After Thought

Max suggested using the treeless saddle without the stirrups as a sort of extra padded bareback pad. Think I might try that tomorrow, if I remember.

And today's show was brought to you by ...

... Principle #2 and Human Responsibility #4.

We were playing with some obstacles tonight in preparation for Sunday's Charity Treasure Hunt & Obstacle Course in aid of the Brook Hospital.

Harley and I had a couple of misunderstandings, the first of which was that every time I lifted the rein he backed up. Great Back-up! you say, but it wasn't what I thought I was asking for and when you're trying to do fine, little movements, like negotiating the S-Bend,that's not what you want. The key to it was Principle #2 - Make and Teach No Assumptions. I had inadvertently taught him that and he assumed that was what I wanted. I had also assumed that because he'd backed up just from my seat before that he had learned it and so would this time. Once I'd isolated backing up from my seat and played friendly game with the rein, we were back on track. Or should I say back-up on track.

The second misunderstanding involved some bending poles. Once again he'd done it fine before, so I assumed he'd be fine this time. He wasn't. I ended up assuming that I needed to steer him around each of the bending poles with eyes-bellybutton-legs-rein. Max pointed out to me that firstly I was unbalancing him (Human Responsibility #3 - Develop an Independent Seat) and secondly I wasn't focussing on the barrel at the end of the bending poles. So applying Human Responsibility #4 - Use the Natural Power of Focus, I focussed on the barrel and suddenly it became easy and I could use really small movements.

It's fun having a purpose, but you don't get anywhere if you don't keep to your principles.

BTW - Harley's FTR was brilliant tonight, even with all those distractions.

A new direction

As this is my first ever posting I suppose I'd better start with a little background.



After James started Harley in April 2008, he gave me a series of Foundation patterns to perform.

For the first 20 rides:

1. Prepare to saddle (ground games, mainly backup, sideways and some circle)


2. Saddle (like it's the 1st time and like it's the 1,000th time)


3. Prepare to ride (ground games again & bring the energy up to make sure it'll come down again)


4. Mount (as it says in the homestudy packs - to the letter)


5. Trail ride for up to 40 mins.

Then turn him away for 2 months.

For the next 40 rides do likewise but mix in Follow the Rail (FTR) with the trail riding and play some more interesting games (teach him new stuff).

Well, we completed the first 20 just great and we were both loving the trail riding in the summer, so I was looking forward to bringing him back in to play for the next 40 rides.

BTW - the picture at the top is me & Harley spending some undemanding together during his first 2 months off.

The first few rides were ok but not brilliant and we were having real problems keeping a saddle on him. It would end up sliding around him or halfway up his neck, regardless of what saddle or pads we used (including the Parelli ones). We came to the conclusions that his total lack of withers was the problem. This was pretty much confirmed after a conversation with Letitia Glen, who took the photos to Linda (including the one at the top :-) ). We decided to do a course of Hill Therapy with Harley to help him improve him musculature and hopefully build his withers.

Wobbley video fade indicating passage of time back to the present day

At Christmas his withers seemed to have developed a little and I started riding him bareback to do the FTR pattern. I'm having great fun riding him bareback and he's sussed the FTR pattern sooo quick, even though he does experiment a bit :-)

We went to watch a Honza Blaha clinic at the weekend and I'm now reconsidering how I play with him on the ground.