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I have a question about the bow> I try now to do it with Aranka since a while now but it doesn't work really well... And she try so hard! She put her head REALlY far between her front legs but she never stectches her legs...I tried the same and holding a leg at the same time, it worked a little bit better but she did a really fast movement down (She actually did a "full" bow on one knee, for 1 mili second
) and she go as quickly as possible back to stand up to get her treat... I am really careful with this; I am afraid she gonna hurt herself doing it so fast
BUt I can I make her understand to first stretches her front legs and second relaxes and keep the pose?
You have two really good ideas already! If she's going down too hard, then simply spend more time on the in between phase. If you are supporting her leg as she tries to bow, then support the leg a little lower and reward her attempt BEFORE she goes down. Do this for a while...as long as you can and actually avoid touching down to the ground. The reason for this is twofold.
1) The first reason is for yourself. It will teach you how to watch for and reward the technical parts of the movement...HOW she does it from her first set up to the motion of leaning back and down and finally how she touches down. Reward her for good quality of movement. Watch for, and reward ANY tiny attempt to lean back, and you will probably find that as she learns to just lean back, she will begin to move her hind legs farther back to give herself more room to bow. As she relaxes about the whole process (from being able to spend so much more time on the act of leaning back and down), she will get better and better and more careful. Tam spent about a year learning how to bow carefully.
2) The act of setting up for the bow (moving the hind feet back, leaning slightly back, lowering the head) will all work muscles that she will need for better control of her own movement. This is not a very natural move for a horse to make, and it's worth spending the extra time to help her develop the muscles she'll need to bow in a strong, balanced and controlled way.
Also, for a one knee bow, not all horses find their balance with the head between the legs. For an obeisance, yes (where both legs are stretched out in front and they lean back without folding a leg). That one seems to work better for some horses with the head between the legs. But the bow on one knee is different, and she may find her balance with a different head position.
So I would not concentrate on that particular part of the movement for right now and rather do as Romy suggests and see if you can convince her to allow you lean her back. Actually, the cordeo is a VERY good tool for this. You can support one leg for her then gently pull back on the cordeo.
The first thing you want to reward her for is simply lowering her head when you pull back and down on the cordeo, without moving her feet at all. Reward for this until she will drop her head as soon as you pull back on the cordeo (or as soon as you ask her to with a halter and lead rope, or if you are doing it with a verbal cue that's fine too).
The second thing is to support one leg and ask her to drop her head. Reward for this until she's really sure about this part.
The third thing is for her to drop her head with her leg supported, then to allow you to lean her back a little You can gently pull back on the cordeo AND her leg, but only move her leg back an inch or tow to start...reward often for very small progressions. If she adjusts her own stance by moving a hind leg further back, reward for that a lot before moving on. She will decide if she needs to widen her stance at all. Some horses don't. But reward for the slightest, tiniest shift backward, or for any other thing she does to help herself.
Then all you have to do is progress it very slowly. At some point she will be leaning back and she will lower herself. Set her leg back down gently, always...do not drop it. It is really nice to help her right herself again and hold her leg until you can set it back where it started from, but it's not essential. Wherever you set her leg down, try to do it carefully and not to just drop the leg.
Making sure the ground is very soft where you are practicing is good too. If it's not soft enough, you can put padding and wraps on her leg to protect it.
Later on, you can add in the head between the legs (and the horse will do a one knee bow with their forehead on the ground) if you wish.
I hope this is helpful!! The key is to not hurry. Set it in your mind that you don't want her knee to touch the ground at all, and you want to reward a lot for all the tiny components that go into a bow...and she will probably progress to kneeling on the ground before you know it!