7-6-2011: Bridling, spiraling, "buzziness"

Putting on the bridle


Day 1:

I experimented with getting the bridle on—she turned her head but I didn’t want to cue her mouth open with my thumb and so I just waited and she nearly fell asleep with the bit up against her teeth… yeah, nope. So Karen had mentioned teaching horse you take off the bridle helps, as well as putting on the bridle wrong in every which way until the horse is like, here, and opens his mouth, saying “the silly bit goes here!” I did this for a while and she did start to realize that the bit/bridle is most comfortable in the right spot in her mouth vs hanging off one ear/pinching her lips/etc. She never quite just grabbed the bit for me but did open her mouth.

Day 2:

She bridled better today! I spent a few minutes putting on the bridle in the most bizarre and awkward ways and instead of getting ticked she just kept trying to help in this hilariously patient, endlessly longsuffering teaching mode that I’ve not really seen from her before… lowering her head… turning towards me… getting calmer and calmer and calmer… and finally the bit got up against her teeth and she just opened her mouth a hair and let it slide in like, “oh, really now, this is where the silly thing goes.” And what was amazing is that I have never, ever seen her so calm in bridling. Her head was almost to the ground, eye so soft she was almost asleep, and her mouth was dead quiet and completely closed around the bit—she was actually holding it there for me! I couldn’t believe it. 

Day 3:

When I offered the bit to Maia she right away cracked her jaw! She didn’t open her mouth but the offer of ¼” was nice. ;)

Spiraling and energy when riding

• Karen suggested an alternate way to get a spiral out is to

7-4-11: Maia got the feel of a turn!!

The feel of a movement

Maia gave me a GREAT 4th of July present—the feel of a turn! Meaning, in feel/release, we talk a lot about the “feel of a horse” and “the horse feeling of you” and the “feel of the movement.” Those all have a lot more depth than may meet the eye. Let’s take the latter. If the horse has the “feel of the movement,” it means he not only understands the job, but has been shown it through release so that there is no brace at all in his body. He has completely engaged in what he is doing both mentally/emotionally as well as physically (a good, athletic posture, root of the neck up, etc). In its barest form, when the horse has the “feel of a movement,” he is in total self carriage both mentally/emotionally as well as physically within the movement.

Maia clearly did NOT have the feel of a turn when we got here. She thought left meant right and vice versa. I’ve mentioned that before, but she was constantly falling out, popping her outside shoulder, pulling on the inside rein, counterbending, and trying to turn the other way. Now, that’s quite a laundry list and she wouldn’t always do them all simultaneously, but they’d all happen quite a bit. I was constantly reminding her what her job was. So, clearly, she was in self-carriage neither physically nor mentally.

The spiral through release—on the lunge and under saddle

Now, it’s no secret that I am still definitely struggling in applying feel/release. My default at every moment seems to be pressure/release, but it is slowly getting better. One of the things we can do with relatively consistent success is the spiral in and out, both on the lunge and under saddle.

The spiral, as I’m doing it, has a few elements:

1. The hind leg connected to the feel of the inside rein
2. Leg releases in and out
3. Rein releases in and out

I’ve been associating the feel of her inside hind reaching forward with giving her more float in the line, then advancing that by having her put the float back in the line by engaging and/or bringing up her inside hind when she feels the float coming out of the line. This means her first response to a leading rein or lunge line is to get