Gia's first blog!
So, as promised, I will be blogging about Gia's journey as she progresses with her training. Since she is almost three, I've already done a lot of stuff with her that I did not get a chance to write about, but I will try to catch you all up. She was also born here on the farm, so her training started very much like Baker's. She had to learn to lead and stand tied. As I remember, she was much feistier about everything as compared to Baker, but for those of you who followed my blog about Baker, he was super easy as compared to most babies. Gia was probably about average with most things I taught her except one - tying. She had quite a hard time with that concept, and broke from what she was tied to many times. The fact that she is pretty big, didn't help my side of things much either. I ended up having to call in reinforcements - someone to come and give me a hand and show me some new techniques that definitely made a difference with her. And now I have one more tool in my tool belt! I've since used those techniques with several horses, including Gia, very successfully. That's one of the great things about this job - there is always something new to learn! With everything else I taught her, she did fairly well. When I last worked with her in September of last year, she had gotten to the point where she was wearing a saddle and a bridle with no problems, and she was doing quiet well on long lines. For those who don't know, long lines are basically two long ropes that you typically attach to a bit on the horse's bridle (the bit is the part that goes in the horse's mouth). Then the lines run towards the back of the horse on either side, and all the way back to where the handler is holding them. There are many purposes to long lining a horse. When I'm working with a young horse, I use the long lines to teach them how to respond to pressure from the bit, telling them to stop and turn, without me having to be on their back. So, when I do get on them, they already know that part of things, and it's one less thing to have to teach them. Gia was able to walk and trot and turn in the long lines by the fall of last year. She was basically to the point where I was ready to get on her, if she had been old enough.
There are many different opinions out there about how old a horse should be before it is ready to be ridden. I do not believe in getting on a horse before they turn 3 years old, especially if they are rather large. And, I do not believe in jumping a horse before they are at least 4 years old. I might even wait longer than that, depending on their joints. The reason for this is that a horse will continue to grow until it is at least 4, with some continuing to grow until they are 6 years old. While they are growing, the ends of their bones, just like human bones, are formed with soft cartilage. As they grow, the cartilage is slowly replaced by hard bone. If you put too much weight or too much work on a horse whose bones are still growing, that can cause the cartilage to compress and lead to joint problems down the road. I prefer to have my horses around and working for a very long time, so I'm willing to be patient and wait until they are physically ready for work. On April 27th, Gia will be 3 years old, and I am gearing up to be ready to ride her at that time! I will be working with her about 2-3 days per week, between now and then, refreshing her memory on all the things she learned over the past couple of years, and prepping her to have me on her back soon. A good rule of thumb with a young horse is to work them the number of days each week that equals how old they are. If they are 2, they work twice a week, 3 year olds work three times per week, and 4 year olds work four times per week, etc.
That brings us to today. Since today was our first day in several months, I kept it very simple. I brought her into the round pen to do a little "natural horsemanship" or "join-up" work with her. There are a variety of "natural horsemanship" techniques out there. They are all designed to work with a horse's natural instincts to help a horse understand what you want. The technique I like to use is most similar to the one that Monty Roberts teaches. I started out by asking Gia to move away from me, which she was happy to do at first anyway, because she was quite upset that I had pulled her out of the field away from her friend, and she was quite distracted about being somewhere she hadn't been in a while. After a few laps around the ring in one direction, I step towards her, cutting her off, and push her to go the other direction. As I do this work with her, I am looking for several signs of submission, or signs that she is ready to let me be in charge of her and she is ready to follow my lead. One is that she lowers her head to the ground instead of holding it up high and looking all around. Another is that she starts to make her circle closer to me rather than running around on the outermost edges of the ring. Another is that she keeps at least one ear, usually the one closest to me, or the inside ear, pointed at me instead of having both ears pointed at something outside the arena, indicating what she is interested in paying attention to. And the final sign that I am looking for is "licking and chewing". "Licking and chewing" is one thing a horse will do when they are relaxed and submissive and ready to pay attention to their leader, hopefully me :). Gia remembered this work from last year, and right away she started to put her head down. However, she was not focused on me and was still running around quite frantic. I think she just remembered that when she gives me the signs of submission that I am looking for, I will stop and let her have a break. When she lowered her head, I did indicate to her that she was going in the right direction by stepping backwards and giving her a brief break, but as soon as I lost her attention to some outside stimuli (which was almost immediately), I pushed her forward and back to running around the ring again. We worked like that for about 20 minutes before I got the first sign of licking and chewing. As soon as I got that, I stepped backward and stopped pushing her. Stepping backward tells her that she gets a break, and it also invites her to come towards me, if she would like to. Gia is a people horse, so she definitely came towards me when I allowed her to. Before that, there were some, not unexpected, fireworks on her part. It was nothing different from any other young horse, it was just her way of protesting work after having the winter off (kind of like a kid protesting when school starts back after a lazy summer), and her way of trying to be the boss. She's definitely an opinionated filly, but every time she threw a fit, I pushed her to work harder around the ring. Horses are typically pretty lazy, so they will figure out what it takes to stop having to work. This work teaches them that the wrong answer gets them more work, and the right answer gets them a break. By the end of our session today, She was licking and chewing a lot, with her head quite low to the ground. Once she came in closer to me, if she became distracted, all I would have to do is move to one side or the other and she would quickly put her attention back on me and move towards me, keeping her hind end away from me. This is her way of saying that I'm in charge and that she is willing to follow me and her way of showing respect. That ended her first lesson back in quite a good way. I plan to do this with her again until it's quite easy, and almost unnecessary.
There are many different opinions out there about how old a horse should be before it is ready to be ridden. I do not believe in getting on a horse before they turn 3 years old, especially if they are rather large. And, I do not believe in jumping a horse before they are at least 4 years old. I might even wait longer than that, depending on their joints. The reason for this is that a horse will continue to grow until it is at least 4, with some continuing to grow until they are 6 years old. While they are growing, the ends of their bones, just like human bones, are formed with soft cartilage. As they grow, the cartilage is slowly replaced by hard bone. If you put too much weight or too much work on a horse whose bones are still growing, that can cause the cartilage to compress and lead to joint problems down the road. I prefer to have my horses around and working for a very long time, so I'm willing to be patient and wait until they are physically ready for work. On April 27th, Gia will be 3 years old, and I am gearing up to be ready to ride her at that time! I will be working with her about 2-3 days per week, between now and then, refreshing her memory on all the things she learned over the past couple of years, and prepping her to have me on her back soon. A good rule of thumb with a young horse is to work them the number of days each week that equals how old they are. If they are 2, they work twice a week, 3 year olds work three times per week, and 4 year olds work four times per week, etc.
That brings us to today. Since today was our first day in several months, I kept it very simple. I brought her into the round pen to do a little "natural horsemanship" or "join-up" work with her. There are a variety of "natural horsemanship" techniques out there. They are all designed to work with a horse's natural instincts to help a horse understand what you want. The technique I like to use is most similar to the one that Monty Roberts teaches. I started out by asking Gia to move away from me, which she was happy to do at first anyway, because she was quite upset that I had pulled her out of the field away from her friend, and she was quite distracted about being somewhere she hadn't been in a while. After a few laps around the ring in one direction, I step towards her, cutting her off, and push her to go the other direction. As I do this work with her, I am looking for several signs of submission, or signs that she is ready to let me be in charge of her and she is ready to follow my lead. One is that she lowers her head to the ground instead of holding it up high and looking all around. Another is that she starts to make her circle closer to me rather than running around on the outermost edges of the ring. Another is that she keeps at least one ear, usually the one closest to me, or the inside ear, pointed at me instead of having both ears pointed at something outside the arena, indicating what she is interested in paying attention to. And the final sign that I am looking for is "licking and chewing". "Licking and chewing" is one thing a horse will do when they are relaxed and submissive and ready to pay attention to their leader, hopefully me :). Gia remembered this work from last year, and right away she started to put her head down. However, she was not focused on me and was still running around quite frantic. I think she just remembered that when she gives me the signs of submission that I am looking for, I will stop and let her have a break. When she lowered her head, I did indicate to her that she was going in the right direction by stepping backwards and giving her a brief break, but as soon as I lost her attention to some outside stimuli (which was almost immediately), I pushed her forward and back to running around the ring again. We worked like that for about 20 minutes before I got the first sign of licking and chewing. As soon as I got that, I stepped backward and stopped pushing her. Stepping backward tells her that she gets a break, and it also invites her to come towards me, if she would like to. Gia is a people horse, so she definitely came towards me when I allowed her to. Before that, there were some, not unexpected, fireworks on her part. It was nothing different from any other young horse, it was just her way of protesting work after having the winter off (kind of like a kid protesting when school starts back after a lazy summer), and her way of trying to be the boss. She's definitely an opinionated filly, but every time she threw a fit, I pushed her to work harder around the ring. Horses are typically pretty lazy, so they will figure out what it takes to stop having to work. This work teaches them that the wrong answer gets them more work, and the right answer gets them a break. By the end of our session today, She was licking and chewing a lot, with her head quite low to the ground. Once she came in closer to me, if she became distracted, all I would have to do is move to one side or the other and she would quickly put her attention back on me and move towards me, keeping her hind end away from me. This is her way of saying that I'm in charge and that she is willing to follow me and her way of showing respect. That ended her first lesson back in quite a good way. I plan to do this with her again until it's quite easy, and almost unnecessary.
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| Gia after her first workout in almost 6 months! |
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