parelli, standing on a block!

[michelle c]

ive managed to get meg to stand on a 3' wide block with two front feet, and she now knows to place them on the front (this will give her room to put her back feet on) the thing is that once she is on she realises she has to move her back feet (me wiggling the carrot stick at them) but she either lifts the foot nearest me and puts it back down, or steps on the block and walks of the front b4 i have chance to correct her!

is this because she looses balance? am i doing it correctly?

[michelle c]

Anyone!!!!!!!

[entreat]

I'm only guessing, as I haven't tried this before, but maybe she thinks that's what you want? Put front legs one, and then back legs.. but not together? Can you try for 3 legs instead of all four? This may require you lifting a hind & putting on the block yourself while another person holds her at the head.

Another stragety would be to instead of getting her to tuck on a block, draw a small circle, get her to stand with her forelegs in the circle, and slowly step under inch by inch with the hind until she looks like one of those silly circus elephants on a ball (only a horse.. with no ball... Oi! time for me to leave work!!). Then she'll start to grasp that sometimes moving her hind doesn't equat to forward movement. Then progress to the block.

Waikato Valuta gets her horse standing on all sorts of stuff, & someone else here does it with a pony (can't remember who, maybe Wally or Mehitabel??). Hopefully one of them will chime in, or you PM them

[michelle c]

thanx for the reply, i didnt think any one would answer!! do you do parelli!!! i have been told that i am not to place her feet by picking them up because she will not learn from this and will not use her brain, BUT she did try with her back feet but wasnt lifting it high enough SO i placed it on just to see if she could do it and she did!! but to get her to do it on her own is a different matter altogether!! i will try without the block like you said to see if she can do it!! thanx again

[Esther.D]

Have you tried a bigger block? Maybe she feels it is too small to fit all of her hooves on at the same time and balance? I do do Parelli but we haven't done much of that sort of thing yet as we are still pottering about at L1 (should have moved on by now but haven't got the video done :o ). Here we are with a big block....and we had exactly the same problem as you and the only thing I could think of was he wasn't confident that it was big enough/safe enough to get all hooves on at once, or maybe just didn't understand that I was asking him to. Sorry I'm not much help :rolleyes:

[cvb]

I haven't done this with a raised block, but have done it with a flat wooden "bridge".

You do have to be clear what you are asking for, and be calm and persistent. Fi would walk over it, walk on to it - and then as you got back feet on she'd walk a front foot off, back her up to get the front foot back and one back foot would come off :rolleyes: But we did just persist calmly and got it.

I think one of the keys for me is effectively to "place" a foot at a time i.e. I'm not asking for a "stride" forward, I am asking for THAT foot to go THERE.

Its that kind of precision of "ask" that seemed to work...

BTW - how did you find/create your block ?

[michelle c]

esther.d

thanx, i too are still pottering about with level one, i have passed ground skills but our mounting isnt too good, the saddle still slips coz it is a treeless one so i may hav to ask parelli people about that!! AND i always go off task and want to do more ambitious things like ride with string round neck, weve done it 3 times and she was brill, and walk on tarps and under a curtain of red and white tape, you know the usual stuff!!! AND of course nervs, i couldnt belive how nervous i was when i did the groiund skills in front of a tape :eek: :D with regards to the block size, it is just over 3' long and she places her front feet at the front so she has enough room! i do think i need something slightly bigger so she gets more confident with that but find it hard to find the materials and on a very tight buget!!! :( how come you have not got it videod?

cvb

i do reward every bit of forward movement with her back feet, and i got my uncle to make the block out of 2 half pallets nailed together (they are very strong and secure)

[cvb]

I also haven't done my L1 video yet ! Am hoping for good weather this weekend to do some as OH is over from Sweden.... :D

My "bridge" is 2 of the squares you can get for laying decks. They are not enormous, maybe 3ft sq if I'm lucky ? So my bridge is 3ft by 6ft, and I can get Fi to stand all 4 feet on it (she's approx 15.1 and QH build :eek: ). BUT its not raised off the ground.

[michelle c]

what colour is she? do you have piccies? i do love quarter horses!!!! :D

[Esther.D]

The only reason I haven't got the video done is I haven;t got my act together and gone through the checklists etc and actually got videoed...we have a video camera so there is no excuse :rolleyes:

I keep doing more ambitious things too like extreme friendly game with flags etc :D

[michelle c]

oh i forgot to say that i can wave a plastic bag on the end of my carrot stick and touch her all over with it too!!! :D you should get on with the videoing i am going to try and get mine done in the next two weeks!!!! :eek:

[cvb]

LOL - She's "QH build" cos she's about 50% QH if you count it at 5th generation, but as you'll see from

http://groups.msn.com/NRphotos/cvbfifi.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=5009

she's an Appaloosa !

[michelle c]

oooh she is lovley!!!!! my friend used to have a horse that colour. :D