The Art of Natural Dressage

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 2:36 pm 
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Location: Georgia (USA)
Impressive pics. :applause: Gives me hope that I'll be able to help even Diego out. I've been going through ALL my old pictures from every angle to see if I notice these differences in D's muscles on each side. Some I do! Going to be taking more detailed pictures soon. Fascinating stuff.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:20 am 

Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:02 pm
Posts: 1072
Location: UK Worcester/Hereford border
Can Daniel come to Napal and spend hours of tedious work please?
On the odd occaisions when I put tack on him Dan will stand to be mounted if I ask nicely, but he often pushes me with his nose and presents himself for mounting from his right hand side.
Since I have no bounce and cannot leap or vault onto my huge 13hh pony

Quote:
Those who decide to learn to mount the horse on the off side

... can expect to spent some time on their bottoms on the ground below their horse, or stuck halfway up the side of their horse, and occasionally even head-down on the other side of their horse to where they actually expected to be.

Yes, this is a voice of experience. Sigh.

I can relate to this.

Daniel does not have ribs even if he was bending properly and displacing his barrel correctly all I would see right now are Mitchelin Man tyres.
I have instructed the sheep to stop the ruminating and just eat 24/7. Really my poor pony needs me to find the fountain of youth and walk farther with him and have as much energy as I had 40 years ago.

Daniel prefers a left circle or turn, has strong opinions about long lines or lunge ropes which think right circles earn cookies - he can circle right for carrot, but sometimes a few oats are not worthy of his effort, so he leaves and waits for me to pick his line back up after he has gone from 32 feet away on line to 45 feet away off line.
The problem with asking is that sometimes the answer is "no". And my clever pony can work for some treats some days, he chooses what constitutes a jackpot, but he is not even slightly hungry.
I let go of a rope, always, before there is pull or pressure or any likelyhood of damage to my neck or shoulders. (I was diagnosed with cervical spondylosis 19 years ago, the turmeric gives me a great amount of doing power, but remembered pain keeps me from wanting to incur my body's wrath. If I get injured who will earn my horses keep or do the essentials for them?)
Daniel will go through electric fence tape, if switched on he pushes harder to get through quicker, we work in 8.5 acres no arena or enclosure. Hence lunge line for circles.

Riding on our roads we keep left, but he drifts right (in front of cars) either because of my collapsing right hip or because road camber slopes and he prefers the imperceptibly flatter middle of the road.
We do not ride on the road unless we have a friend to walk alongside and accompany us.
Never mind, when Arthur is ready for harness I can go out and tie Dan behind the cart, that way he will exercise, lose weight and have more mojo. xx

Glen your dedication is awesome and Freckles looks amazing :clap:

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:44 am 
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:funny: Suzie, I so understand trying to get things done within some physical limitations. Most of our "circle" work was actually voltes that were done off lunge because I was concerned about possible forcing before his muscles were ready. :D

Darling, if it didn't involve hours of intercontinental travel I would gladly come over and see if I could get Daniel doing voltes with you.
:f:

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:16 pm 

Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:02 pm
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Location: UK Worcester/Hereford border
Thank you Glen. :^:

I'll find a large packing crate and smuggle on a ship for a while. I am just frustrated because he was doing things so nicely and has decided that he has other priorities. His lovely square halt was in place on the ground and ridden, now he simply uses his short strong cobby neck and goes where he chooses in his bitless bridle.
Daniel did give me a lift from our bottom pasture a couple of days ago, in his naked state, after I climbed on we began walking nicely, then Ben came racing full gallop from 500 yards away and Arthur trotted past us, and we trotted a little, then Dan walked up his preferred path on the hill to the barn for dinner.
I have no control with him naked, and the same amount with tack.
My fault, my pony has been allowed too much input and too few boundaries, but it severely limits being safe and going out to explore, there is not often someone to accompany. But if I can find a few hours extra work to cover fuel costs of driving, I can go and help lead out a youngster once a fortnight and his owner will come to us and walk with us once a fortnight.
I also notice that Dan comes to me to beg for tummy rubs and divert anything that equates to work, but if a friend asks for a few ground steps he might look displeased but offers them without thinking a smile can soften into his chosen pastimes.
Watching him in the field and asking for a turn inside the barn I can find no injury or reason for not turning right.
Although gelded, Daniel is father of five, and will always be my little stallion.
I have thus far resisted suggestions to mouth him, work with a bit and then return to bitless.

Previous bunch of ponies bought from auction and kept for 4 and 5 years all managed bitless from foal to ridden.
Older horses now buried in the field were bitted and then we went bitless. (or rode without tack or in a halter in the field, never on the road.)

It is going to take some Glen style perseverance but I will have a happy riding pony and manage to get out and about with him.
Dan is fully 5 years old now and streets behind where horses I started 30+ years ago would be at this stage, so it is me rather than Daniel who needs training/retraining to accept instructions for both our sakes to be safe.
I may even have the more malleable, willing, Arthur ready to ride before Dan is ready, then if I can find a rider I can go out on my lead rein pony!

Plenty of help for me on the AND pages, now I just need to get the members to train my pony or get my pony to live with the members for a while.....and I'll enjoy reading about all their hard work. xx

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:35 pm 
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PiePony wrote:
Plenty of help for me on the AND pages, now I just need to get the members to train my pony or get my pony to live with the members for a while.....and I'll enjoy reading about all their hard work. xx


You can send him here for holidays any time - we have big pastures and I am sure they would feed another horse. :funny:


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:02 pm 
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Romy wrote:
PiePony wrote:
Plenty of help for me on the AND pages, now I just need to get the members to train my pony or get my pony to live with the members for a while.....and I'll enjoy reading about all their hard work. xx


You can send him here for holidays any time - we have big pastures and I am sure they would feed another horse. :funny:


Oh how I wish I could send my Bonnie to live with you and the ponies for a little time. She would so love you and them. Her spirit of play runs much more intensely than my old legs can carry me to encourage and join with her. If only I could afford some pony friends here for her.

Donald

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So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:08 pm 
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Bonnie would be very welcome and I am sure that especially Pia would be more than happy to have her as a playmate.

What a pity that the world is so big. At the AND meeting Bianca said we had to find a way to fold its surface like a map, let the horses step over and then unfold it again. In that way they could go for visits to different people whenever they want to. :smile:


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:49 pm 
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Location: Natal, South Africa
OOOH, yes please Romy. At the end we will have a huge entourage :D we could start a Movement :clap:

Just imagine if we could fold the world like a map and step to each other's places for a visit or a consultation ... 8)

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Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:12 pm 
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Tesseracts! We need tesseracts! (At least Madeleine L'Engle style tesseracts...)

"In the novel the concept of a tesseract functions more or less like what in modern science-fiction is called a space warp or a wormhole, a portal from one area of space to another which is possible through the bending of the structure of the space-time continuum. A similar concept occurs in Frank Herbert's Dune novel where it is called the Holzman effect."

:friends:

L.

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 2:21 am 

Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:02 pm
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Location: UK Worcester/Hereford border
So pleased I read those books and know what Leigh is on!!!!

Too generous Romy, Ben and Arthur would want to come with Daniel....and I expect they might not want to come home again.
We have plentiful grass at the moment.

Oops, sorry Donald I pulled your topic out of shape, moderators can delete for better archiving.

Distortions, tesseracts, time in waves like radio waves .....

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 4:33 am 
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Location: Pacific Northwest U.S.
Susie,

I am not only perfectly comfortable with threads going off topic, but have so often done it myself I have no room left to criticize others that do it.

Besides, it's fun, and activates my wildly fertile mind. As I read I look at the possibility of using the Tesseract to fold the space-time continuum and connect the two sides of the horse in ways that would balance them without effort on my part or the horses.

See, I'M still on topic. LOL

Besides, sometimes Bonnie and I do exactly that. We bend the continuum. She fears, I encourage, she tries, I give kisses on her soft nose, she decides there is a hole in space and time to step through and does so.

Bonnie now is a big horse (as opposed to a baby) who can get in the horse trailer.

It's the getting out part now that needs the help of the Tesseract.

That will take likely even less than the two days she took to step up in the trailer.

She's learning too to have her head hugged. I think she knows flies can't bother her if I'm wrapped around her head. She loves her head hugged.

Better still?

Altea is learning to love and attach. Slowly she is following Bonnie's lead of trusting humans. She will now put her nose to my face softly. No kisses, but the approximation.

She's probably moving a bit from dependence on humans (Which always makes me sad when I see it in a horse) to testing. She's so gentle and sweet by nature that it is very moving to watch this change.

I think I mentioned recently she has picked up a monkey trick of playing jokes on her caretaker. When I am in her stall mucking out she will come over and slide the door closed. I push it back, she slides it again. I push it back ... etc. As soon as I start laughing she then ends the game. I think this tells me and is meant to tell me that she is playing a joke.

I tell you, it's an awful lot of work loving two horses. They just wear me out ... from laughing.

Donald

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Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:28 am 
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Quote:
I tell you, it's an awful lot of work loving two horses. They just wear me out ... from laughing.


yes sure it is :funny: :funny: :funny:


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 2:38 pm 
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Location: Pacific Northwest U.S.
This is Bonnie in one of her high energy play moods. We are fighting the Dark Monster From the Deep Dark Woods (a big black exercise ball).

And yes, she does vanquish the monster. Here she observes the monster coming out of the woods.

Image

And here she sees she has defeated the monster and it is running away.

Image

Finally, Bonnie sends The Dark Monster From the Deep Dark Woods on it's way with a signature gesture - you can see it rolling away in terror over to the right of the picture.

Image

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Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:41 pm 

Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:02 pm
Posts: 1072
Location: UK Worcester/Hereford border
Quote:
I think I mentioned recently she has picked up a monkey trick of playing jokes on her caretaker. When I am in her stall mucking out she will come over and slide the door closed. I push it back, she slides it again. I push it back ... etc. As soon as I start laughing she then ends the game. I think this tells me and is meant to tell me that she is playing a joke.

I tell you, it's an awful lot of work loving two horses. They just wear me out ... from laughing.


Dr. Evelyn Hanggi would be proud of our horses Donald, they demonstrate all that she is researching.
My one pony, now buried, learnt to lift and slide the bolt to the feedstore, if I refused feeds at demand instead of dinner time, he locked me inside, without a signal on my mobile cell phone!

I know what you mean about interspecies attachment, I was 12 when a stray farm kitten was orphaned, she grew up sleeping on my old cob mares back, the warnest place in the stable.
She followed on hacks, mewed when tired and rode, either on the pommel of the saddle or on my shoulder. When the old mare died the cat pined terribly and never followed my new pony.
As a child I did not notice how remarkable they were together, just natural in the circumstance.


I love that Altea is willing to show outward signs of affection, and how you say she adores Kate.

For all the time I spend with Arthur, when my husband Steve is available he must be followed closely, even when welding. Steve will pop prepared feed buckets in when I am working, but it is me who usually feeds, snuggles, grooms, showers affection.... and Arthur prefers a manly slap and chat!!! He is mine on his passport but I do not own his choices, and I never mind.
Daniel is jealous of my attention to Ben or Arthur and I am his hug dispenser. xx

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 6:27 pm 

Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:46 pm
Posts: 250
Location: Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada
Donald Redux wrote on the laterality research thread:
Quote:
It would be more sensible to refer to the dominant diagonal (using the foreleg as the name) of the horse rather than the handedness. The majority of horses tend to be left diagonal dominant.


So is the left diagonal dominant horse carrying more weight on the lf/rh diagonal, or the rf/lh one? Does it work that way?
And if so, does an "easier to lift front leg" indicate which diagonal the horse is dominant on at all?

Does the horse carry more weight (compared to the other one) - even for a moment - on the hing leg placed closer to the mid-line of the belly and further forward under it? Is this a 100% true rule? which is the more important indicator - or are they both always true, the placement of one hind hoof farther forward, or towards the mid-line?


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