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| Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay This photo is beautiful but I wish that middle girl was wearing a helmet... |
The Disclaimer
This isn't going to be super formal or particularly well-organized post but I wanted to make a record and share some of the things I worked on in a free ride with Merlin last week. But per usual, you can expect it to be wordy and long. Welcome to Lauren's brain, friends!
P.S. I was feeling lazy and didn't proof read, so that should be fun.
Some Basic Information About the Ride
It was a bareback ride because I wanted to spend some quality time with him and take it a little bit easier. He does seem to get sore muscles through his sternum area (I've worked with a chiropractor and a equine bodywork specialist on this) so I think having a chance to work without a girth is a really good thing for him.
At the start of the right I worked on a little bend, sort of a dressage style warm up. In our dressage work bend and suppleing has definitely been our priority lately. It's hard to do in general (have to be detailed and diligent about using the correct aids) but its even harder to practice bend properly without a saddle. I want to make sure that I am staying balanced, making sure I am helping him and not getting in his way.
I always want to at least start addressing bend and getting him thinking about it a little bit, but I didn't want to make it a top priority in a bareback ride. To start I was just at the walk, asking him to be sensitive to my aids about being straight and on the rail, asking for some bend through the corners, adding a 10m circle if a corner was particularly badly counterbent or I felt him leaning too hard.
That Reminds Me of This Exercise I Wanted to Try
As I was doing this one thing that came to mind is I've been watching a lot of Warwick Schiller videos on YouTube lately. One of the exercises he talked about recently was for horses that tend to drop their shoulders coming into a turn, which pretty much describes Merlin to a T.
Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/NTa7f-JhMbQ
I really like the training principles he talks about and he publishes a lot of great (free) content on his YouTube channel. If you don't have time to watch the whole video, skip ahead to 15:25 because this is where he describes the exercise I attempted.
Basically you ask your horse to walk or trot along the long end of an arena. It's key that you set them on a straight line and then leave them alone to do what they will. Don't try to hold them up through the line and as you near the corner.
Inevitably your horse will drop their shoulder and anticipate the turn. When that happens you halt and ask your horse to do a turn on the forehand towards the wall. From there you continue along the rail in a straight line back the way you came and repeat as you approach the corner again. And repeat, repeat, repeat.
The idea is that, instead of trying hold the horse up and having them resist or rely on your aids for every step until you let them go, now you are teaching your horse to stand themselves up. They are deciding to make the change themselves, because they are no longer able to anticipate the turn. After several repetitions, now they are waiting and listening. Because they don't know if you are going to turn the corner as usual, or if you are going to stop and turn the opposite direction.
When working with Merlin on this I definitely think it was helpful. I actually was also finding that we have some straightness and balance issues just on the straightaway. One way he's good but the other direction he drifts off the rail without my constant aid reminders. Which is a great discovery because it's a perfect baby step to work on on the road to self carriage.
Stumbled Upon A Revelation
As I was working on this exercise I made a few more riding discoveries that I found interesting, although potentially obvious to anyone who has more dressage training (not hard to do). In dressage tests you are not allowed to speak to your horse. Using your voice will get points deducted.
Well that's very hard for me because I talk to my horse a lot. It's partially using verbal cues to help with transitions and clarity of aids, but also I use a running monologue as a stress relief technique. The idea is you can't hold your breath and talk, so this forces me to keep at least a somewhat consistent in and out. The monologue can also help me get out of bad mental patterns, or help me remember/focus on the right things.
All in all, it's a very helpful habit, EXCEPT in a dressage test where you will get marked down for it. Ironically, dressage tests are also a high-stress scenario where relaxation through your body and aids is extra important to ride well, so essentially a great place to need to talk to my horse, thus the challenge. And you want to get precise, on time, transitions, so those voice cues are extra tempting.
Back to the exercise and my obvious discovery. As I am working on trotting down the long rail and inevitably halting and turning on the forehand, we have a lot of trot transitions to play with. Yes of course Merlin is starting understand the exercise and anticipate that we trot down the long side but he would also be just as happy to walk instead.
I think riding bareback also contributed to my revelation. It all the sudden it occurred to me that the reason why only using leg pressure to cue the trot doesn't work very well when I need it to in a dressage test, is because the cue doesn't come from your legs it comes from your seat.
The trot cue doesn't come from your legs, it comes from your seat.
Mind. Blown.
I'm sure this exact thing has been explained to me before and it just didn't click or something. But all of a sudden I know I can get him from walk to trot and trot back to walk just by increasing or decreasing the movement of my seat. It's definitely easier to feel and communicate when I'm riding bareback, it may take some more work to get the same sensitivity with a big piece of wood and leather between us, but it's absolutely a thing. It will take even more work to make it an ingrained habit.
Hey, I Noticed A Thing!
The other thing I really noticed and became tuned in to on this ride was how often Merlin does the thing that I want, but not because I cued it. I started getting really picky about it, "yes I was going to turn there but I hadn't asked you yet."
That's part of where we are getting unbalanced. It's been a little hard for me to choose my battles because I don't want to nitpick his every motion, I don't want to get into balance fights or heavy riding, I don't want to ask for a bend every step and every second of every ride when his muscles may not be there yet.
But I also know that old habits are hard to break and self-carriage takes a lot of work and consistent, conscientious practice. Now I'm realizing that a lot of our issues with dropping shoulders and falling out of balance is because he is so darn good at anticipating.
He's smart enough to figure out what I want or where I want to go (even if I think I am changing it up) that he doesn't wait for me to tell him. Which means he doesn't wait for me to help set up the balance, turn, cue well. I'm sure that there are plenty of times where I'm just not setting him up at all.
I didn't work on that as much as it was a thing I discovered towards the end of my ride and filed away for later use. It will be good food for thought to think out when is he doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
For The Love Of God Stop Working On Bend
It still comes back to picking your battles. Recently I had become too hyper-focused on working on the bend. I could tell he's getting sore, especially through all the thoracic sling areas. It's not my intention for every ride to be a nose-to-the-grindstone ride or to always work the same things the same muscles.
I have always tried to be creative and keep things fresh/not boring with our training. We might do interval endurance training one day, work transitions the next, but then if we've worked hard and had a couple jumping lessons and I think we need a lighter day I might switch to bareback or just work at the walk, maybe try some more obedience oriented things or light lateral work.
But lately despite good intentions, all work seems to turn into bending work on accident. I was getting very one-track minded and you can't solve a problem by working it to death. So I asked a friend from another barn for ideas for a good exercise to counter all the bend work. This friend practices dressage which made it extra relevant.
Her suggestion? Trot poles.
I love trot poles. We used to do trot poles a lot more often in the early days when I was more focused on trying to mobilize Merlin's back and get him a little more rhythmic. I think lately I've gotten a little more lazy about setting them up, particularly when we are riding outside.
She suggested that trot poles would be a great way to let him stretch through his top line as much as he is able and gives me a good opportunity to stay out of the way and not micromanage. She recommended setting up two lines of poles, one at a normal distance apart, and the second line a little farther apart than normal.
In her case, her dressage mare typically practices trot poles that are 4.5 steps apart, so she would set up one line of that, and another line where the poles were 5 steps apart. Merlin and I typically do 4 steps apart because that was what I was taught as standard (and sometimes I'm asking him to collect). I know I've done 4.5 steps apart with him before just because he is a big guy. But I don't think I've ever tried him with 5 steps apart.
It's not really about the distance, the point is for the relaxation. So start with what is familiar to you and only move a slightly increased distance from that. Which we did when she first gave the advice. But today I really wanted to try the 5 steps apart version. I'd love for him to really stretch for it and I'd like to know if he can do it because I really don't know.
Spoiler alert: it was not very pretty.
He was a pretty willing but confused sport about trying the extended trot poles, but it just wasn't going very well. Which really doesn't surprise me given that it will be a challenge for him and being bareback is making it challenging for me as well.
Regardless if I was posting, sitting, or two-pointing the trot, I'm sure I was interfering with his back motion a fair amount, despite my best efforts. And the extra large steps and exaggerated action he has to take to step over the poles definitely upset my balance and made staying on a challenge. Not to mention I should be encouraging him forward, staying back and and upright, eyes up and forward, all those good necessary things to stay out of the way.
I really only gave it a few chances that way before I abandoned ship because we weren't getting anything useful done. Instead I hopped off, in part just to reset the pole distances since we had knocked them all over creation, but also to see if he could do it without me.
I ran alongside him to ask him to go through the poles. And I didn't even trip to fall on my face when left to use my own two feet! Accomplishment! I did have to pick up a lunge whip to encourage him to move forward enough for the extended poles, but he absolutely can get that stretch without my interference.
I'd like to try it again sometime with a saddle. I think if I could two point and push him on and not worry about falling off we would have more success, and obviously I'd like to have him able to stretch through his top line, relax, and reach with a rider someday, but I actually think it was very good for both of us to do it as ground work.
I really like liberty work and I think ground work is so important. I don't do enough ground work and I need to push myself to try liberty things more even though it feels embarrassing and I don't know what I'm doing. Everybody starts somewhere and you don't get better at things you don't practice.
On a more basic level, it was good for me to get off for the trot poles because it took an embarrassingly small number of tries for me to get out of breath. I've been trying to think about my own personal fitness more (which isn't quite the same as actually improving it but it's an ok first step).
I don't like jogging at all, but clearly my cardio needs work. And I know that if I focus on his fitness but not my own, I'm only making us half prepared for anything. Maybe jogging with a horse buddy would be enough motivation?
It seems like the kind of thing I will have good intentions for, but ultimately forget to do, but if I can commit extra time to ground work and working him without a rider, that would really be a great move. I particularly like that this without a rider work is not on a circle.
Lunging is great but our space isn't particularly large. It's not impossible but it seems a little cramped for him to me and so not as beneficial as it could be. This is a nice alternative because I don't think that all a horse's exercise should be under saddle. I like giving him a chance to work and figure out his own body without me there to add change and complication.
This was kind of a mishmash conglomeration of thoughts but I wanted to make a note of the things I tried and things I noticed for my own future reference. But maybe some of you are out there training your horses, or have a free ride at the barn coming up and you're not sure what all you can do that is different from your norm, hopefully this will give you a few good ideas. And please, let me know if you have new ideas for me!
But lately despite good intentions, all work seems to turn into bending work on accident. I was getting very one-track minded and you can't solve a problem by working it to death. So I asked a friend from another barn for ideas for a good exercise to counter all the bend work. This friend practices dressage which made it extra relevant.
Her suggestion? Trot poles.
I love trot poles. We used to do trot poles a lot more often in the early days when I was more focused on trying to mobilize Merlin's back and get him a little more rhythmic. I think lately I've gotten a little more lazy about setting them up, particularly when we are riding outside.
She suggested that trot poles would be a great way to let him stretch through his top line as much as he is able and gives me a good opportunity to stay out of the way and not micromanage. She recommended setting up two lines of poles, one at a normal distance apart, and the second line a little farther apart than normal.
In her case, her dressage mare typically practices trot poles that are 4.5 steps apart, so she would set up one line of that, and another line where the poles were 5 steps apart. Merlin and I typically do 4 steps apart because that was what I was taught as standard (and sometimes I'm asking him to collect). I know I've done 4.5 steps apart with him before just because he is a big guy. But I don't think I've ever tried him with 5 steps apart.
It's not really about the distance, the point is for the relaxation. So start with what is familiar to you and only move a slightly increased distance from that. Which we did when she first gave the advice. But today I really wanted to try the 5 steps apart version. I'd love for him to really stretch for it and I'd like to know if he can do it because I really don't know.
Spoiler alert: it was not very pretty.
We Attempted Extended Trot Poles
Regardless if I was posting, sitting, or two-pointing the trot, I'm sure I was interfering with his back motion a fair amount, despite my best efforts. And the extra large steps and exaggerated action he has to take to step over the poles definitely upset my balance and made staying on a challenge. Not to mention I should be encouraging him forward, staying back and and upright, eyes up and forward, all those good necessary things to stay out of the way.
I really only gave it a few chances that way before I abandoned ship because we weren't getting anything useful done. Instead I hopped off, in part just to reset the pole distances since we had knocked them all over creation, but also to see if he could do it without me.
I ran alongside him to ask him to go through the poles. And I didn't even trip to fall on my face when left to use my own two feet! Accomplishment! I did have to pick up a lunge whip to encourage him to move forward enough for the extended poles, but he absolutely can get that stretch without my interference.
I'd like to try it again sometime with a saddle. I think if I could two point and push him on and not worry about falling off we would have more success, and obviously I'd like to have him able to stretch through his top line, relax, and reach with a rider someday, but I actually think it was very good for both of us to do it as ground work.
Ground Work is Good, Rider Exercise is Also Good
On a more basic level, it was good for me to get off for the trot poles because it took an embarrassingly small number of tries for me to get out of breath. I've been trying to think about my own personal fitness more (which isn't quite the same as actually improving it but it's an ok first step).
I don't like jogging at all, but clearly my cardio needs work. And I know that if I focus on his fitness but not my own, I'm only making us half prepared for anything. Maybe jogging with a horse buddy would be enough motivation?
It seems like the kind of thing I will have good intentions for, but ultimately forget to do, but if I can commit extra time to ground work and working him without a rider, that would really be a great move. I particularly like that this without a rider work is not on a circle.
Lunging is great but our space isn't particularly large. It's not impossible but it seems a little cramped for him to me and so not as beneficial as it could be. This is a nice alternative because I don't think that all a horse's exercise should be under saddle. I like giving him a chance to work and figure out his own body without me there to add change and complication.
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