Saturday, July 18, 2009
20 days boarded
16 days training
Yet another good day. Not only did Shane do a lot more trot work, but we also did some loping! I don't ask him for a whole lot of it, but he's learning the cue, and he still stops like a dream, even from the faster gaits.
I always teach my horses to back up immediately after a stop. Firstly because it teaches them to use their hindquarters, instead of falling on their faces, and secondly because if they have something to anticipate after a stop.. they learn the stop a lot better. Which Shane has. He is even to the point of immediately backing up after a woah, without having to be asked to do it.
Its been a while since I've had any pictures or video, so I did my best to get some good ones today.
The first video really doesn't have much to be explained. He stands like a rock for mounting, which is great. I take lots of breaks throughout the ride and just make him stand still, he doesn't ever fuss. The only reason this is in two pieces is that my camera batteries died and had to be changed!
The second video has a few things to be pointed out. You can see that it takes a lot of leg to get him going, and that he's gaiting more often than he's trotting. We'll be working on that! For now, just going is what I'm looking for. At about 27 seconds in, Shane breaks down from a lope. He wasn't asked for this, so I just pushed him forward again and picked it up again, just for a few strides, and then stopped and backed up at the end of the arena. Again at about 1:15, Shane stopped on his own, so he got a bit of a pop on the butt with the rein to get him to smarten up and listen. This time when I get him loping, I stop him in front of the camera... you can see that I barely even touched my reins for both the stop and the back up! He is hollowing out his back when he backs up, but again, just one more thing to work on. Lastly, I ask for a few leg yields.. first shoulders over, and then hips over. He crosses his legs over so nicely!
Lastly, I tried to get a video of him getting hosed down. It was just a brief hosing, just to rinse away the sweat. He stood pretty good today. He has his good and his bad days.
I also need to point out that he had a swollen jowl today. It didn't seem sore at all.. I did lots of poking and prodding. There are no open sores, no scratches.. so I'm guessing he either got kicked, or bumped himself somewhere. I'm not concerned about it, but will definitely keep an eye on it.And finally, I'll also just make a small note here that Shane shed the soles of his feet today. Which is perfectly normal. Its generally something they just do out in the pasture, but because he has shoes on his soles don't make contact with the ground, therefore they peeled away when I cleaned his hooves. I just wanted to mention it so that his momma would know that this was normal, as it will surely happen once he goes home, too!
One last thing... figured I'd post this video of Shane's scratching post.
