Re: Circling

[C Eyler <eyler@mindspring.com>]

Dawna,

I have quite limited experience (one horse), but circling has been VERY
effective for me.  When I put him into a tight circle, we make several
revolutions and we always end with a full, extended, stop.

The circle is not to slow him down -- it's to remind him that I'm the one
who decides our speed and direction.  We seldom need the circles anymore.

Cindy Eyler
Baltimore MD

At 03:32 PM 2/17/99 -0800, Dawna Bynum-Boyd wrote:
>This weekend I decided to try the circling technique discuss recently.  I'm
>thinking this is great, how hard can it be?  So a few hours into the ride, I
>ask my horse Jay to stop and wait for a minute, the other horses go trotting
>ahead down the rode and out of sight.  Jay become anxious, moving around,
>fidgeting etc.  Gently I ask him to move forward, our desired speed...walk.
>Of course there is no way he's going to walk with horses ahead to catch.  So
>out comes the circle.  I ask him to circle, he obliges, clearly interested
>in moving ahead but circling on request.  I slowly straighten him out to
>move forward down the trail and he speeds up, I circle again, clearly
>frustrated and wondering what is wrong with me he stops and waits for me.  I
>move him forward again, he accelerates, we circle.   Then he anticipates the
>circling, and half way around as we are beginning to turn toward the road he
>picks up speed.  So it's half circle, whoosh, half circle, whoosh, he's
>determined to go faster even if it is in half circle increments.  Silly guy.
>Guess this is going to take longer that I thought, guess time will tell
>who's more determined!
>
>Dawna
>
>Attachment Converted: "C:\PIPEPLUS\DOWNLOAD\winmail.dat"
>
eyler@mindspring.com