Am I destined to stand forever?

[joy70]

:o I have spent all weekend at halt and a few paces of walk, 3 hours all together Ive stood in the school asking for a soft jaw, yipee we got the soft jaw, but as soon as i asked for walk, his head came up again, i persevered but to no avail! eventually Toddy got soo fed up he began spooking at his own shadow! very unusual for him!

Im not sure if hes much smarter than me, and thinks this is a great way of getting out of doing any work! or im asking him wrong!

I tried a port mouthed pelham, he hated it wouldn't relax at all, so i put him in a sweet iron loose ring french link type of bit, which he will soften on, but not once you ask him to move off.

The only way i can get him to soften at halt at the moment, is by having my hands either side of his wither and vibrating the reins, squeeze and nothing happens!

can any one help me??

[Shiny McShine]

Have you considered trying some more loosening up exercises? If your horse isn't loosened up and relaxed then he will find it hard to go into a contact at any pace. Some horses also work better after some trot or canter on a long rein rather than just walking... have you tried warming up in trot or canter then working on the contact? I would suggest that 3 hours worth of work is not necessarily alot of time to introduce something new to a horse, and to be patient, try out all the warm up exercises to find out what works best and then see how you go.

[joy70]

:rolleyes: :o Thanks Shiny

I did consider doing my usual schooling and then asking for the softening on the jaw etc., but spose being the fool that I am, was being somewhat blinkered as the book said to ask for them to soften at halt, if they tried to bring their heads up when moving off to walk to ask them to halt & try again!

In the grand scheme of things 3 hours isn't a lot no! but im sure he's taking the mick out of me! he knows how to soften and what im asking, hes done it but refuses to keep it up.

im sure i can see that look in his eye! like oh yeah here we go, well im quite happy to stand here til you get bored!!:rolleyes:

Do you think that its possibly difficult for him too? he is 15 years old, and although understands schooling etc., he has never in the 10 years ive owned him worked in a correct outline, but ive never wanted to force it either:( he has picked up the other aspects of this really well, or should i say ive learnt how to ride him better.

Use of the retarding aid to slow down & halt, and the use of my weight aids for turning, we even managed some flextion, although im not 100% sure if it was true flexion, but we had a bend around my leg & i could see his eye & nostril! :)

sorry for rambling - but for the first time ive owned him i really feel were making a breakthrough in his schooling, just the exception of him accepting a contact.

[Tootsie4U]

Ah, joy, I share in the despair with ya ;) I too am stuck at halt and barely going with walk. But, mine's a greenie baby so its to be expected I suppose. But, just wanted to let you know you're not alone out there.

From what I gather, consistency is the key. Always 100% the same each time you ask. Horses learn through trial and error. If one time they try and get one responce, they will try it again. Maybe the first time it wasnt entirely what you wanted, but you decided to reward anyway. Well, the next time, the horse assumes that was the perfect answer and does the same thing again. Its our responsibility to be fair and always ask and expect the same thing the same way each time.

A clue I picked up along the way is to place your hand on the pommel when you ask for softening. You see, if you dont, the horse can easily pull the rein or move your hand, and that is his reward. If you are resisting his efforst with your hand on the pommel he learns a bit quicker that its easier to give to the bit than struggle with strong mom. Give it a try, I found it helped with me.

Good luck! Keep trying, you'll both get it.

Toots

[cvb]

you may not be the only one getting bored... he may be as well.

The problem with the hands-at-withers approach is that its not how you normally sit/ride. So as soon as you walk forward, the message changes. (And if you keep your hands down, you are unbalancing yourself, which will make it more difficult for the horse to carry you).

Does he have a stiff/soft side in terms of feel of his mouth ? Suppling exercises can help a lot. Intersperse your halt exercise with circles in walk (to start with) where you are also asking the horse to soften. Don't expect more than a moments softeness to start off with. One "rule" I find useful to remember is that you should not be using more hand than leg - even in halt and downward transitions. After all you are not just asking for a soft jaw (although its a start) - you want a soft and acceepting horse throughout their whole body. You won't get that if you are only asking for the jaw to give. (could this be why your squeeze/hold isn't working ?)

At halt try wrap your legs softly around the horse, and then gently close your fingers and hold. Don't nag, just sit. The horse may react by chucking his head about and fidgeting. If you need to, ask them to halt again, if not - just keep the hold but you may need to vibrate the leg a little. Try not to pull with the hand - not down, not back - just hold. As soon as the horse shows the slightest sign of giving (even if its only small at this stage) soften the hold and walk forward. Then halt again and repeat. Don't do it too often before you change to another exercise (e.g. leg yield or turn on forehand - exercises that ask for suppleness and control), only return to the halt exercise when you have done something different and hopefully forward thinking as well.

Also try and get to the point where your halt softening can be done without lowering and widening with hand, and with a spongeing rather than a vibration. Ultimately you should be able to just ask the jaw to soften by closing/holding the rein (with no/little physical movement in the hand/wrist - just from the fingers). Then it is something you can try at any pace.

Be sure that you reward when the horse responds correctly by softening back i.e. don't just keep holding !

[rachil]

I bought my horse a year ago. I read the books (Heather's, Richard Maxwell's), I read magazines, I listened to my teacher, I listened to advice from my friends. My horse is an ex-school horse who excelled in riding with his nose stuck out in front of him.

It has taken this long, but he is now riding in a lovely outline. He's far from perfect, but I feel I've made real progress.

What I'm saying is; keep on trying, keep on reading (there's no one-size-fits-all book) and you'll get there. Good luck!

[Sarah]

hello!

When he is softening at halt, are his back legs well underneath him? If he is just standing in a relaxed slob kind of way then for him to go into walk and try to hold an outline will be extremely hard. If you have asked for the halt from an active engaged walk or trot and he is round underneath you, then asking him to soften then walk off whicle still remaining soft will be a LOT easier for him.

If you think about it, if his back legs aren't under him but are behind him then for him to start to walk by using a back leg requires a lot of stretching to get that leg forwards and hence the head will move as a counterbalance. If the legs are well under him he is better balanced and therefore won't need to use his head as the counterbalance.

I hope that has helped.

bye!