The Art of Natural Dressage

I don't really have time, but couldn't resist reading about Freckles starting to jump... I was soooo enthusiastic and well... I have to admit I think it looks great. He really loves thinking his way over the poles and the jump
soooo cool!!!

and then I read the whole topic and Romy made me think once again... I'm really happy reading again, I have to start reading more again, I really need this!

And I would love to follow Freckles in his journey to becoming a jumping horse

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Horseriding is an art

My horse is a beautiful living sculpture

Romy, here is a silent version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxHM6Ihh1ZM

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Glen Grobler

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

Thank you, Glen! I also think that it looks like a great start - you can almost see him thinking as he goes over the poles. And his movements seems to have changed a lot since the first videos. But yours too, looks so much more energetic!

Marie, it always helps to get advise from friends. I hope you are no more unhappy about this - that would make me very sad. I do think your advise is/was good and correct, just that Frecks and I are not yet ready to add impulsion.

Hi, Barbara. Good to see you here. I think Frecks is enjoying having a new challenge, at least, I hope he's enjoying it. I love the way Romy makes everyone think very hard about their goals and motivation.

Romy - no problem. I also think his movement has changed - more "together"? I'd appreciate your opinions here. His body is much more mature now and I think he is starting to "grow up" mentally as well.

He used to get scared if I showed a lot of energy, and would canter to the other side of the space and stand there staring at me like this with his ears flat sideways like a mule He is still very sensitive to it, so I try to ration what I display.

I would seriously appreciate your comments and suggestions about our body-language, particularly when he stops paying attention to me and goes into "more treats" mode - I struggle to get his attention back there's a very obvious situation like that when he starts doing Jambette instead of the "cross-your-legs" I'm asking for. He has kicked me in the shin more than once

Anyhow - he actually JUMPED over the little pole today 3 times in a row and he gave it a good try from the other side also

He was very funny though. He decided half-way through our play-time that he'd had enough of going over poles and he'd much rather suddenly do perfectly trotted circles. HE LUNGED! All by himself, too. Granted the lunge-whip was in front of him instead of behind, and there was no lunge-line involved, but he LUNGED! YAY!!! The biggest surprise of all was that he also cantered a few half-circles ... So I need to wiggle the lunge-whip so that the end of it jiggles a little and point to what side I want him to go, and he does! All curled up and proud and under himself, too! If he starts to lean in I just have to touch his shoulder with the whip and he corrects it! So now, for just over 14 months I've been struggling with this "Freckles won't lunge" problem, and now suddenly he goes and just does it all by himself!

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Glen Grobler



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

high five Glen
Beau is also getting the point in using his body better and it is soooo cool

Horses are just sooo great

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Horseriding is an art

My horse is a beautiful living sculpture

What a nice task after a long day in the office – especially because you two are doing so well already and there is not that much that I can add.

Actually when I watched your video for the first time, I was so pleasantly surprised by your bodylanguage. As I remember your first videos, your overall posture seemed a bit crooked and stiff back then. Now you are moving so straight and with so much lightness – and still not loose (in the sense of uncollected) but with a very nice tension and jumpiness especially in the trot parts. Absolutely wonderful!

Another great thing is that your movement seems rather forwards-focused most of the time instead of standing on the brakes by focusing on the horse. The only thing that seems to be a bit in the way in this aspect is the tiger: Due to the tiger in your inside hand your shoulders and upper body (and in some parts even your hips) are turned towards Freckles and against the direction of the movement. With that you block his forwards tendency a bit.

One way to change that would be to leave the tiger away so that he is just running with you. It´s almost always good for a human´s body language not to have anything in his hand, because (1) it turns your body in a way that might be contradictory to what you are asking the horse and (2) even if this is not the case it stiffens one side and makes your movements unsymmetrical, again in a way that might not be compatible with what you are asking. However, if you leave the tiger away, you also lose its benefits as a target. The other option is to hold the tiger in your outside (horse-side) hand, so that you can actually move forwards.

Another tiny thing: In the part where you are asking Freckles to bend on the circle around 1:40 and afterwards, the turn of your upper body could be changed, too. Because you are facing Freckles, your hips don´t support the bend but invite the forehand in while your hand pushes them out, which gives two different signals that might be a bit contradictory. If you want to change that, you could focus forwards and turn your hips more to the inside of the circle, which makes the horse curl around you. At the same time the outside hip “pushes” the girth area out instead of drawing it in.

And last but not least, a little suggestion for later: the changes in your way of moving during the transistions between the gaits (or walk and standstill) are very gradual. This also makes your horse´s transistions a bit blurred – which is a good thing actually if you specifically want that. But if one day you want more impulsion and more snappy transistions, just make the boundaries between your ways of moving more clear too and put some more emphasis on the first step of the gait you are switching to. This should invite Freckles to do more precise transistions as well.



To me it doesn´t look like you lost his attention due to an uneffective bodylanguage but because he seemed to have enough of that particular exercise for some reason. Of course you can get a horse´s attention back through bodylanguage (for example with a quick little hip flick towards the horse and then rewarding him big time for attending to it), but in most cases this does only cure the symptoms but does not solve the problem why the horse´s attention slipped away in the first place.

But I have to say it again, you two are doing SO great together!

Thank you Romy. I've already read it about 4 times, and I'll play with it a bit this afternoon - I hope I get the time.



I do that quite often, but then he is "on top of me" and almost tramples my ankles so I need a tiger when I want him further away. I would prefer to not need it, but maybe in the future we'll get there.



I'm going to try this today of course I'll get all tangled up but some practice should sort that out quickly.

Hmmm, I was mostly unaware of my hips creating some conflict - thanks.

Freckles was initiating most of the transitions on that day and I was very slow to respond, poor boy. I need to be much more aware of this - another thank-you for that.



Oh, absolutely. Anytime he wants more treats, or faster treats, or starts focussing on the treats instead of the task he flings his front legs into sloppy Jambettes like that It's his way of begging. He also does it when he's getting a shower. It tells me he's happy at that moment, so I usually step back and laugh with him. I stopped rewarding Jambettes when it became the only thing he would do for about 4 months ...

Thank-you so much for this lovely precise and clear comment. It even made sense to my inexperienced husband

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Glen Grobler



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

Glad that it was helpful!



Isn´t it funny how almost all horses do that? I have often asked myself why the jambette seems to be every horse´s favourite and the thing he offers as a default behaviour unless you prevent that (for example by not rewarding it anymore). Why the jambette? It´s an easy task, yes, but then there are other easy exercises that they could offer, too.

All three of my horses offer the jambette to strangers all the time when they want food. I don´t get that many of them, because I almost never reward them anymore, for the same reasons like you. I do acknowledge them verbally, but in most cases there are no treats for jambettes. But still they try it again and again.

jep my horse does them too he has very loose front legs I have been getting him excited with the crunch, but that ends up in Beau being stretched out all the time, isn't easy either...

I'll have to work on that
but it was funny to read that it is the chosen exercise for many horses!

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Horseriding is an art

My horse is a beautiful living sculpture

Look what happened when I tried to implement some of Romy's suggestions ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q-ZK4oMjaE

I know I "lost the plot" halfway and went back to carrying the whip in my inside hand but I just got so excited by what Freckles was doing I stopped thinking ...

Romy, you are a star. Your clarity is so valuable.

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Glen Grobler



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

That´s absolutely fantastic, Glen! So nice that it worked for you and Freckles.

Oh, and I love your enthusiasm and happiness when you reward Freckles. It seems to be so hard for many people to show happiness when their horse is doing great, but in your interaction with him it´s just so obvious. I think that´s one of the most important things in horse-human (or human-human) interaction, the rest is mainly just technique.

That's so neat and you guys are really getting your body language together nicely.
I had the EXACT same problem with Morgan, but again the problem was me, not him!!!!
I too found it sooo hard to change my muscle memory. I still have to be consciously aware of where every part of my body is.
The difference as far as I can understand it is that in the past I had "tuned out" horses that learnt rotely and would do just that and no more. Morgan is "super" sensitive to body language and I can literally just turn my shoulders without even being aware of it and he will break gait. I spent a lot of time (and still work on this), walking along side him and practising what movements my body needs to make to get him to move away, closer, faster, slower etc. Once you get this down and it becomes more automatic it then becomes really easy to get them to play as there is then no confusion about which direction you are going in next or what you are asking.
I am now just starting to experience really good fast play at a distance but with him spinning and changing direction at the drop/change of my stance.

It's so awesome to watch your progress and also to follow the advice and ideas that everyone has. You make such a great contribution to AND here.

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Annette O'Sullivan

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. - John Lennon

Glen,
I really liked the video! And even tho I know ELO, I didn't know this song but like it. Too bad Romy won't hear it.
Anyway, I can't tell who is having more fun. You or Freckles!? But what a nice training session!! Very impressive and then off w/ the halter to graze. Perfect!
He seemed to move so much better to the right, no? I've read in your diary (i'm still in the original one) that he is stiff on one side. I've read most horses are.
Inspiring video. Thanks for posting!!
Was someone holding a video camera or was it placed stationary?

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Carla

wow, that is soooo excellent! he is getting so muscular (and so are you by the way, Ralph said, "is that glen, wow!" ha ha !) and the way he is experimenting towards collected trot, excellent!

And great of you too Romy

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www.equusuniversalis.com

OK, now I've watched the Romy-suggestion video. That's so fantastic. As I was watching I wondered if you could jump the jump yourself and he would follow??

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Carla