Groundwork

Somewhat without meaning to, I ended up deciding to give Finn a light week. He certainly deserves it after how hard he worked and tried on the camping trip. To some degree this was precipitated by my ongoing concerns about the suitability of the Ansur saddle and the fact that the Thorowgood T8 jumping saddle I've been wanting to try is due to arrive on Thursday. On point or not, I kinda wanted to give his back a break before fitting and trying the new saddle.

It was also brought about by a desire to revisit some groundwork after our the Montaña de Oro trip. I figured a few days focusing on groundwork would be a nice change of pace and give Finn's back a break, too. Seemed like an all-around win.

I pulled out Buck Brannaman's red groundwork book and started looking through it for things we haven't done yet. Since we now have a nice round pen to work with, I am also able to do some things I couldn't do before. For example, the lass rope exercise where you throw the slack between the horse and the fence while the horse is moving around the pen and then yield the HQ towards you and allow the horse to change eyes and go the other way. That one confused Finn at first, but the great thing about him is confusion doesn't really turn into fear with this stuff. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had kicked at the rope as part of his learning curve, but he never did.

Today I even did the exercise where you "rope" a hind foot and stop the horse from trot or canter by applying steady pressure. While this made me a little nervous, once again there was no panic on Finn's part. Our biggest challenge was that Finn wanted to turn towards me when he stopped.

Finn's laid back reactions to this stuff are definitely encouraging. At least I can say he's got some good stuff in him, but of course I'm still wondering about the stuff that isn't. So this is all fine and dandy, but his spooks and reactions on the camping trip tell me there is still stuff that needs to be dug out. I'm just not sure how to go about getting at it. More plastic bag, I guess. And more tarp. Maybe tomorrow I'll bring those toys and do some of the fence work with them and see what I can find.

I have been considering looping the handles of a plastic bag around his fetlock, but I wonder if that's taking it too far. For one thing, I worry he'll step on the bag with his other front foot, or even a hind. On the one hand I suppose I'd like him to be prepared for the eventuality, just don't want to be unfair or unsafe in the process of getting him there.

I've also been continuing to practice my D,N groundwork, working towards finding the sweet spot on line, and today I added in a few cavalletti exercises as well. First I set them for a walk and rewarded him when he chose to stretch his stride and go forward to make them instead of putting in a tiny half-step to make the distance work. I then set them at a trot, which he is an old pro at. He stretches his top line and looks LOVELY over trot poles.

Finally, I really upped the ante and set two canter poles for him! I experimented with the distance and settled at 10 - 11 of my foot lengths. At this stage of the game, I don't want to make it hard for him. I want the distance to match his stride pretty closely. Even with an easy distance, this was definitely a challenge. Many attempts were fumbled. Going right (and uphill, the way I had the poles set) was easier than going left.

He got a little rushed at points, especially because I had to remind him a few times what the request for canter meant. (Energy!) His last success to the right was a thing of beauty... he was relaxed, has a slightly slower tempo, and actually stretched a bit to find the distance. His last success to the left was a lot less glorious, but it was a start. This is definitely going on our list of things to keep on doing. I'd like to get to cantering all four poles someday soon, so I'll just keep building him up until he's ready.

Wrapping up, I want to share this conformation shot R took of Finn about two weeks ago:

I know the light is a little harsh on his neck. I'm going to consider this our starting point for our new adventure into dressage. For comparison, here's a photo of Finn before he was started:

Gosh he's pretty, isn't he? It can be difficult to make useful comparisons between photos with a lot of inconsistency... the horse has definitely changed in demeanor, which for sure effects his appearance. I also can't vouch for the ground in either of these situations being especially level. But the one thing I do believe I see is an increase in the dip in front of his withers in the more recent photo.

I'm not going to obsess over it, but this does add a little bit of urgency to my decision to begin the D,N program with him. I am in a hurry to learn to help my horse move better and be healthier! The trick is to not let that hurry enter into our day-to-day interactions and cause impatience.