The Art of Natural Dressage

Working with the Horse's Initiative
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:29 pm 
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Fantastic, Volker and Mucki! He is looking so cool when he is doing it. :) And great that you are making progress too, Jessie and Marina! :)

We had not made any progress over the last few days, but also not done any serious training with me doing anything differently than before, so this was not really a surprise. We came to a point where Summy seemed to be getting really bored of it, without improving the movement at all. Today I wanted to see whether I can work with twig pressure from behind, but this only made him stand there and yawn without even making an attempt to move. Luckily, I have to say, because in that way we found the solution.

I said to him "okay, if you don't want to work, we can simply trim your hooves" because this is something we needed to do anyway and as I was expecting no success in our school halt training with his attitude (and mine) anyway, this seemed like a perfect day for it. But once I came with the rasp and chair (which we use to put the hooves on), he started nickering and enthusiastically put a hoof on the chair all by himself. So I trimmed a bit and when he moved his hoof away, I asked for another weight shift, just for fun. And wow, what a powerful school halt he did! So we kept on switching between the two, carrying over his enthusiasm from the trimming to the weight shifts. I also stood more beside him between his belly and hindquarters. Actually this was by accident, but it seemed to help a lot as well. So I really got into it, crouching down with lots of power myself and he did the same.

He produced several low rears in between, but with more hindleg engagement than he has ever done, so I rewarded for that just as much. Once or twice he even touched his hind hooves with the front hooves when coming down, so you can imagine how far he had put them under his body. So in summary the lesson I learned today, again, was that the most important thing was to keep the fun and enthusiasm, and if this means that we cannot do pure school halt trainings, we simply have to mix them with other things that get his motivation up. :)

Oh, and now I almost forgot to write about Titum and Pia. For Titum I do not have much to say, because he still does the most lovely long and low (10-20 cm) rears, and I do not really know what else to ask for. I guess I will make a video and show you, so that you can give us some suggestions for improvement. And Pia the little cutie also has improved her school halt attempts. After I have focused on getting her weight off that frontleg, she now does her little rears more often again, but the school halts in between look less stiff and it seems that she is using her hindlegs much better. With her it helps a lot now to focus on the hindlegs just at the moment before I ask for a school halt, for example by pointing to them or doing a tongue click (which resembles the sound I am making when asking for a capriole). I cannot really pinpoint what exactly has changed for her, it just seems that she is representing the whole thing more as a "hindleg exercise" now.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:06 pm 
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Thank you all! It's so nice how that exercise is inspiring everyone here :applause: I thought at first, that I would just read and watch here, but thanks to Mucki's initiative I'm really into it now ;). It's a bit more about rearing, but with Mucki it's quite easy to keep the energy low and work on just the weight shift. Only problem so far is that my cue is given from in front of him so far and from there I cannot properly see what he's doing with his hind-legs. I will have a look if I can transfer it all to the side of him and cue him from there...

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:06 am 
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Thank you to everyone who is posting. I've been practicing with Magik about 3 times a week. But so far, he's not really showing any sign of improving.
1) he does back up, on his own, in the corner, where we practice. He seems to like this exercise since I'm treating for every try
2) I stay at his side and can see his weight moving to his hind but just slightly.
3) he lifts a front leg but like a leg up. He doesn't seem to put his weight on the hind at the same time.

I'll continue practicing and when he does show some improvement, I'll post a video.

Please continue posting videos. I learn so much from them.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:52 pm 
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Had an interesting session with Mucki again yesterday. I was able to transfer my cue for hind-leg engagement from in front of Mucki to beside of him. I was working with reins and caveson for that, asking for a slight bend of the neck towards me, then a lift of the inside front leg and then the weight shift back. That way he soon combined all things together and did variations from School Halt to low rear.

Another remarkable thing happened that showed me yet again so clearly that in order to get a specific exercise done, I must not look at just the one exercise, but all parts of the movement as a whole.
I already mentioned that I was very reluctant at first to start with the School Halt. I thought it was much too early for Mucki and that I needed more preliminary exercises first. So I never really worked on the actual School Halt, but on weight shifts back, knee targeting and everything that would strengthen his hind-legs. Then when Mucki got so very energetic lately when the temperatures dropped and he couldn't move as much in the winter paddock, I used that energy as well to get more engagement from the hindquarters with wild games at liberty.
When all those things fell together, we suddenly seemed to have reached a critical mass of precursors and I got so many things at once which I hoped for for a long, long time: his first rears, the School Halt and calm, controlled canter! :cheers:

How all that worked together was made apparent to me when I did some chin targeting yesterday. Mucki is supposed to touch my open palm with his chin, which results in a Ramener movement. The collected quality of the Ramener triggered in Mucki a general response for even more collection in the whole body. So by just holding my hand to his chin he did School Halt and even rears, although that cue was never used in that context before.
For me it was a clear sign of Mucki's ability to generalise and that many of the exercises we did before were necessary to get him to that point of training. It's all a big puzzle of interlocking pieces...

When Mucki felt powerful enough to bend his haunches it didn't matter to him if it was in a Levade or a School Halt. And when he felt the strength of his hindquarters, he was suddenly confident enough to canter around me at liberty in wonderfully collected jumps - which he did yesterday as if it was nothing :yeah:.
So thank you all for getting me to try School Halt - it opened a new dimension to us :thumleft:

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 1:02 pm 
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Pops has been having fun doing this lately and here is a bit of video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmNKuXmBDIM

Its funny that Bear too has learnt to rear since I started working on the school halt. His school halt hasn't really progressed much though from the pedastal mainly because I just stopped working on it. It was just a bit too fiddly for me to try and transfer it to the ground although I'll probably come back to it later.


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 5:12 pm 
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Your video is very good!!! :clap: :clap: :clap:
Keep posting videos of your progress!

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:45 pm 
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Cool Marina! That Bear has learnt to rear is a good sign that he's busily working on his hind-quarter engagement :applause:

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 10:42 pm 
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I didn't have yet time to read the all topic, so I hope I don't post twice...

I want to teach Mira the school halt...
I know it will take a lot of time there she still has problems with her pelvis...
And she even can't step on something higher...

I was thinking that it will be nice if everyone write short down from where he or she started out with his horse to teach the school halt. (And maybe the problems you had/have.)

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 Post subject: Re: School Halt
PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 9:48 pm 
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Contrary to what I had planned, we have started to turn the weight shifts into a levade. Here is today's video of its current state.

It was not an actual decision to change but simply resulted from me using the hindleg engagement as our main criterion, and not focusing so much anymore on whether the frontleg stayed on the ground or not. I was hoping that in this way I might counteract Pia's tendency to be all crooked in her body because she leaned onto the left frontleg so much (the one she always left on the ground). Therefore, I also rewarded several weight shifts that included a hop. However, with Pia being such a hop-lover, I needed to do something to make sure the whole thing did not return to the state where we had been in the very beginning.

So I started focusing on the hops not being hops but an attempt to take weight off the frontlegs. I tried to be precise enough and reward her at the very moment when I saw the frontleg twitching a bit, and later sliding backwards, and then leaving the ground as if she was lifting it instead of using it to push her body upwards with it.

So that's where we are at the moment, and I hope that this time it won't take three months until our next update. :smile:


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 Post subject: Re: School Halt
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:12 pm 
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Just copying over a part of this evening's post in Summy's diary which is dealing with our current work on the school halt.

Romy wrote:
We mainly worked on the school halt and rearing, and my focus was on encouraging him to use his hindlegs, and either not leave the ground at all or do long and low rears. For that purpose, I used either of two different cues, both resulting in different moves. I think that over the next weeks we will continue working with both versions and then hopefully combine the benefits of both.

The first one was that I stood at his shoulder, looked at his hindlegs and rhythmically lifted my hand, a bit as if I was lifting water. This made him lean way back and bend his hindlegs, and it produced almost no rears but just made him lift one frontleg and then slide backwards with the other one on the snow. However, it came at the cost of pulling up his head so that his neck was almost vertical at times.

The second version of my cue was that I stood in front of him and only touched his chest with my finger. Excited as he was, this made him arch his neck and move backwards in a fast movement, but then not walk backwards but rear backwards or slide backwards. The problems of this cue were just that, first, it produced lots of rears and second, we did not get that nice hindleg engagement, and mostly very hectical movements. But it resulted in a much more rounded frame, and then of course it just feels kind of cool to be able to flip the firey beast backwards with a touch of your fingertip. 8)


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 Post subject: Re: School Halt
PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 2:59 pm 
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Ah, that reminds me of my own School Halt training with Mucki. We had a few weeks pause, where Mucki was not very fond of School Halt or rearing, so I didn't ask him very often to do it. But by last week he started to offer it again and so I had the chance to see that he has made good progress (while we weren't training :alien:).
Last time, I used a quite unorthodox method which was great fun for him and gave him great zeal for the exercise again - we used the deep snow ;)

Here's the quote from my diary:
Quote:
I just remembered that we also did some School Halt training and even there the deep snow proved very beneficial. Mucki was not so inclined to go backwards, he even could brace himself better in the snow and lifting himself up in front was intuitive as well.

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 Post subject: Re: School Halt
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 4:00 pm 
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I'm happy I found this topic (on my return)!

Ruphina and I started our proces towards the school halt some time ago, actually from our 'swinging-back-and-forth' movements at halt.
We had at first the 'problem' of her backing up enthusiastically, I worked with my hand as a target to 'prevent' that (when I snap my fingers... she touches it. I held my hand at the point where her nose 'should be' and at the moment she backed up I 'snapped my fingers' and she got out of 'backing-up-modus') that really helped us.

She can lean back pretty nicely now, and we are working on duration which is all fine, but the bending of the joints seems to be a point of focus now, and thanks to this topic I'll have some things to try now,

the 'whip over the croup, or on the croup' the way Barbara does,
or as I think Josepha does, integrating it in a series of ramener and backing up to help the joints bending.

For now Ruphina and I have incorporated it in between jambettes.
jambette, lean back, jambette... I'm really sure what the result will be for now it seems to really improve the jambette (more weight on the hindquarters, better lifting of the shoulder), so we'll mix this up with backing up and see!

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 Post subject: Re: School Halt
PostPosted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:20 pm 

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Hi and a big thanks to everyone posting in this thread!
This was a new exercise for me and one that has become absolutely essential. :)

Here's the progression that I use:

I use a cordeo strictly for "transfer weight back" during this training - no backing up off the neck strap. to lessen the confusion of the signals and the frustration of the horse that follows confusion...

I also use one place to practice at the beginning - and only do the school halt there (and only go there for the school halt)
- I use a corner

*teach that light taps on hind leg (I use just above the heels) mean: move hind leg forward. - this is the introduction to the whip holding the hind legs - preventing the horse from backing

*apply backwards/upwards pressure on the cordeo - until the horse shifts back (leans) - this is what happens before he backs up, the key now is to release/praise BEFORE the feet move (especially the hinds). If the hind feet move, I use the whiptap to reposition them and begin again.

once the horse understands (proven by reaction to a very light pressure every time)

* increase the weight shift. This is bound to trigger the back up at some point - that's ok, I take the opportunity to re-inforce the whip as a "holding in place" aid for the hind legs. Again, the timing of the release/reward is crucial. I watch only the haunches of the horse. At this point I don't care what he does with his neck/head/front legs. I look for the transfer of weight backwards onto stationary hind legs. That's it. Some horses do this increased demand by throwing their heads up. OK with me.

once the horse understands

* begin to ask for the joints of the hind end to flex (LS/hip/stifle/hock). At the "exaggerated lean back", either lightly tap the tail head or point of croup (experiment). the key here is surprise I think. Not to hurt the horse, but as a surprise touch on this area triggers "a tail tuck" kind of surprise. The touch has to be light, not offensive. Once again release/reward timing is key. I am still only watching the haunches, don't care what the front end does. There's bound to be some excitement with some horses now. Use it for good! They will flex their haunches. Now I find it's ok to give up on some previous "rules" for a little while. I don't mind if the horse steps back, or even jumps forward during this trial and error stage of trying to figure out what I am after. Just reward any flex of the haunches. Then slowly return to all of the above criteria. This work can be very taxing for weak horses, so use your judgement wisely... sometimes a bend in my knees/pelvis with a vertical upper body helps as a visual cue at this stage.

once the horse understands

*now it's time to address the neck/head. I begin to watch the whole horse and transfer the school halt cue to a noseband. This begins in our "school halt corner". I will ask once on the cordeo, then use light backwards pressure on the horse's head with the whip behind the hind legs. I go back to rewarding the smallest try (just like in the beginning). As some horses have learned to use the throw of the neck upward to transfer the weight backwards, it's sometimes difficult for them to now keep their head/neck steady (I will hold the rope fairly close to the horse's head to gently guide the head position). I am very gentle now and take lots of time with this step. As this is the "polishing" work, the finishing touch :)

With some horses, the neck needs to be addressed earlier, with some not at all. I find it goes with their general way of being: The "flightier, hollow" horses will almost always throw the neck to shift the weight, the more round, strong horses lift their poll and arch the necks into the school halt...

I haven't really played yet with asking for engagement/flexion of haunches with these cues in movement, but I am excited about the possibilities!


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 Post subject: Re: School Halt
PostPosted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 8:09 pm 
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Pia and I have neglected the school halt a bit since our last video, but now that we got back to it a few days ago, I realized that something has changed during our break: She now lifts both frontlegs about equally often. As this also means that she is bending in her body to either of both sides, I am interpreting it as a sign that she has become more flexible. And indeed, her weight shifts look much softer now. :)

Our next task will be to get some duration back into the weight shifts, which has been lost somewhere along the way when we started re-introducing the hops. So I think that for now I will reward about equally much for either duration or a low rear, hoping that with time it will be more and more easy for her to combine both.


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 Post subject: Re: School Halt
PostPosted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:25 pm 
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I think I was already talking about using deep snow for working on School Halt - over the last days I extended my repertoire of environmental cues ;). I used the nasty weather (namely the wind, rain and mud) to my advantage when working with Mucki on the School Halt.
I linked a video of the session here in my video thread.

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