Long Lining during the Great Melt

On Tuesday I decided to try long lining again with Charlie since riding wasn't much of an option. The ring was an absolute mess, the wind was blustering (is that a word?), and Charlie was in lala land, but we could at least walk around, right? Plus I had to do something with my Irish Thoroughbred on St. Paddy's Day.

I really wish trotting would have been an option, because Charlie definitely had some extra energy that needed to be released. He's long lined many times, and does well typically, but this time I could only get about 4 minutes of attention at a time. A few times he mini reared when I asked him to turn (for some reason turning right was hard today), but I couldn't really make him work in the sloppy mess of the ring without fear of him falling. He then tried to cling to me and wouldn't move out, so I had to remind him I have personal space too.

Eventually we started making progress, but we really weren't getting anywhere significant and he really didn't like walking through all that mess (could I blame him?), so I switched to one line and lunged him instead, doing lots of inside turns on the circle and trying to focus his attention that way. That actually managed to cut through the BS, and he started listening, stopped resisting, lowered his head with an ear toward me and began licking his lips.

We ended with a good 10 minutes of "halt and stand" (ground tie) work. Charlie is an in-your-lap kind of horse, but he *should* know how to stand when I walk away (or at least he used to). Today took some refreshing. He kept trying to stay glued to my hip. Every he moved toward me before I asked him to, I'd walk back to him calmly, reposition him to his original position, and then repeat the "stand" command and walk away. It took a little longer than I wanted, but eventually he remembered the gig and I could make him stand and wait, then cluck him forward two steps toward me and then say "whoa" and he'd stop, waiting for the next go forward cue before coming further.

All in all it wasn't the most exciting lesson, but it was something. I'm hoping the crazy wind today will dry out the ring so I can ride again! All of this mental work is good, I'm sure, but Charlie and I both need some physical exercise.

Working it out

Over the past two weeks I've been easing back into riding with Charlie. If you remember, he'd been somewhat off and I was worried about saddle fit or him having played a little too rough outside with his friends, basically got myself all worked up that he's either hurt or that my saddle is broken, yada yada yada....

What? A growing, healing boy needs sustenance!

But I want to ride my horse, darn it, and all I can see every day is his neck and topline - which I worked so hard to start building up - wasting away even over just the last month (seriously, how can all that hard work disappear so fast???). So I said screw it. I want to ride. And you know what? It's actually been going ok. 

When I flex you can still see my muscles...

Looking back, Charlie started acting out right around when I was finally getting him to start using himself correctly. And then I gave up the basics in favor of doing some fun stuff. This makes me think 1) he didn't like how tired he got when I asked him to actually work, 2) he was sore from using his back and neck in new ways, and 3) I was too eager to do fun things like jump and gallop and neglected to continue to properly condition him because, well, it's boring to just trot trot trot....

So my new goal is to keep Charlie busy, changing it up each day so that both he and I don't get bored, but making sure to focus on some core strengthening too: open lunging, stretching(!), long lines with my new surcingle (thanks, Emily!), and of course some riding.

Long lines one day...

Fun round pen open lunging and playing with tarps another...

Yay! Finally a ride!

Loving the side reins right now!

Definitely going to be doing more of this.

This time my focus is on making everything quality. I'm going to really work to get Charlie long and low for extended periods, correcting him if he starts to hollow out. After all this is a barn, not a zoo; no giraffes allowed. Hopefully it will be something that starts to feel natural to Charlie and after awhile I won't have to work so hard at it. I've never had a horse this long-bodied before and difficult to package.

I think the side reins are going to be my new best friend. After just five minutes with them earlier this week, Charlie's back was lifting, his neck was softening, and we had some glorious slobber going on (only a horse person would be excited about that). Plus Charlie knows open lunging really well, so I can work him in the side reins in the round pen without a line.

He licked a lot of it off but we do have slobber! Success!

I do think there is something up with Charlie's right side, maybe a rib out of place, since he's still more sensitive than usual about being brushed over there, but since I don't have the money to have a chiro out right now I've decided to just try to work it out the best I can with stretching on the ground and from the saddle.

Luckily Charlie tolerates stretching and will let me do all kinds of pulling, pushing, prodding. And he loves carrot stretches. Anything for food. I think I could make him roll over like a dog if I really tried...

Mine!

Aaaaaannd gotcha!

Sneaky carrot, hiding way down there.

Hopefully this renewed focus and determination will last so I can enjoy much more saddle time with a happy, comfortable horse :)

A rare sight: everyone at the barn together, enjoying a ride

Long lines with Charlie

Yesterday I was feeling under the weather so I didn't want to ride Charlie after training the other horses, but I did want to do something. I was going to do a lunging session in side reins but since Jan and I have been having so much success with the other horses using long lines, I decided to give it another go with Charlie. I had tried once before over the summer and he was ok with it but I didn't really have a good space to work in.

I was really impressed! Charlie was very attuned to my cues and picked it up super fast (maybe I've just been working with the babies so much I had forgotten what it was like to work with a trained horse).

I like how the long lines can reinforce verbal and rein cues without the horse worrying about someone being in the saddle, and I think they do a good job of helping a horse learn to drop his head and use his back, especially when they are used like a lunge line (see the video below). Having one line under his butt encourages him to be aware of his body and hind end while the line in front, looped through the stirrup, encourages proper head and neck bend and softness. In this way they work similarly to side reins but are a little more versatile, I think. They also were good for Charlie in encouraging him to drop his head when he backs up and instead of throwing it up in the air. I will be using them again!

Working the drafts: introducing long lines

Jan and I have been making a lot of progress with Finnagan, the spotted draft, and were able to put a saddle and bridle on him last week. Now that that's done, we've started using long lines to teach him to respond to rein and voice cues from the ground before anyone gets up in the saddle. He's picking things up so fast! Often I'll work the long lines with Finnagan while Jan works with Flint. I don't have a video of me driving him (since I'm the videographer), but here are a few videos of Jan introducing him to long lines and having him trot. By Monday I had him trotting Figure 8s which was pretty exciting :) 

Introducing the long lines 1/10/14

Learning to trot 1/13/14

Flint is proving to be a bit more stubborn and bullyish, which cannot be tolerated in a horse this big. We've been doing a lot of round pen work with him to try and get some energy out while instilling respect for people on the ground. He needs a lot of desensitization around his head and hindquarters too. Unlike Finnagan, he is not comfortable at all with having his ears touched and was very wary about having someone be taller than him. However, we have made progress on the ground and I can get him to stop, back and turn both directions, and give a hindquarters over without much fuss. If he gets excited, though, he gets pushy. He will definitely take more time than Finnagan.