hobbyhorse23
Well-Known Member
He was totally ready at the show last weekend but time just got away from me so the furthest I got was a brief reminder lesson in the aisle about working off the driving whip and having him walk ahead of me steering off the whip, my voice and the leadline.
The next opportunity I got was Wednesday when spring made a brief appearance at our house. I got him groomed, threw on the surcingle with no preliminaries this time (he wasn't overly happy with being girthed tightly for the first time but behaved for it) and had him take the honey-laden bit a couple of times since he hasn't had it on since probably December. He remembered that game right off and didn't fuss too much when I popped the open bridle over his ears. I left him chewing for a few minutes while I went to the barn to reload my treat pouch and by the time I came back he was looking interested in what would come next.
I had not touched his mouth until this point, all he'd done was wear the bit a few times and all his other lessons have been in a halter. He's learned to do a little lateral work off a combo of my body posture, voice commands and lead pressure and this weekend at the show he'd really made progress with the concept of lifting his shoulder and flexing at the poll instead of just moving the hip to the outside. He learned his voice commands for all three gaits, turning, stopping and backing last year and how to work off the whip this year, ground-ties well, sets up for halter or showmanship and has been working ahead of me at liberty and in the halter on our walks for some time. All the pieces were in place.
I started out by simply picking up the rein on one side and waiting softly for him to give. He's used to this exercise in the halter but it was clearly a whole new experience in the bridle and at first he set his jaw and resisted. When resistance didn't work he tried to drag his head down to the ground and gnawed at the bit in frustration. I used my foot to nudge his nose back up and kept the light pressure the same waiting for him to try another response. I purposefully assumed the same body posture I always use for flexing work and used my other hand to gently touch his neck in a reminder to soften and give. When he softened, I did, and when he finally tried moving his head in the direction of the pressure I clicked and treated. Ah-ha! He thought he had it all figured out (turn your head in Mom's direction and get a goodie) so I tried the other side until he understood that he had to follow the rein, not me. Once he was flexing nicely to each side I started asking him to move his hip out and then we progressed naturally to walking forward and steering around the obvious obstacles in our path on our small porch. He got lots of praise for doing it right and in a surprisingly short time (to me, who's never started a horse before) he was taking up contact like a pro. We're talking maybe five minutes from me first putting on the bit, including walking to the feed room!
We broadened our circles to include walking onto the lawn and he learned not to reach for the grass and to make changes of direction. It blew my mind how quickly it felt like working with an experienced horse as far as how he felt in my hands- it took him almost no time at all to transfer all those in-hand lessons to bridle work.
His patience started to wear thin after a few more circles so I ended on a good note and took off his bridle and reins where he stood as a reward. He ran around and bucked a little then settled and grazed while I talked with my audience.
A few minutes later he seemed game for more so I asked him to bridle himself again (*click, treat*) and led him up to the main road where he loves to go and we do a lot of our work. This time I let him range ahead of me and played out the reins until he was ground-driving instead of having me walking along at his shoulder. He wobbled like a drunken sailer at first but it wasn't so much that he didn't want to go forward as I'd say "no" to the grass on one side of the road so he'd head for the other side until I said "no" again then go back to trying the first side!
Not bad for a first time! I've posted some pictures and a brief video on my fb page (visible to "everyone" so you don't have to be my friend to see them) and will link to them here when I get home from work tonight. I'm so excited to have finally taken this big step!
Leia
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