Oct 20 - Transitions

Rode Chester today with a saddle in class. He gets really dominant when I'm putting the saddle on him and he likes to hold his breath a lot and I have to tighten his saddle like three times before I finally actually can get on him. Brother Twitchell had us work on our transitions today in class. When I say transitions I mean the time period when I am getting Chester to go from a walk to a trot or a trot to lope and vice versa. I practiced walking five strides and then trotting five strides and go back to a walk for another five strides. He has gotten so much better about picking up my energy and starts trotting with very little pressure given to him.

I also wanted to see if he would lope for me. So I started out do small phases and adding small amounts of pressure as I went. By doing this I found out that he has like 4 different trotting speeds! He trots so fast that at times I have difficulty posting so I either just two-point it try to somewhat sit it. I quickly realized that slow and small amounts of pressure to get him to lope wasn't going to work. I had to use a TON of pressure and a TON of energy to finally get him to lope. He finally did lope for a couple of strides or so and I was happy with that. But I know that is definitely something that I will continously need to work on and play with him it.

Oct 16 - Trotting Bareback

Here is a clip of me trotting bareback on Chester. At first I really just focused on keeping balance and feeling the rhythm of his gait. Then as I got more comfortable I started really keeping my energy up and let him keep trotting around in a small circle. I also practiced keeping him in a circle and not shifting or wavering away from it. In the beginning it was really bad. He would only trot for a couple of strides and kept cutting the circle or drifting toward the door and things like that. The more we practice and me making sure he felt like he was still succeeding, the better he became. I was allowing him to have some responsibility 1. Maintain gait 2. Maintain direction 3. look where we're going! It was overall a REALLY REALLY good day! :) and a TERRIFIC experience for me! :D

Oct 15 - Bareback Outside

For class today we played out in the outdoor arena the entire time. Started off with groundwork and tried Dawn's way of having Chester yield his hindquarters. It works so much better than how I was orginally doing it.

Chester was being very stubborn today and kept trying to eat the grass that was all over the floor of the arena. I really used the Yo-Yo game to get him to not constantly eat and ignore me. I decided to try how he would do with side-stepping. He would back up a lot instead of just moving his shoulder but we did succeed a couple of times, which made me happy to know that something was working.

I was then finally able to ride Chester bareback without someone leading me on the lead rope. We had to have the rope loose though and toss it over his head whenever we wanted to turn a different direction.

He would fight a little bit when we would turn around but he not always. I really wanted to try trotting a little bit bareback, and he picked up my energy really well. A lot better than I had anticipated. He listens when I ask him to stop and he doesn't fight me doing that at all. He also does amazing at backing up with very little pressure.

Overall it was a great experience, I was able to see how he would react to being outside, also how he would was while riding him. He is very difficult to turn but he does a great job reading my energy and that makes me extremely happy.

Oct 13 - MIDTERM and RIDING

So the Midterm went AMAZING! The main thing was that I WASN'T NERVOUS!!! Like AT ALL! Before it was my turn we were listening to Garth Brooks on the speakers and I was just singing and dancing along until it was my turn. Then when it was my turn I didn't feel like I was being graded or anything. It felt like just another day of practicing and playing with the obstacles with Chester! It was SOOO AWESOME!!! :)

Tarp --> walked right over it, just slowly but thats normal for him.

Poles --> Walked across the first way great, turned around really weel, started to avoid them at first on the way back across them but then corrected himself. Actually waited for me to ask him to come to me and walk across the poles. He backed up slowly and slightly missed the poles but overall not bad.

Cones --> There was another horse tied up in the corner right next to the cones and he immediately wanted to go greet the horse. Kind of walked away from and knocked over some of the cones but I started over again and he did much better.

Raised Walkway ZigZag --> Started really well stepped out for a second but I tapped him on the shoulder and he THOUGHT about I could completely see him asking me and then stepped back inside and finished great! (A Really good job considering we never played on this obstacle)

Jump --> Went right over it but slowly of course

Bridge --> Went right over it as well! He didn't try to avoid it this time!

SUCH A GREAT DAY!!!

Because we all went through the obstacles so fast, we had time to Ride!!!!! :D :D :D What we did was we teamed up with someone else and rode as a passenger. I was with Dawn, and she worked on the ground with him while I was on his back getting accostumed to his gait. She actually taught me a much better way to get him to yield his hindquarters away from me. She would tap her carrot stick 4x and go through the 4 phases - getting bigger, faster and even louder. It was great!! I'm so glad I learned that!

Ah... such a wonderful day! :D :D And below is the video of the midterm! (sorry if its shaky...blame emily :D)

Oct 12 - Practice for Midterm

Today I knew I really needed to practice with the obstacles. I wasn't really nervous about the Midterm at all this semester but I wanted to just be as ready as I could for it.

Wasn't doing too well with the poles. However, when I walk to the front of the poles to yo-yo him to me, he doesn't wait for me to ask him to come forward. And I know that means I really just need to play the Yo-Yo game with him a lot more.

With the cones, he was completely plowing through them and not listening to me at all. There was some grain on the ground a couple feet away from them and he kept trying to get to it. However I kept at it. Being patient with him and asking him to ignore it and he gradually got better.

I went a different way back to his pen then I normally do and he was a lot more perked up than he normally is, so I might try that more often just to change up the order of things.

Even though the practice with the Midterm obstacles wasn't all that great, I made myself not become nervous because I know thats where I mess up.

Oct 9 - Observations

Chester was feeling absolutely wonderful today! I could tell that the colic wasn't bothering him as much today. When I brought him into the arena I was going to set up some of the obstacles for the Midterm, so I decided to just unhook his lead rope and let him go.

He actually RAN! He trotted around the whole arena and even loped! It was so wonderful to see him happy again! Then I decided to do At Liberty with him using the whole arena. It wasn't too bad but we definitely can improve. I drove him over the jump and got him to pick up my energy and trot with me for a little while.

Sylvia then came out and started kicking the green balls toward Chester. He still really isn't comfortable around the yet and he would take off across the arena but when we stopped kicking them he would gradually make his way back to us which was really good.

A Really Fun day!! I loved seeing him feeling better and playing and being curious about different things. He ran into the new cattle shoot and investigated it and was like a young horse again! I am SO HAPPY he isn't sick anymore!!! :D

Oct 8 - BIG Bouncy Ball

Chester was a lot better today about not stopping for food when bringing him into the barn. I am able to use less pressure on him to get him moving again. However, whenever he sees grain, thats another story....

Today was when we got the Big green balls in! And he is very nervous of them. At first he smelled them and then would almost like completely avoid them. I could get him to go up to the ball but he wouldn't smell no it no matter how long I stood there waiting for him to. I tried bouncy the ball a little bit next to him and he froze up but steadily started to relax. However when we left it alone and came back to it later he would become nervous again. The main thing I noticed he doesn't like about the ball is when it is kicked around the arena. He jumps and then freeze for a while making sure its not going to attack him.

We also worked on the Midterm obstacles of course. He was doing much better on the cones and I would ask for less pressure. Then with the poles he started doing really well, but the more we played with it the more lazy he seemed to become so I moved on realizing that he was just bored. Bro. Twitchell then advised us to try something new today. So I tied the lead rope around his neck instead of to his halter for a little bit. Then I did the obstalces and he did so much better that way that he had previously. I think because it was something new and he wasn't bored doing them anymore.

My favorite thing is that he is picking up my energy like crazy!! I LOVE IT! I barely start trotting now and he will pick up into a trot as well. I have hardly any pressure on him to get him to do that.

Did a little bit of Liberty with him in the arena and he caught my energy again and trotted with me! That was so awesome! He even turned with me and I would turn sharply away. He did walk away from me when the arena door opened.

When I put him back in the pen I stayed with him a little bit longer and he didn't fight me when I was trying to get his halter off. He also did run directly to his food as soon as we got in there.

A very informative day!