Pictures from my photo shoot. Work in hand. Continued.
Posted by Irina Yastrebova on Saturday, October 27, 2007 10:42 PM
When your horse walks by your side and keeps an eye on you start working on halts. Slow down your walking pace,
close your fingers around the reins and create a
momentary hold. At the same time use your voice and turn yourself to face your horse. If that doesn't stop your horse put the whip in front of him
across his chest. If your horse doesn't halt do not continue to hold with the reins, release and ask again. If she is still ignoring
the request use wall to help you. Make a circle and ask for a halt while approaching the wall. If you took time and worked on the first exercise
until your horse started to listen to you, you will not have much trouble to stop her. Work on halts from the other side too.
Your aim is to train your horse to halt from your turn toward her.
That will create a horse with very nice manners. She will walk with you by your shoulder and stop any time you face her. You will not need
to drag her from the paddock or worry that she will run your over walking out of the barn. Remember, any time after you have trained her
she ignores your requests, work with her right there to remind her about the manners. Horses check where they stand in the herd all the time.
They do that with us too. Do not be mad or upset with your horse when she tests you. And do not assume that she will obey you same way all the time.
Just work with her any time it is needed. Eventually, these test will become very rare and you will develop an eye to spot challenge in it's birth
and stop it with such small requests that bystanders will not even notice the "conversation" you just had with your horse.
Happy riding...
|