Follow the training of two mustangs from the 2008 Midwest Mustang Challenge!
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Question and AnswerE-mail your questions to rudyhorsemanship@yahoo.comQ.Good morning, I read your web page on the progress with your mustang. Sounds interesting and fun. I live in Wisconsin, talk about snow- I think the average depth here is 25-30 inches, most I?ve ever seen. Anyway what I am writing about is I have a few questions on your mustang training. 1) With Rave you said you put a rope around his neck and tied it to his hind foot. Do you have a picture of how you did this. I am starting a Pregnant Mare Urine (PMU) foal named Baron whom is not totally trusting of humans. I have been doing a lot of what you are going through and have sat on him but this time when I went to go somewhere with him he tried to buck me off. I think that your idea of confining a horse long enough to prove you are not going to kill him might be a good idea, in this instance. Do you have a picture of how you did this? 2)You said you tied things to the saddle, like what? I was thinking of putting some woodshavings in two old grain bags to hang over Baron?s saddle. 3) when you have a horse drag something, do you just drape the line over the horn or his neck so you can release it quickly if needed? I understand if you do not have time to answer my questions but thought I would ask. I am going to continue following your progress and if I see you in Madison in April I will say Hi. I will be volunteering in the back practice arena as gate person, maybe I?ll see you there. Much luck to you and Rave, may your progress be successful! Debra A.Howdy! Sorry it took me so long to respond- we were pretty busy with the PA Horse World Expo. 1) With Rave you said you put a rope around his neck and tied it to his hind foot. Do you have a picture of how you did this. I am starting a Pregnant Mare Urine (PMU) foal named Baron whom is not totally trusting of humans. I have been doing a lot of what you are going through and have sat on him but this time when I went to go somewhere with him he tried to buck me off. I think that your idea of confining a horse long enough to prove you are not going to kill him might be a good idea, in this instance. Do you have a picture of how you did this? Tying a leg takes a LOT of savvy. Somtimes horses fall as they fight the rope. We do a lot of other desensitization BEFORE mounting up so the horse has it figured out, but there is always that possiblity of the horse falling on you and neither of you being able to get up because you are both tangled in the rope! So first I'm going to give a list of other ways to prep your horse which is certainly not a 'complete' list... ~ Lateral flexion both directions. If this isn't glaringly obvious, please, please, please,let someone else start your horse for you!!! ~ Many many objects on horse's saddle including things that bounce around, make noise, etc (more on that later) ~ Dragging objects (more on that too!) ~ Large ball on his back. ~ Going over, under, in between, and near scary objects (tarps, etc) ~ Tossing ropes over him. Let them hit his flanks and legs. ~ Rubing and patting all over- including belly and flanks! ~ Follow a feel. Your horse should move away from steady pressure VERY easily. Forehand over, haunches over, head down, back up (from chest and halter) are just a beggining. ~ Flank rope. If you are not comfortable putting a rope around your horses flank than you are in no way ready to tie up his leg!! I start by keeping one line on the halter and another long heavy line (no thin flat longe lines!) around the flank with both ends coming back to my hand. I back up and invite the horse to come sideways towards me. If he balls up I hold steady and verbally let him know that his answer was incorrect. If he proceeds to buck I must hold all lines until he quits, or at least decreases his bucking. My end goal is to have the horse walk, trot, and canter with the flank rope attached and than stop and sidepass towards me when I pull on it. Obviously the horse needs a LOT of submitting to other feels and pressures before trying this one. If it is your first time doing anything like this and your horse wears a heavy blanket, leave the blanket on the first couple times which keeps the line from really getting up under his flanks, and it gives you a dry run. ~ Noise stimulous desensitization- A little Murphy's law here! There WILL be a large noise at your neighbors house just as you swing your leg over the first time! ~ Get your horse used to two people working with him. During those first rides, you will really want someone else to lead your horse around for you, so make sure your horse is accustomed to such a thing. ~ Handle your horse from the saddle area on both sides. If your horse won't allow you to lead him, stop and back up, from near the girth area, than directing him from the saddle will be equally challenging. ~ Belly-over, belly-over, belly-over!!! Have someone who knows how to quickly bend a horse and disengage his hind quarters lead him around as another person lays across him. At first the person laying across should be still, but eventually you want to be able to swing your legs, rub his flanks, and smack him with the stirup all while beelied over and someone leading him at the walk. By the time you do sit up right on him it should be so much more comfortable for both of you that he is relieved! Once you do sit up there, swing with his walk. Don't use any leg, but use a lot of pelvic motion to swing with his walk. It will feel good to both of you! If you go through all these steps and still have good reason to think he need a leg tied up, email me back and I'll be happy to go through it with you! 2)You said you tied things to the saddle, like what? I was thinking of putting some woodshavings in two old grain bags to hang over Baron?s saddle. Wonderful! I like having two grain bags ( I just stuff with other grain bags, but use whatever you want and have available!) and I tie them together about 12" apart so I can fling them over, one hanging on each side. Also, old gallon jugs filled with rocks are nice. I have had days where I honestly raid the tack room and hang any old thing on with bailing twine- girths that swing around and the buckles make some noise, buckets, jolly balls, whatever! I tie them high enough that the horse isn't going to put a foot through, but I do try to get som objects hanging back at those flanks. Than I just longe them around trot or canter- I don't try to make them go slow at first, I just stay out of their way. If they drag something against the arena wall and it spooks them- great. I'll put objects they HAVE to go around just so that does happen- better a bucket than my leg! 3) when you have a horse drag something, do you just drape the line over the horn or his neck so you can release it quickly if needed? Yup, you've got it! I typically wrap it around thier neck and bring the tail of the rope back to my hand. I start by me dragging the object in front of the horse and gradually let the rope out so it is behind him. Then I put it around his neck and I hold the tail. We start with the object in the middle of our circles, but eventually I want the horse to feel the rope on his hocks. I do this by going around the short side of the ring with the object to the inside, than as we get to the long side, instead of going down the wall, we cut to the middle of the ring, and than go out to the next courner at the other end of the long side. This way we are making a shallow turn to the outside and the rope only touches for a moment. Eventually we do serpentines where the rope really comes across the horse's hind legs. I hope this helps and please let me know how it goes! Danee Rudy Q.Danee, What do you think of my stirrup length in these pictures? They look short to me, espeically the first one. But maybe it's just how I place my leg. The first picture is also off on a number of levels (my hands??), I also need to bring my seat foreward to get out of a chair seat. Although not everyone I talk to considers that a chair seat. BUT, my alignment looks off.... For now though, what about the stirrups?? I like my lower leg in the second one, but I think I need to bring my toe in and up more. (And, of course the hands) But, whatever. I think I just need more riding HOURS, espeicially in the summer it's so hard to get out... So.... what do you think of my stirrup length?  
A. First of all, I'm not going to pretend to give all perfect advice off two pics- sometimes you just have to do what works best at whatever point you are at, so play with the ideas, but don't get stuck on anything I'm about to say! First of all, I don't think you are in a chair seat at all. If you rocked more towards your seat bones and further away from your tail bone you would be in a crotch or fork seat, which we don't want at all. To distinguish if you are in a fork or chair seat look ONLY at the pelvis- not the leg. If your leg was longer, it would probably take away the appearance of the chair seat, because your entire leg would be more under you. The reason that, in the first pic especially, your heel is not in alingment with your ear, shoulder, and hip is not because your pelvis is wrong, but because you need to open your hip angle by dropping your knee, WITHOUT tilting your pelvis forward- easier said than done. What really makes this difficult is that many forces want to scrunch your leg up- like in the second pic you are giving an aid with your outside leg and thus your heel is up and leg scrunched- and that is OK as long as immediately afterwards you put the leg back down again, which with many riders is often not the case. Also, as you use the leg, your toe and knee now point out. This is natural to have happen because as humans the back of our thigh and calf is typically stronger than the inside of our thigh and calf, so to give a stronger aid, we subconciously rotate the leg out. Again, to do this momentarily is not a problem, but when concentrating on the horse, our trainer, the figures we are attempting to ride, etc, it is easy to let that leg rotated out and to not put it back-especially if you are ridng the lazy lesson horse that needs pushed a lot. Grand Prix riders shouldn't need such strong aids, and thus might never turn the leg out to begin with. Also they have been riding for decades, so chances are the inside of their leg is pretty darn strong. But this is why I say to do what works at the level you are at- just because a Grand Prix dressage rider may NEVER turn out her leg, doesn't mean a once a week lesson student shold be expected to ride the same way. In time it will come- as long as you turn the leg back in after every aid. If the leg stays turned out, along with putting constant pressure on the horse's sides, it will shorten your leg, which will drive the leg forward, ruining the ear, shoulder, hip, heel alignment and give you the appearance of a chair seat, even if your pelvis is still correct. The other thing that scrunches up our leg is our stiff ankles. Bare with me on my use of the word "stiff", because it takes too long to write "ankles that have not yet been taught to move fluidly in synchronization with the movement of the pelvis which is hopefully moving fluidly with the horse's back". Each side of our pelvis SHOULD move individually with the horse's back. In walk and trot for instance the right wing of our pelvis should move up and forward as the horse's right shoulder moves up and forward, and settle down and back as the shoulder settles down and back. Our pelvis should have a peddling or figure-8 motion. If you do this from the ground (which I actually find harder) you will find your knees and ankles have to do a lot of moving as well- much more so than your pelvis, actually! From the saddle, to hold your stirrups, your knees and ankles must also move. Often riders jam their heel down, whch restricts their pelvis movement. Since the pelvis isn't moving, the seat doesn't move as fluidly with the horse. I believe the Spanish Riding school is really onto something with making riders go for a long long time before giving them stirrups. I actually rode nine months bareback to really get a fluid pelvis. Once I put my saddle back on I COULDN'T STAND IT!!! I hated my saddle and especially my stirrups because it retarded the motion I worked so hard to learn. The first few days I looked like I never rode before! I was blaming the saddle. I thought that I am now enlightened enough to know how detrimental the saddle and stirrups are to the correct seat. Thank goodness I ran across an article by Linda Parelli that mentioned that this happened to some of their students as well and that once they had a fluid seat they had to learn how to have fluid knees and ankles as well. I got used to my saddle first without the stirrups and than put the stirrups back on and did a western pleasure jog until I could learn to hold my stirrups at an increasingly more difficult length and tempo. Now it is second nature bareback or with my saddle until I start haunches in or half pass, where I still need to conciously move my pelvis with my horse, and un-scrunch my leg after each aid. In overview, your stirrup length is really not dependent on measuring to a certain body part, because it has more to do with your personal ability to get your leg long and keep it that way. Even if you ride really long without stirrups, you may need to ride shorter with them. Good luck! |
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