Preparing for the bit with mouthwork (TTouch)

I do plan on introducing a bit to Z. I might have gone completely bridleless if I was 17 years old riding bareback at a gallop over open pasture but those days were never mine and I like more security in my old age.

The trainer had tried to introduce her to a bit, but it turned out she was having teeth issues (which I’ve since corrected -pulling of wolf teeth and a baby tooth that didn’t drop). I also didn’t like the way he was introducing the bit so it all worked out in the end.

I did get the bit in earlier in week so I know it and the bridle fit well. Howevever, Z was very resistant to the idea (hm I think I can thank the trainer for that) so I went back to basics which is using Linda Tellington-Jones mouthwork exercises.

The Mouthwork can be combined with the nostril TTouch and the ear TTouch. I would also recommend adding in Peggy Cummings Chin Rest, Cheek Delineation, and Cheek Press, as well as forward stretches. This work relaxes the head, jaw and throatlatch and makes the horse more comfortable with being handled in these areas. They would be helpful for the head shy horse, and preparing the horse for worming or dental work.

During the mouthwork, the handlers’ hand is rubbed across the front of the gums under the lip. Z’s nose gets a little pointy like they do when searching for hay on the ground (so cute!). 

Here I use my finger pad to continue gently rubbing the gum. Z has started moving her jaw in response and opening her mouth.

You can work on the opposite side with just a feel. Use the pad of your fingers, not the end where the nail could poke the horses’ gum. Make sure your hands are clean from lotions or perfume, and that your fingernails are trimmed.

The lips can be lifted and manipulated gently by pulling it slightly outwards from the mouth.

During this work, the horse will open his mouth and often yawn. That’s a positive sign.
 

I’m further encouraging the mouth with clicker training: when she opens, I click and then treat with a bit of carrot. This signals to her that opening the mouth is desired behavior.

Once she feels totally comfortable with me in her mouth, releasing her head down more and opening upon a request, I’ll add the bit.

slow improvements builds consistency

Here’s a recap of what Z and I are up too and how far along we have progressed.

We start with about 10 minutes of lunging at walk and trot to warm her body muscles before we do stretching. This is in her headstall with my cotton rope in the roundpen. What I’m looking for during this part of the session is relaxation, responsiveness, and focus.

After quickly learning the head down cue, we moved into transitions – where I want her to walk-trot-walk smoothly and in a relaxed manner (no head up, dropped back, trailing hind legs). I saw some real progress with this the last session, indicating to me she is “getting it.”

Next we do her stretches. These include the head stretching forward, the head between the legs (which she is extremely stiff with), the side to side, the lumbar lift, and belly lifts.

After warmup and stretching, I move into putting on the Western saddle and go back to lunging. One reason for this is because the relaxed state of mind she brought to initial lunging is lost when she goes under saddle, which is of course the exact opposite of what I want to achieve. 

Again, I’m looking for relaxation, responsiveness and focus – it takes a bit longer at this point to achieve what I’m looking for. Tension is evidenced by the higher head, the inverted back, the rushed gait, and the uneveness in rhythm. She is definitely stiffer moving to the right.

During both the lunge sessions I’m using clicker training with sliced carrot as a reward. I repeat a lot of the same exercises done in the warmup such as w-t-w transitions and the spiral in and out on the circle.

Afterwards we do some riding at a walk, looking again for relaxation but also to feel her gain a balance under me by holding our weight on all four legs. This is where I need to step it up more -I’d like the riding to be at least half the session in terms of length. Part of the reason that is not happening is because of the heat (yesterday was 106) and partly due to my own level of gaining confidence with her. Each day I’m riding longer and doing more so it’s coming – just slowly though.

Usually I give her a bath afterwards and some hand grazing time.

What I’d like to be adding is backing – I’m so bad about skipping this and not doing it but it’s important. And adding in more of Peggy Cummings work especially with doing some serpentines in the large pasture. I’ll see what I can do about this over the weekend.

head down cue and more exercises

“When I said I was bored, this wasn’t what I had in mind,”
Z, before leaving for the trainer.

Z had three days off while temps soared in the triple digits. Mostly though I had housework to do this weekend that needed to be done.

Today we worked on the head down cue on the lungeline. I’ve misplaced my clickers during the move, so I just used a tongue click. Boy, did she catch on fast!

Once we moved to the saddle though, there was some rushing about at trot, so I needed to remind her to slow it down and concentrate, but she soon quieted and started her head down cue.

Have added Peggy Cummings exercises: cheek press, cheek delienation, shoulder delienation and jaw rest. Just playing around with it and Z is already showing she likes these type of exercises. They seem to relax her.

Did do some riding at walk, even with the farrier in the barn and horses being moved as a distraction. Yeah me!

She is slowly gaining back her lost weight and is looking pretty good now – just a bit more on the topline is needed.

baby steps

Rode Z Saturday for the first time at the new place. For some reason she decided she forgot how to walk! Today, I decided she would walk and we got through the “stickiness” of standing still and doing nothing. We definitely have taken some backward steps in the training but I expect that this week will get us caught up and moving forward again.

The basic routine: lungework under dressage saddle with walk and trot. Spiral in’s and outs on the circle, and will add in some shoulder in later.

Next, once she is warmed up, we do our carrot stretches, nose stretch, nose between knees, side to side, and side tail pull for the hindquarters as well as a few belly lifts.

Right now I’m still using Molly’s Western saddle but I hope to be back to my own dressage saddle by the end of July. I do my walk-riding in it and once the chiro visits and the walking is all smooth, I’ll add in the trot under saddle. Mostly because of myself and not Z.

Some additional things I’ll be doing is the target stick touching and getting her to stretch more forward at trot. Under saddle we are also using some of Mark Russell’s Lightness exercises to get her to stretch forward and slightly down.

I’ve also ordered Peggy Cummings book Connected Groundwork and her specialized halter with lines so I can start doing those bending exercises also.

If it wasn’t so hot I’d do more but really, this is about as much as I can do considering we are over 103 every day.

BTW she has melded into the new group without a hitch! She has a Palomino Paint mare that she now shares her paddock with and they are quiet friendly and peaceable together! Far less controversy then she had with Dee and Big Guy.

The only worrisome thing is she has lost a lot of weight and lost some weight again when she moved to the new place. I’m putting together some flax seed supplement mix for her and the vet needs to come out next week and do her teeth.

training increments

Now that Z has been home, watching her being ridden and riding her myself, my plan on her training has become clearer to me.

My purpose on sending her to RH has been accomplished – she knows about having a rider on her back and accepts it, she knows to go forward, she has some knowledge of moving off the leg, and some knowledge of bending to a rein aid. Right now she is light to requests on the rein and I want to keep that.

Where she needs her biggest work is in relaxing the body and “moving through.” Now is an excellent opportunity to establish this body memory – before she becomes trained to a “sport” or we get too concerned about collection.

In discussing this with Molly, she talked about Mark Russell’s work and how he relaxes from front to back, in order to ride back to front. Watching some of the exercises she was showing me, it came to me that this work is also similar to Peggy Cummings which helped me understand how I would be applying these principals in the future. The bending and stretching down, relaxing the poll, the axis, and the throatlatch will be ground work in her sidepull, reinforced with clicker training.

When I did a lot of ground work with Beautiful Boy, I used Hempflings Dancing principles as he was so good about mimicking the Handler. I had just started with Z when she left to the trainers, and while she is not as fluid as BB, this will be work that will help her lift her back and move more correctly. We’ll return to our mimicking on the neck rope and see if I can get her to start moving with a lifted back, relaxed neck etc…

Where I see this training differently then say, using the bridle, side reins, pushing into a frame etc…  is that the horse is more free to learn it on their own without the mechanics of tools. This gives the horse Choice, and when a horse has Choice, they may learn it slower but they learn it better. Although to get around the time element, I reinforce with the clicker: the horse mimics me correctly on the neckrope, and I click and treat, reinforcing it in this manner tells the horse “yes, this is EXACTLY what I want!”

Klaus Hempfling works with a lot of Baroque horses which naturally have a compact body and being Stallions, have a inherent energy to draw upon. To get a mare or a gelding, not from this genetic background, to move like a dream is a bit harder… and of course it’s ME doing it, and not Hempfling, so I do what I can.

The exercises by Dr. Hilary Clayton (Activate your Horses’ Core) that I did with Big Guy during his pelvis injury I will also start with Z, including the carrot stretches, the belly lift, pelvis flexion, and lumbar lifting with pelvis tilt. I’ll wait on the tail lift – she might kill me!

In riding, some of the things Molly wanted me to add was working towards Z stopping with a relaxed neck head (as opposed to a highly held head which inverts the back). Yesterday, we worked on this by asking her to bend to the inside, slowing her pace and doing it in a relaxed manner. For example she did a lot of slow walking while circling.

She said that after a horse is trained in this way,  a slight touch on the inside rein will become a cue to a halt. This makes sense as my cue for a downward transition (canter to trot) is that both legs come back to the girth.

Another aspect of riding we are working on, that will be trained via lunging, is the responsiveness to a request. Meaning if I asked for trot, I want the trot, not more walking. This aspect doesn’t really concern me because with the Hempfling neck rope and mimicking work, this will become established. For example, I did a little experiment where I lifted my knee up – the cue I had trained her too before she left to the trainer, and Z took the trot on the lunge.

The next few months will be about strengthening her body, fostering a positive muscle memory of good form, and fine tuning her responses to the requests for walk, trot, leg yield, shoulder-in, and eventually a canter depart. We have lots of great work to be done and I can’t wait!