studiowvw
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2010
- Messages
- 324
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Hi lucky seven - hope you and Seven enjoy learning together. Even hanging out with them builds your bond, so take all the time it takes (so it takes less time later
). Also you can "train for tomorrow" - if he takes two steps today, he might take 4 tomorrow. Also, teaching him to allow you to stand beside his hip is as important as getting him to step forward. It is just the first step.
Actually, if you had a horse that wouldn't stand still, your first step would be to teach him to stand still. (Maybe only 2 seconds at first, then longer!) Then you would get him to accept standing in his "hip pocket", then you could start ask him to step forward.
Mustang is like your Seven and doesn't really have any motivation for going forward. Therefore I have decided to make it easier for both of us by ONLY leading him down the road 40 feet or so, then asking for forward as we face back toward home. He has incentive to go back there because A) Diesel is tied up to the entrance gate, and B) the treat bucket is there, although I am really cutting down on the treats because their noses are ALWAYS trying to get into my pocket.
Expecting him to go outward away from his buddy when he's not confident is just going to lead to failure, will make him sour and me frustrated!
paintponyluvr - yes, it is very interesting discovering myself as I train them - haha! I don't always like what I learn either.
I will confess that I see I got into nagging Mustang instead of accepting his first tries - why did that happen? Probably because Diesel had 7 days under his girth and I was expecting Mustang to be as eager as Diesel is. Thank god I laid off the nagging and got some forward movement by having him come along with Diesel as we went down the road.
I also mulled over what Mustang is doing - he goes from unconfident (crowding me, wrapping around me) to confident ("the mud on the road is so interesting!") to disinterested ("I'm leaving now... I think?") to interested ("Ok, you want me to do what - I can do that!") to pushy/dominant, etc., etc.
IMO he is like Eddie (an arab type rescue horse I have). Last spring he was just like Mustang - almost impossible to get him to do anything. So all I did with him was at liberty around the barnyard, and take him for a few walks down the road, not asking for anything other than going in the direction I wanted, and to stop and start when I did, and not run over me.
In the fall (2.5 yo) he was suddenly easy to teach. Now he is as rewarding as Diesel is.
So I think Mustang is just not ready to concentrate - too immature. I will do a few more days with him - I did start two-reining him the other day, but the biggest thing was to keep his nose off the road surface. I would bump his nose softly with the reins until he lifted his head, then leave him alone.
Diesel is doing amazing - he moves out down the road in either direction and has lots of confidence about it. Yesterday I did something different - I took Spinner (paint horse) and my non-horsey friend Myra took Diesel. They were both just on leads, and Diesel took the initiative and stepped out up front like he was being long-lined (i.e. no one asked him to, because Myra doesn't even know enough about horses to do so. I just told her to allow him to go up front like he wanted.) We went half a mile out and back. Most of the way he was up front of all of us like a little driver - so cute! He also had a really nice contact on the line most of the time.
PS I just download the camera videos to the computer - it's a Macbook which has the iMovie program. I just select the sections I want and drag them to the "project". Then you can add text - there are several styles you can use for the text. Then also they give you several styles of connecting each piece of the action (fade to black, cross dissolve, plus several more but I really only like those two.)
Once you get it the way you want, you "share" or export the movie, then that can be uploaded to YouTube.
I really like the video camera for personal feedback!!! I set it on the arm of a chair and hope that blinkin' cat Hobbs doesn't knock it off.
The first time I video'd myself with Lacey I thought I did really great until I watched it - Yikes! I found I had some very strange habits, like folding my arms and looking at the sky. So weird!
I also saw that I was very ineffective in some ways.
PPS if I do anything really bad, I delete it and don't look at it! Make a note not to do that again and get rid of it! Only look at the good stuff and make sure I keep doing that.
Actually, if you had a horse that wouldn't stand still, your first step would be to teach him to stand still. (Maybe only 2 seconds at first, then longer!) Then you would get him to accept standing in his "hip pocket", then you could start ask him to step forward.
Mustang is like your Seven and doesn't really have any motivation for going forward. Therefore I have decided to make it easier for both of us by ONLY leading him down the road 40 feet or so, then asking for forward as we face back toward home. He has incentive to go back there because A) Diesel is tied up to the entrance gate, and B) the treat bucket is there, although I am really cutting down on the treats because their noses are ALWAYS trying to get into my pocket.
Expecting him to go outward away from his buddy when he's not confident is just going to lead to failure, will make him sour and me frustrated!
paintponyluvr - yes, it is very interesting discovering myself as I train them - haha! I don't always like what I learn either.
I will confess that I see I got into nagging Mustang instead of accepting his first tries - why did that happen? Probably because Diesel had 7 days under his girth and I was expecting Mustang to be as eager as Diesel is. Thank god I laid off the nagging and got some forward movement by having him come along with Diesel as we went down the road.
I also mulled over what Mustang is doing - he goes from unconfident (crowding me, wrapping around me) to confident ("the mud on the road is so interesting!") to disinterested ("I'm leaving now... I think?") to interested ("Ok, you want me to do what - I can do that!") to pushy/dominant, etc., etc.
IMO he is like Eddie (an arab type rescue horse I have). Last spring he was just like Mustang - almost impossible to get him to do anything. So all I did with him was at liberty around the barnyard, and take him for a few walks down the road, not asking for anything other than going in the direction I wanted, and to stop and start when I did, and not run over me.
In the fall (2.5 yo) he was suddenly easy to teach. Now he is as rewarding as Diesel is.
So I think Mustang is just not ready to concentrate - too immature. I will do a few more days with him - I did start two-reining him the other day, but the biggest thing was to keep his nose off the road surface. I would bump his nose softly with the reins until he lifted his head, then leave him alone.
Diesel is doing amazing - he moves out down the road in either direction and has lots of confidence about it. Yesterday I did something different - I took Spinner (paint horse) and my non-horsey friend Myra took Diesel. They were both just on leads, and Diesel took the initiative and stepped out up front like he was being long-lined (i.e. no one asked him to, because Myra doesn't even know enough about horses to do so. I just told her to allow him to go up front like he wanted.) We went half a mile out and back. Most of the way he was up front of all of us like a little driver - so cute! He also had a really nice contact on the line most of the time.
PS I just download the camera videos to the computer - it's a Macbook which has the iMovie program. I just select the sections I want and drag them to the "project". Then you can add text - there are several styles you can use for the text. Then also they give you several styles of connecting each piece of the action (fade to black, cross dissolve, plus several more but I really only like those two.)
Once you get it the way you want, you "share" or export the movie, then that can be uploaded to YouTube.
I really like the video camera for personal feedback!!! I set it on the arm of a chair and hope that blinkin' cat Hobbs doesn't knock it off.
The first time I video'd myself with Lacey I thought I did really great until I watched it - Yikes! I found I had some very strange habits, like folding my arms and looking at the sky. So weird!
PPS if I do anything really bad, I delete it and don't look at it! Make a note not to do that again and get rid of it! Only look at the good stuff and make sure I keep doing that.
