I rode Cayenne the majority of the lesson on the 4th day. I want to just throw in here how fortunate I feel to be able to take 4 days of a Jim Anderson clinic. This includes 2 days off work. I have learned a lot and intend to do my homework so my horses and I will continue to show improvement.
I loped circles in good form. I picked her up in the bridle and pushed her
hind legs deeper underneath her with my legs.
She does not hold form for long.
She will go a few strides, maybe a quarter of a circle before she starts
to string out again. I think the longest
was half a circle. She noticed the
pigeons flying around but hardly bobbled at all. She was concentrating more on me than what
was going on around her. I release her
slowly because if I drop the reins too fast, she bobbles and almost breaks
gait. It probably takes me 2-3 strides
to completely release her to a drape rein.
I am just amazed at the transformation from the only semi-giving horse I
had a few days ago to the much softer one.
Big lessons include picking her up smoothly, not bumping, and holding
her steady until she gives. I have
always treated her like a colt and gave to too many “tries” rather than asking
for a more responsible horse. I’ve
ridden this horse for seven years, we’re done trying the easy stuff. She’s ready to do it.
Speaking of ready, Jim told me to put her in a solid mouthed
shanked bit long term. We discussed my
Monte Foreman curb, which is completely solid.
The bit Jim had me use on Cayenne has a solid curb mouthpiece but the
shanks swivel out a bit. I’d say it’s a
medium port. He said the port was
important for tongue relief. His bit had
a pretty thick mouthpiece and then the port tapered some for additional relief. Jim said as long as I can get her head to the
side with one rein in the Foreman, to go ahead and use it. I already know that I can. He said play with it for a month or so then
go back to the looser mouthed curb I’ve had on her. If I need more lateral at any time, just
switch bits. It made me happy to hear
that she’s ready for a solid bit.
Since our loping went well, Jim asked me what else I’d like
to work on. I asked for a lesson on
speed transitions within a gait ie. Rate.
I used to have cues that worked alright for what I was doing but with
all the fine tuning/finesse work Jim has been teaching me, those subtle cues
are mixing together. For example, to
slow my lope before, I just sat deep while keeping my legs on. Jim has me sitting deeper in my saddle all
the time and even deeper when doing a rundown to a stop. That takes my “sit deep to slow” cue out of
the picture.
He said it’s mainly below the knee to cue for faster or
slower. Put leg on to build speed. To rate down, squeeze your thighs, take
inside leg off and tip toe up/push heel down like stop position while keeping
outside leg on to keep loping. If she
doesn’t respond, draw her back softly with my hands. I practiced a few times. Taking the leg off and pushing my “brake”
broke her to a trot immediately. He had
me just push her back to the lope and then reward her with a walk and
stop. Nice and easy.
One exercise Jim said he does to help enforce the idea that
running fast will be followed with relaxing is to run around the arena fast,
rate back, get on an obstacle and sit.
That works great on cowboy challenge horses especially because on your
free ride, they are anticipating the slow down and chill coming up. That is one of the coolest things about his
yellow mare, Marilynn. She will run her
heart out on free rides, hustle between obstacles and then just drop to a standstill
and chill.
We wrapped up by spinning each direction. She is not spinning as fast as I ultimately
want but we are laying a good foundation.
She was even more relaxed and I am rocking her back pretty well as
needed. She did not grab the bit and chew
on it like she has in the past while we’re standing after a spin. She spins better right than left.
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