Mid Week Session and DAY 40 with Nike!

MID-WEEK SESSIONS: It has been a week of saddle woes, wet weather, introducing new things and moving forward with the Method. We took advantage of the lighted and covered arena this week at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds to get in some sessions with Nike. Ronan tossed a shoe this week so he is limited in what he can do comfortably. Argent has an abscess on of his heel bulbs so he on the disabled list. So it is all about Nike this week. Our goals with her as follows; Improve her lateral flexion and vertical flexion. Improve walk/ trot/lope transitions. Improve bending/steering while moving. Refine her ground skills. Introduce Stirrup Driving, Circle Drive and Yielding the HQ Along the Fence (precursor to Side Pass).

            This week we hit Day 40 with Nike. Looking back over this journal we can see that she has come a long way. We have really tried to work with her 3-4 days a week consecutively and consistently. It is a tough season here in the Sierra Foothills with weather and limited access to dry footing in order to train. Yes, we have trained at our place in the muddy footing at times but the concern is that if she slips (she did once in the round pen) that it could hurt her confidence so we are trying to be sensitive to that. Once things dry out some we’ll be starting her on our mini trail course under saddle. We have hopes to let her compete in the Trail Trials hosted by the California Back Country Horsemen in mid-March (Novice class).

            Laurie and I tag teamed this week. My left ankle is still in a brace and my left arm is still healing from a stressed tendon so we swap out doing ground work and riding. We thought we found a good saddle for her but the rides this week proved otherwise. While the saddle would be good for “first saddle/ first ride” sessions, Nike is past that point and needs to feel her human shift their weight and seat. The longer rides in this saddle were not “clear” for her even though she really tried. The leg position was okay but the swell made the reading of seat cues tough for her. Verdict – sell the saddle we just bought, get a really thick pad/saddle blanket combination, a smaller cinch and use our Martin Saddlery saddles. We experimented with this a bit and it seemed okay.  Ground work is improving nicely. Nike gets the concepts and seems to have a good attitude about moving her feet. On the line her lope is getting more confident as she is lowering her head and stretching out. Her trot is finding more cadence and smoothness. We are tapping into a seated trot and a posting trot which is pretty cool. She picked up Stirrup Driving pretty quickly and aside from being a little unsure why the handy stick was sitting on her withers, Circle Driving went well too on the first try. We shot some video this week to help us see what is really happening and were pleasantly surprised. Will have to add them to a YouTube account here soon! Under saddle the best day we have had so far was Day 40. This is really Ride 14 or 15 (starting to lose count –grin) so her progress is pretty good. We had several solid attempts at moving into the lope from the trot and maintained a decent cadence longer than in previous sessions. She required very little focused motivation to do this. Just a squeeze and a kiss. We did have to encourage her through active riding to let her know it was okay to move out and go a little faster. When she did it was NICE! Hard not to get greedy! Her trotting in getting better and better with a nice cadence. She is understanding the seat cue better too. Again, the human has to be proactive and clear when they ride her but she is much more willing to move out on a loose rein without being micro-managed. Her steering wheel is coming along nicely too. Walking and trotting some circles is helping. Once Ronan gets his shoe replaced we will begin to help her get better at Follow the Fence at the trot and lope to help her be responsible for her feet. She can follow her buddy at first to help her understand the concept and then go “solo” on the exercise. The days of micro-management are over. She is keeping us honest and focused in our horsemanship. It is interesting (and kind of funny) how much like Argent (our Kiger mustang) her learning patterns are. Keep the lesson short, introduce the concept and move on. The next day (or sometime two days later) she gets it and shows real improvement. Lots of affection and the occasional treat seem to reinforce the positive. It is what works for Nike.

Video can be seen now at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1683078638604364/