other (he's done it much better at times, but just not on video) is what I hope will one day become a balancer? Maybe. A long way off for that one unless I get a little more coordinated with my body language. I think I am the one holding that movement back. A dancer, I'm NOT!

Getting him to chase me, then I can duck ina different direction quickly will help with that I hope...then I still have to get more consistent with my body language.

In his "turn away from me" in the "goofing around" part, my request actually looks like I am asking him to simply go the other way. No wonder he stopped and looked confused

I think the real key to liberty work (as opposed to just playing) is good, clear body language, and I'm not very good at that. Not yet. I do hope to get better.

Woooowwwww Karen!!!! I really enjoyed watching all your videos et to see how thing going well with Tamarack!!!!
How old he is, how long time are you working together? For howe long time are you working on laying down?
He seems very glutton loll i wonderring how many pound of treath you can give him every week lolll

I really love his montain goat, hios front crunch he almost perfect and he is very easy to give you vertical flexion. Very nice to see your work and continue to add videos regularly

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i will add text later

That´s what I meant. It already looks great, as I remember that it was not long ago when you have written about the idea of training it. I think that the energy can improve by using mimicry a bit more: First you cue the moving away from you as you already do it (haha, that will be the hardest part for me, because my horses and me are totally out of training with everything that has to do with moving away!) and then you bend to the other side (as you already do). Then you have to find the point where he makes the first attempt of moving towards you and quickly bend your body backwards/sideways or even do a little jump away. I think that it´s best to adjust the speed of this turning away to his own speed. In that way you have a good chance that he will stay connected to you. Imagine you are pulling him with your physical and mental energy (at liberty of course ). If you are too slow, you keep him away from you. If you are too fast, the "mental rope" will be torn apart. So the trick is to be just a little bit faster than him and in that way take him with you in your movement.



With "balancer", do you mean rearing/jumping left, right, left, right... with the frontlegs while staying in place with the hindlegs? I don´t remember that scene from your video (I will watch it again!), but I so much agree with you that for this exercise, timing and coordination is really the key. And body position as well, because with the position that was optimal in one second, you are behind the horse´s movement in the next second. The trick is here to turn to the opposite direction exactly in the moment before/while the horse is landing. If you wait until he has landed, you disconnect the flow of the movement and then the energy will already be out. If you turn too early, you will disturb him in his movement... I am working on this with Titum at the moment and it is indeed the exercise where I have to concentrate most on what I am doing.

And don´t worry about the body language - Tamarack seems to be such a great teacher for that!!

Tam got here late last May. So we've been working together for about nine months (going on ten!). Tamarack is 3 years and 8 months old.

Lying down took a long time! Maybe two or three months (not every day of course). He still has to think about it before he lies down! He sniffs and paws and shuffles his back feet around until it feels Juuuuuuust right.



Yes, well I'm not all that good about defining my space. We just began working on being a touch more polite when taking the treats. I'm a little inconsistent, so it's harder for him to learn. I'm also just beginning to treat him a bit less on things he already knows, and not treating him for so-so attempts. No one can ever accuse me of being a really good clicker trainer. I go through TONS of treats! They are called "crunches"...they are a feed extender, I think. Anyway, they are low in sugar, so I use them...quite...lavishly



His ramener was the FIRST thing we worked on. We work on that consistently and often. I wanted that to be his default behaviour - the thing he would offer most on his own, and so it was easier to add it to other movements. His Goat took quite a long time too. The front crunch happened quite quickly. I used that (borrowed the cue of putting a hand on the top of his leg from Bettel's videos) to help him understand to lean back for the one-knee bow, and then was able to separate it from the bow and work on it just a little on it's own. He figured that one out really fast. He still sometimes bends his knees, but if I set it up carefully and make sure he is standing square in the front first, he does it really good.

Thank you!!! I will do some more video as sunshine and good weather permit.

But we have a long way to go to be as polished as Nirvana, but I think I am the biggest problem that holds us back. I struggle to be consistent. It is the hardest thing for me because I get lost in what we're doing and forget to think about where I am, how I am standing, whether I am asking the same way all the time, etc.

Romy wrote:



You are absolutely right! I have got my timing better a few times (maybe three??) and he will do the last bit of the turn with a little jump. So yes, if I can get my timing right, it will help him so much. Your description gives me a GREAT mental picture...now, if I can just make my body do it when Tam is there with me. ..



Yes! That movement! There is that timing again I'm not surprised you missed it in the video...it was so slow and clumsy that it really doesn't resemble a balancer in any way. He is actually stepping over with the outside leg on one turn, which would be very wrong for Balancer. I have (again, off camera) done it right one time. Tam was having his crazy, do-everything-with-too-much-enthusiasm day and he bounced back and forth with me a couple of times, and then I got him to just sort of lean one way then the other several times at once without moving his feet (but his front feet sor tof spread apart in a correct way - just not lifting the feet). But since then, I haven't got it again. This again is the thing he will pick up quickly if I can get it right in my own body! In the video I am too slow and my movment is too big and out of time with Tamarack.

Poor Tam...I'm holding him back from his potential . But he is teaching me many wonderful things, and posting here, teaches me even more!