After walking a bit to warm up both my horse and myself, I'll ask
Drake to come into a very round frame. Then since the first part of
my training trail is a wide trail, I'll ask him to bend and do a bit
of leg yeilding. From one side of the trail to the other and back.
We do a bit of zig zagging.
Next, I back off, Drake gets his head and we cruise on down the trail
for awhile. Come to some switch backs, I take up the contact and ask
Drake to bend around the curves.
Then there is that rock from outer space that landed a few years ago.
Bend into the rock so it can't bite him. We get a nice "natural"
rounding at that rock.
On a flat part of the trail, I'll ask for a slow trot, then extend it
a bit, then slow down, etc.
If Drake does something stupid (he's only 6 you have to understand),
or if I feel like he might do something dumb, I'll pick up the contact
and ask him to do something a bit more difficult than just stumbling
along spooking at deer, rocks, downed timber, etc.
So, on a two hour ride, you can get in lots of mini dressage training
sessions. When I first started this with Drake, it took a lot of
training, almost constant contact, and very diligent attention on my
part. Now, Drake knows the routine. When I let him go, Drake just
continues in the best frame for the conditions (most of the time),
and is willing to come back to my hands whenever I ask it of him.
And then once a week, we train under the sharp eye of my trainer, who
misses very little and makes me work a lot harder.
-- Wendy\|/ /\ -O- /**\ /|\ /****\ /\ / \ /**\ Here there be dragons / /\ / \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\/\/\ /\ / / \ / \ / \/\/ \/ \ /\/ \/\ /\ /\/ / / \/ \ / / \/ /\ \ / \ \ / \/ / / \/ \/ \ / \ \ / / \/ \/\ \ / \ / / \ __/__/_______/___/__\___\__________________________________________________
Wendy Milner HPDesk: wendy_milner@hp4000 Hewlett-Packard Company e-mail: wendy@fc.hp.com Mail Stop A2 Telnet: 229-2182 3404 E. Harmony Rd. AT&T: (970) 229-2182 Fort Collins, CO, 80525 FAX: (970) 229-2038