"Leg yielding"

[Mominis]

Hi Guys.

I just know someone here will be able to help me with my training question.

Background: I have trained a few harness horses over the years, but that was many years ago. However, all of them were large horses and all but one of them was also a riding horse who already knew most of the movements I would ask them for, I only had to make the cues relate to their ridden work.

Now, on to present day: I have Shake ground driving well. He has good turns, ring figures, and halts, he also bends well in both directions. I am wanting to work on spiraling him in and out on a circle, like I would a riding horse so, I want to teach him to 'leg' yield so that I can enlarge my circle.

I just introduced this idea to him yesterday. The way that I did it was that I had him doing circles on one end of the arena. He respects my bending cues and my outside rein, so I have no problem holding him on the size circle that I want to keep him on. I had my whip in the active position by his barrel and would rhythmically tap him lightly while his inside hind was in swing and ask him to yield to the stimulation of the whip on his barrel where my leg would be on a ridden horse. I did get some response, but I just want to make sure I'm asking this of him correctly.

Does anyone have any tips?

Mimi

 

[RhineStone]

Sounds like what I would do. Do you have a straight stick or a lashed whip? The reason I ask is because by using a straight stick you will have to move your hand so much more that your outside rein may be affected. Using a lashed whip will allow you to keep your rein hands more independent.

Myrna

 

[Mominis]

Hi Myrna.

Thanks for the reply. I am using a lashed whip. We went back at it again today and I'm surprised at how much he seemed to get from yesterday. I swear minis are the smartest critters on the planet. We were able to enlarge fairly well, for the second go at it. I even tempted fate and took him out large and put him on quarterline then asked him to yield over to the rail and that went pretty well for where he is. So, I guess that solves the spirling out part of things.

Now, for the spiral in, do I switch my whip to the outside once I get out there on the enlarged circle for the spiral back in? That would make the most sense to me, but I'd sure appreciate your thoughts. (Edited to add: I am a little worried that, by switching my whip to the outside for the spiral back in that he will want to move the ribcage to the inside from the stimulus of the whip and I don't want to end up getting over-active in the hand to hold the correct bend.) He's such a young horse and so game that I want to make sure that I get this done right.) I'm going to stick with just having the spiral out for a few work sessions before I throw in the sprialing back in, but I want to start picturing it in my head so I can get it to happen smoothly when we go for it.

Mimi

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Great questions, Mimi! Driving spirals is not exactly the same as doing them on long lines. I learned to spiral when we were already in the cart so spiralling in was a matter of releasing the outside hand a bit while maintaining the bend with the inside hand and the whip. Spiralling out was taking up the outside rein a little more strongly and half-halting on the inside in time with the inside hind leg to ask them to step out a bit. Since wheels and shafts don't allow much lateral motion however it was more a case of steering a wider path instead of stepping to the outside as you would in long lines.

You sound like you're on the right track and I agree that you would not want to use the whip on the outside of his barrel in that context as you'd be asking him to switch his bend. On long lines I would spiral in by releasing the outside hand, and spiral out with the whip on the inside of his barrel and strong half-halts from inside to out to ask him to step laterally under himself while maintaining bend. Reverse direction to exercise the other bend.

A good set of videos to watch is Clay Maier's "Introduction to Long Reining" and "Advanced Long Reining." I really wished I'd seen those before starting Kody's lateral work!

Leia

 

[Mominis]

Thanks, Leia, I'll check those out!

If I'm hearing you correctly, I should use the sprial out, but don't even attempt the sprial in but get that by sprialing out the other direction (which we did yesterday, I wouldn't ever get something one way and not the other. lol). Am I reading you right?

We have circles, figure 8's, half turns, half turns in reverse, serpentines, can walk quarterline and centrline without drifting, enlarge on a circle, and the beginnings of yielding on the straight lines. We do changes of direction on the long diagonal and short diagonal with accuracy. I can't really think of anything else that I want him to know before we get rolling with putting him to.

He knows how to drag the tire, wear the shaft trainers, and has been walked in his open bridle between the shafts of my work cart with hubby on one side and myself on the other with each of us holding a shaft. We've hung milk jugs with rocks in the off of him while working, and also plastic bags...no problems. I plan to take this work outside now (it's all been done in the indoor arena) and getting these things in the outdoor arena and finally on the lanes before putting to. I need to get him going in his blinker hood and doing all of these things as well. After that, is there anything I'm missing before putting to? I just want to make sure all of the bases are covered. Like I said, it's been a while since I've done this, so I really appreciate you guys checking my work.

Mimi

 

[KellyAlaska]

Thanks, Leia, I'll check those out!

Mimi

I just recently discovered a DVD rental site dedicated specifically to horse videos. The name of the site is GiddyUpFlix.com. I think the service is around $10 a month and has been very helpful for expanding my Mini horse knowledge. I found the DVD's Leia recommended and added them to my Queue as well!

Thanks,

Kelly

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Yep, GiddyUpFlix is great!

If I'm hearing you correctly, I should use the sprial out, but don't even attempt the sprial in but get that by sprialing out the other direction (which we did yesterday, I wouldn't ever get something one way and not the other. lol). Am I reading you right?

I think even I'm confused now.

I'll be honest with you- lateral work on long-lines is new frontier for me! I'm barely getting my own horses going on it. If you can get him to spiral in without changing his bend, feel free. All I was really saying is that relative to cart work, you'll be able to spiral in easier than out and neither is really going to involve much lateral movement for the horse because the cart won't allow it.

We have circles, figure 8's, half turns, half turns in reverse, serpentines, can walk quarterline and centrline without drifting, enlarge on a circle, and the beginnings of yielding on the straight lines. We do changes of direction on the long diagonal and short diagonal with accuracy. I can't really think of anything else that I want him to know before we get rolling with putting him to.
He knows how to drag the tire, wear the shaft trainers, and has been walked in his open bridle between the shafts of my work cart with hubby on one side and myself on the other with each of us holding a shaft. We've hung milk jugs with rocks in the off of him while working, and also plastic bags...no problems. I plan to take this work outside now (it's all been done in the indoor arena) and getting these things in the outdoor arena and finally on the lanes before putting to. I need to get him going in his blinker hood and doing all of these things as well. After that, is there anything I'm missing before putting to? I just want to make sure all of the bases are covered. Like I said, it's been a while since I've done this, so I really appreciate you guys checking my work.

Goodness, I would say you have the bases covered!

I know minis who have been driving seven years who can't do all those things. It seems like many people just put the entire harness on, ground-drive the horse for maybe a week and then hitch them up.

Shake is getting a great foundation with you and I really, really wish you'd get some video of him so we could see how you're doing all this! Turbo is way behind by that standard but we're finally getting some decent weather so as soon as Kody's through his debut at the TREC this next weekend I'll turn my attention to getting Turbo going again. Then I'll have both of them working in harness and there goes my free time!

Leia

 

[Mominis]

Maybe I'm being a little overly cautious, but I know that a bad experience in the cart can ruin them forever (there's an old Saddle horse at our barn that a kitten could ride, but he is absolutely unsafe to hook because of poor early training). Shake is my forever horse and I want to make sure he's 100% ready before I move forward.

Leia, you know how technologically challenged that I am (lol). I would love to get some video of Shake for you, but I don't even know what one records on nowadays. I have a mini-camcorder that takes those little tiny tapes, but I don't even know how to work that silly thing. lol I can get video on the phone, but I guess there are too many pixels (or pixies, or whatever they are called) for it to be emailed. lol What kind of device should I be looking for to "tape" stuff with in this century?

I wish you all of the luck in the world with Kody at the TREC next weeked!!!

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Maybe I'm being a little overly cautious, but I know that a bad experience in the cart can ruin them forever.

Oh no, don't get me wrong; you're doing things absolutely RIGHT!! I'll be taking Turbo through similar steps, I just haven't been able to get actual equipment on him because he's always soggy.

He's got all the skills except the equipment stuff. He walks, trots and canters in front of me on voice commands, does a good Whoa-Stand, accepts ropes and harness parts all over him and around his legs, does nice lateral work at liberty and in-hand, knows all about the cart, has been happily walking along with a travois of branches dragging along on either side of him and wears a bit and blinkers recreationally. What I haven't done is put all that together so that he wears ropes along his sides connected to the bit and turns off of that instead of hand signals and voice commands from me behind him.

Should be pretty easy once I have time and weather to do it! He's already learned the behaviors, I only have to teach him new cues for them.

Leia, you know how technologically challenged that I am (lol). I would love to get some video of Shake for you, but I don't even know what one records on nowadays. ... lol What kind of device should I be looking for to "tape" stuff with in this century?

Most regular digital cameras record video and that's the easiest way to take and upload short clips. Buy a big memory card (4 gigs works well) and you can take more than enough to be useful while still having plenty of room for pictures. Then you just go to YouTube, set up an account and select the file you want to upload. Voila!

I wish you all of the luck in the world with Kody at the TREC next weeked!!!

Thanks. I'm not even in this one for the competition, it just looked like a nice, short, easy drive Kody could do even when terribly out of shape. I promised them both an individual outing at the start of the year and this is Kody's. Turbo gets me all to himself for the Spring Fling show two weeks later, then I start taking both boys out together in May. Kody is sore but SO excited to be back in harness!

Leia

 

[Mominis]

I am so excited for you and Kody! You have been through so much together with that stifle issue and all, I am just THRILLED that you are able to go do this. It is a testiment to your good horsemanship that he has come so far. Can't wait to see the video!

As far as Mr. Turbo is concerned, I just know you will be great at the Spring Fling show. You blew their skirts up with him last year. If he's anything like his sire, dam, and 3/4 brother...he's a shoo in! If you still need help in getting him to tighten over the top, just give me a ring. I don't hear real well, so sometimes it's tough to understand everything on the phone, but I sure will do my best. It's just step 1, step 2, step 3 and step 4, like we talked about last year.

Kelly, I will check out GiddyUpFlix. I had heard they went out of business, so I hadn't thought to check. Glad you brought it up!

This is going to be such a fun year for us all! Looking on the driving forum here, there are so many of us starting the new season with a youngster. It's so cool that we can learn from each other!