Whoa, this one got a bit wordy! I've reverted to my old ways and have lots of text and no pony pictures from the last two days. Compromise? I have some more pictures from last week I don't think you've seen :)
Day 10 was a work and travel day for me, so the ponies had a day off.
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| Another ferry ride. |
Day 11: I had forgotten my longe line and whip at the club grounds, so that seemed as good a reason as any to take Sophie down there after work to play with a little longeing and groundwork.
I was so proud of her because she walked next to me on our really spooky road and stayed focused on me the whole way. I was able to keep a nice loop in the lead, and she was matching her strides to mine without any reminding.
We still have quite a bit to work on groundwork wise, though. Like a typical baby horse, she gets a bit insecure or inattentive sometimes and suddenly wants to get into your space. She's not super bad about it, it's certainly not to the extent of bumping into me, but it's there and I want to encourage her to stay confident in her own space. Progress is being made, it's nearly gone when leading her but still reappears when I'm asking her to stand and she's feeling insecure about something...you know how it is, they gradually inch closer and closer if you don't pay attention. So, it's something we work on. She's also a bit sticky about moving her shoulders a la turn on the haunches, the hindquarters/turn on the forehand are 10/10 though :)
Related to the insecurity and not giving the shoulders, I also notice her body often wants to be tipped in towards me. I could be wrong but I don't think it's a respect sort of thing...quite the opposite, actually! She's so interested in learning and being good, she always wants to keep an eye on me and so she ends up having her head tipped that bit towards me. Being a baby, sometimes the body wants to follow! I have to be quite conscious of not tightening and influencing her with the lead rope and instead using my body to be assertive about my personal bubble and where I want her to be. The longeing is helping because obviously I'm sending her out and away from me and she needs to be brave out there on the circle all by herself.
She's doing great for her third time on a longe line and just one week back in 'work', but she was also considering her options re: forward yesterday and thinking about stopping all the time. She's naturally quite forward thinking, so that was a bit of an interesting development. Smart ponies testing options, I guess. Too bad for her that after Bridget I'm very conscientious about always having a good forward energy.
I think the next logical step with her is ground driving. I look forward to trying that next, once we've really firmed up voice commands on the longe...for now when I longe her I often drive her forward around the perimeter of the arena so we are moving around and not just static on a circle all the time. I'm hoping this will make the transition to ground driving a no brainer for her.
I was so proud of her because she walked next to me on our really spooky road and stayed focused on me the whole way. I was able to keep a nice loop in the lead, and she was matching her strides to mine without any reminding.
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| I really need to trim her pony beard. |
We still have quite a bit to work on groundwork wise, though. Like a typical baby horse, she gets a bit insecure or inattentive sometimes and suddenly wants to get into your space. She's not super bad about it, it's certainly not to the extent of bumping into me, but it's there and I want to encourage her to stay confident in her own space. Progress is being made, it's nearly gone when leading her but still reappears when I'm asking her to stand and she's feeling insecure about something...you know how it is, they gradually inch closer and closer if you don't pay attention. So, it's something we work on. She's also a bit sticky about moving her shoulders a la turn on the haunches, the hindquarters/turn on the forehand are 10/10 though :)
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| "Please we can be friends?" |
Related to the insecurity and not giving the shoulders, I also notice her body often wants to be tipped in towards me. I could be wrong but I don't think it's a respect sort of thing...quite the opposite, actually! She's so interested in learning and being good, she always wants to keep an eye on me and so she ends up having her head tipped that bit towards me. Being a baby, sometimes the body wants to follow! I have to be quite conscious of not tightening and influencing her with the lead rope and instead using my body to be assertive about my personal bubble and where I want her to be. The longeing is helping because obviously I'm sending her out and away from me and she needs to be brave out there on the circle all by herself.
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| Sassy |
She's doing great for her third time on a longe line and just one week back in 'work', but she was also considering her options re: forward yesterday and thinking about stopping all the time. She's naturally quite forward thinking, so that was a bit of an interesting development. Smart ponies testing options, I guess. Too bad for her that after Bridget I'm very conscientious about always having a good forward energy.
I think the next logical step with her is ground driving. I look forward to trying that next, once we've really firmed up voice commands on the longe...for now when I longe her I often drive her forward around the perimeter of the arena so we are moving around and not just static on a circle all the time. I'm hoping this will make the transition to ground driving a no brainer for her.
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| I promise I have a nice leather halter waiting for her...she's not to be trusted quite yet though as far as breaking pretty things. |
Tonight after work, the plan is to ride Bridget and Sophie can just tag along and wait in the show stabling. That's historically been a big ask for her - she desperately wants to be part of all our goings on. Then, I have Fri/Sat/Sun off. I'm loving my summer schedule!
She sure is coming along quite nicely!
ReplyDeleteThat last photo of her is SO nice. What a pretty banana pony!