dancinghorse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dancinghorse) wrote2010-03-26 01:00 pm
dancinghorse) wrote2010-03-26 01:00 pm
Entry tags:
Ephiny's Training Diary
Finally, about two years after I wanted to do it, we're getting ready to start Ephiny under saddle. She's been yay ready for a year, but the parting of the ways with the trainer who used to be here weekly, followed by a whole lot of me-rehab from Toxic Trainer Syndrome, meant that there was no one here to help--and with a young horse, especially a highly opinionated, very spirited, not always inclined to be cooperative Lipizzan mare, that's dangerous. As a result we've both been in a state of frustration for the past year, but it just hasn't been happening.
It appears that the Mother Ship has been on the job after all. A couple of weeks ago, in the middle of March Camp, I had email from a student in Equine Sciences at the U of A, inquiring about a working student position. I get these once a year--it must be a spring thing--but it hasn't worked out previously.
This time the student knew where the farm is (the last one thought it was in Sonoita, an hour SE of here), what it does, and how it works based on the website--and was very interested. I invited her over, Capria and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tcastleb and I interviewed her, and the result was two thumbs and a hoof up.
Now we have a working student, a very good dressage rider with plenty of Warmblood and Thoroughbred experience, lots of training experience, but no experience of actually backing a horse. I also need help riding and training the others, and that she can do handily; Capria likes her, Pandora's size and way of going are very familiar for her, and best of all, she really likes keed, who is a type she hasn't dealt with much before. One of her projects will be to get him back to being a ridin' hoss, work with S. on his various issues (now almost gone, but it never hurts to get rid of them completely), and get experience of riding and training a nice Half-Arabian. She might even show him. It's certainly a possibility.
So there's our backstory. The main story is the saga of turning Ephiny into a riding horse.
Ephiny has been a very, very, very late bloomer. As a 5yo, when most Lipizzans are finally starting to get into some kind of reasonable shape, she had no back to sit on. She looked like a sawhorse with pretty ears. At age 6, as they do, she rather suddenly transformed into a round, muscular, shining white swan. I could have started her then, but that was my Year of the Toxic Meltdown, when I was barely riding at all after being told in every possible way that I was incompetent and should not delude myself that I had any horse skills. Definitely not a state of mind to be in for starting a horse.
Now she's almost 8, and she looks like a normal 5yo, is going through a growth phase and being a little bit silly and all the usual things that generally happen in the breed around ages 5 and 6. As I said, late bloomer. She's also quite dominant, though she's a quiet alpha, more likely to do the water-wears-away-stone thing than the hurricane-blasts-you-to-Oz technique. She doesn't have a habit of obedience, though she's been worked with as often as I could manage it; she's done the leads-loads-ties routine and she has the basics of groundwork, and she's worn saddle and bridle and been longed in them, though by no means consistently. Again, solo human, largeish and opinionated horse, gets complicated.
This week we started the process For Reals, Dudes. Day 1, Monday, had challenges. A person came with a small dog, looking for a place to to board her horse, and stayed and stayed and stayed, which delayed proceedings for an hour. Stranger with jangly negative energy plus dog made Miss Sensitive wary to begin with. And then there was stranger number two, whom she had met once: J., with her calm energy and her experienced manner around horses, but still, not a familiar presence. To add to the fun, she was also in heat--this is the first year she's shown real heat signs (more late development, or maybe when S worked on her last year she unblocked something?)--and that made her even more twitchy.
I groomed and saddled her even so, put on Pooka's serreta to see if she would do better with its quiet nosepiece--the regular cavesson has the more usual triple-jointed metal structure over the nose--and it fit; she didn't seem to find it overly assertive as Capria does. In fact she was quite mellow about both saddle and cavesson.
The plan was to restart longeing the SRS way (no sidereins yet; they'll be added when she's ready), with one person in the middle and the other leading her around on the circle. The usual procedure is to gradually move back down the line away from the horse until leader person is also in the middle and horse is on the circle.
She wasn't in the mood. At all. J, as a dressage rider (and oh, do I know the feeling!), wants to Do Stuff, and the concept of training as Zen is new. So is the hypersensitivity of the Lipizzan--again, boy, do I understand. BTDT with big gold-plated bells on. You may think you're being oh so quiet, but you have to dial it down ten notches, then ten more. And then you're almost not too loud.
Which meant that as I led her on the circle and she had her own opinions, J tried to help by snapping the whip and chasing her a bit from behind. Acceptable technique with a less green or less sensitive horse. 'Way too much for the Sensitive Girl.
I called a halt and turned Ephiny loose. If she was going to express herself that strongly, I wasn't going to be within striking distance, thankyouverymuch.
And J got to see what a Lipizzan does when she's Had Enough. In Ephiny's case, courbettes. Also, because she was in heat, ferocious one-barreled cow-kicks and double-barreled blasts. I stayed with her, whip in hand, mostly to fend her off, but she didn't offer to strike directly at me. Eventually, with persistence, I managed to persuade her to free-longe around me, both ways. And that was enough for one day.
It was an eye-opener for the student. Standard young-Lipizzan nonsense can be impressive. I don't know if J believes me when I say Ephiny will, in time, be as wonderful as her sister Pandora (who also did things like this when she first came here).
We put her away, person and dog left, and J. got to do a ride on Pandora, which went very well. I even had time to longe Capria.
And that was Day 1.
Day 2, Wednesday, was much quieter. No visitors, human or canine. Same routine. Groom, saddle, cavesson. Ephiny was mellower; she had the sense of the process, knew what was coming, felt comfortable with it. We tried the same configuration: J in middle, but this time I had the whip as I led Ephiny around (from the outside--temporarily; I wasn't keen on getting wrapped in the longeline if she cut loose). She was pushy, had one spook but settled when I reassured her, was not at all sure about this circle thing, but we did manage two decent left circles. I stopped there. With another horse it might have been advisable to do the same exercise going right, but with a Lipp of this particular personality, that can be overkill. They are very methodical and need to be introduced to new things very slowly, with lots of time to process each element.
J was a bit dubious, I think. Again we had the Do Stuff issue--she wanted to move around and push Ephiny out on the circle. I had to tell her to be a pillar. Just stand. Do nothing. Once she did (she has a lovely quiet energy), things went well. She noted after that with a TB, you can push. But with a Lipp at this level, you truly can't. Later, yes, but in the earliest stages, ohgodno.
Today would be day 3, but we have galeforce winds. We'll do it tomorrow instead. I want to see if we can get quiet circles both ways. Then I'll be able to mix it up, and will add groundwork--she's done a fair bit of that, and it will help a great deal with her focus. She doesn't have much attention span at the moment; we'll work on expanding that, and getting her more into the habit of willing obedience.
She's very thinky now. Has a softness about her that I like to see. It doesn't mean she won't blow up if we overface her, at all, but she's settling into the work and showing what a good mind she has underneath it all.
And then after she went into the paddock to hang with the Girlz and process her lesson, J tried out keed and they hit it off. And now he has a job and she has a project of her own. Meanwhile I rode Capria, who loves my new, F-inspired hands, and Pooka, who said, "Not bad, but here's a hole and there's a hole and look! Pteranodons!"
This working-student thing? Genius. I hope it goes on for a good long time. I still have Camilla waiting impatiently to get her full share of the roster. Next week for sure. And we'll be getting started with Tia once Ephiny is going steadily--groundwork, ground-driving, longeing, and all that good stuff. She's a tough customer and will kick, but she'll be easier in some ways. Less need to tiptoe and whisper, and much stronger motivation. She's been training herself to do the figures as it is, following me when I ride, and learning the words for the things we do. But she won't be 5 till next month, so she has time. Ephiny needs it now.
It appears that the Mother Ship has been on the job after all. A couple of weeks ago, in the middle of March Camp, I had email from a student in Equine Sciences at the U of A, inquiring about a working student position. I get these once a year--it must be a spring thing--but it hasn't worked out previously.
This time the student knew where the farm is (the last one thought it was in Sonoita, an hour SE of here), what it does, and how it works based on the website--and was very interested. I invited her over, Capria and
tcastleb and I interviewed her, and the result was two thumbs and a hoof up.Now we have a working student, a very good dressage rider with plenty of Warmblood and Thoroughbred experience, lots of training experience, but no experience of actually backing a horse. I also need help riding and training the others, and that she can do handily; Capria likes her, Pandora's size and way of going are very familiar for her, and best of all, she really likes keed, who is a type she hasn't dealt with much before. One of her projects will be to get him back to being a ridin' hoss, work with S. on his various issues (now almost gone, but it never hurts to get rid of them completely), and get experience of riding and training a nice Half-Arabian. She might even show him. It's certainly a possibility.
So there's our backstory. The main story is the saga of turning Ephiny into a riding horse.
Ephiny has been a very, very, very late bloomer. As a 5yo, when most Lipizzans are finally starting to get into some kind of reasonable shape, she had no back to sit on. She looked like a sawhorse with pretty ears. At age 6, as they do, she rather suddenly transformed into a round, muscular, shining white swan. I could have started her then, but that was my Year of the Toxic Meltdown, when I was barely riding at all after being told in every possible way that I was incompetent and should not delude myself that I had any horse skills. Definitely not a state of mind to be in for starting a horse.
Now she's almost 8, and she looks like a normal 5yo, is going through a growth phase and being a little bit silly and all the usual things that generally happen in the breed around ages 5 and 6. As I said, late bloomer. She's also quite dominant, though she's a quiet alpha, more likely to do the water-wears-away-stone thing than the hurricane-blasts-you-to-Oz technique. She doesn't have a habit of obedience, though she's been worked with as often as I could manage it; she's done the leads-loads-ties routine and she has the basics of groundwork, and she's worn saddle and bridle and been longed in them, though by no means consistently. Again, solo human, largeish and opinionated horse, gets complicated.
This week we started the process For Reals, Dudes. Day 1, Monday, had challenges. A person came with a small dog, looking for a place to to board her horse, and stayed and stayed and stayed, which delayed proceedings for an hour. Stranger with jangly negative energy plus dog made Miss Sensitive wary to begin with. And then there was stranger number two, whom she had met once: J., with her calm energy and her experienced manner around horses, but still, not a familiar presence. To add to the fun, she was also in heat--this is the first year she's shown real heat signs (more late development, or maybe when S worked on her last year she unblocked something?)--and that made her even more twitchy.
I groomed and saddled her even so, put on Pooka's serreta to see if she would do better with its quiet nosepiece--the regular cavesson has the more usual triple-jointed metal structure over the nose--and it fit; she didn't seem to find it overly assertive as Capria does. In fact she was quite mellow about both saddle and cavesson.
The plan was to restart longeing the SRS way (no sidereins yet; they'll be added when she's ready), with one person in the middle and the other leading her around on the circle. The usual procedure is to gradually move back down the line away from the horse until leader person is also in the middle and horse is on the circle.
She wasn't in the mood. At all. J, as a dressage rider (and oh, do I know the feeling!), wants to Do Stuff, and the concept of training as Zen is new. So is the hypersensitivity of the Lipizzan--again, boy, do I understand. BTDT with big gold-plated bells on. You may think you're being oh so quiet, but you have to dial it down ten notches, then ten more. And then you're almost not too loud.
Which meant that as I led her on the circle and she had her own opinions, J tried to help by snapping the whip and chasing her a bit from behind. Acceptable technique with a less green or less sensitive horse. 'Way too much for the Sensitive Girl.
I called a halt and turned Ephiny loose. If she was going to express herself that strongly, I wasn't going to be within striking distance, thankyouverymuch.
And J got to see what a Lipizzan does when she's Had Enough. In Ephiny's case, courbettes. Also, because she was in heat, ferocious one-barreled cow-kicks and double-barreled blasts. I stayed with her, whip in hand, mostly to fend her off, but she didn't offer to strike directly at me. Eventually, with persistence, I managed to persuade her to free-longe around me, both ways. And that was enough for one day.
It was an eye-opener for the student. Standard young-Lipizzan nonsense can be impressive. I don't know if J believes me when I say Ephiny will, in time, be as wonderful as her sister Pandora (who also did things like this when she first came here).
We put her away, person and dog left, and J. got to do a ride on Pandora, which went very well. I even had time to longe Capria.
And that was Day 1.
Day 2, Wednesday, was much quieter. No visitors, human or canine. Same routine. Groom, saddle, cavesson. Ephiny was mellower; she had the sense of the process, knew what was coming, felt comfortable with it. We tried the same configuration: J in middle, but this time I had the whip as I led Ephiny around (from the outside--temporarily; I wasn't keen on getting wrapped in the longeline if she cut loose). She was pushy, had one spook but settled when I reassured her, was not at all sure about this circle thing, but we did manage two decent left circles. I stopped there. With another horse it might have been advisable to do the same exercise going right, but with a Lipp of this particular personality, that can be overkill. They are very methodical and need to be introduced to new things very slowly, with lots of time to process each element.
J was a bit dubious, I think. Again we had the Do Stuff issue--she wanted to move around and push Ephiny out on the circle. I had to tell her to be a pillar. Just stand. Do nothing. Once she did (she has a lovely quiet energy), things went well. She noted after that with a TB, you can push. But with a Lipp at this level, you truly can't. Later, yes, but in the earliest stages, ohgodno.
Today would be day 3, but we have galeforce winds. We'll do it tomorrow instead. I want to see if we can get quiet circles both ways. Then I'll be able to mix it up, and will add groundwork--she's done a fair bit of that, and it will help a great deal with her focus. She doesn't have much attention span at the moment; we'll work on expanding that, and getting her more into the habit of willing obedience.
She's very thinky now. Has a softness about her that I like to see. It doesn't mean she won't blow up if we overface her, at all, but she's settling into the work and showing what a good mind she has underneath it all.
And then after she went into the paddock to hang with the Girlz and process her lesson, J tried out keed and they hit it off. And now he has a job and she has a project of her own. Meanwhile I rode Capria, who loves my new, F-inspired hands, and Pooka, who said, "Not bad, but here's a hole and there's a hole and look! Pteranodons!"
This working-student thing? Genius. I hope it goes on for a good long time. I still have Camilla waiting impatiently to get her full share of the roster. Next week for sure. And we'll be getting started with Tia once Ephiny is going steadily--groundwork, ground-driving, longeing, and all that good stuff. She's a tough customer and will kick, but she'll be easier in some ways. Less need to tiptoe and whisper, and much stronger motivation. She's been training herself to do the figures as it is, following me when I ride, and learning the words for the things we do. But she won't be 5 till next month, so she has time. Ephiny needs it now.