Arizen Lessons 10/29/09
It has been a while since my last lesson with my dressage trainer. Arizen was finally weaned of the baby, and I’ve been working with my old trainer on behavioral issues to get my horse back into working mode.
When I brought her in a couple of days after being weaned, I attempted it on my own without a trainer to help me. Her hormones were flying from having just been taken away from her baby, and her natural flight instincts were on red alert as I had just taken her away from the herd with which she had spent the last 6 months. As you can imagine, it did not go well. She screamed, reared, and just did not listen overall. I kept her in her stall for about 5 minutes until she was reasonably settled and brought her straight back to her friends. I decided I did not want to handle this on my own, so I set up a lesson with my old trainer who bred and raised Arizen.
Of course, the next day when I bring her in for our first lesson she is considerably improved. No screaming, no rearing, just a little fright in her eyes. Still, I was glad to have supervision in case she lost control. Unexpectedly, my trainer decided she was doing so well that we would tack her up and have a riding lesson. So I brought her in the arena for the first time in 6 months.
My trainer said that we needed to get her out of flight mode so that by the time I move her next year, she is calm and controlled. Immediately when I got on, we worked on bending her neck at the halt from one side to the other until she calmly gives her head to my hand in both directions. We did this for about 20 minutes until she would give to the rein without chomping on the bit or resisting in between directions. At this point, there were two things we were looking for: we wanted her to either look at me with her eye once she gave to the bit pressure OR wait until she sighed. Then, I would immediately get off.
My homework was to do this before and after every ride. Each time I practiced, it got much easier and took less time. In between, I would reward her by walking around until she got nervous or distracted. Then, I would stop and practice the neck bending again before moving on.
In my next lesson, we worked on a Jane Savoie exercise called +7/+1. This was my first time trotting Arizen since I had been back on her. Now that she was consistently calm at the walk, we moved on to trot. The goal was to get her to stretch down into contact and also to be straight on a circle. My trainer said that the more straight and balanced she is, the less flighty she will be. So we worked on a 10-15 meter circle. I was to use my inside leg and inside rein to bend her neck 7 inches to the inside, then 1 inch to the inside. This was to be done “quickly” three times in a row. By quickly I do NOT mean yanking her head around, but in a smooth consecutive manner. The inside rein was to be vibrating and not pulling so she could not lean. After three rounds, I left her face alone for 6-8 strides so she could figure it out. Then I would repeat the +7/+1 three more times until she stretched down into the bit. The exercise was very calming for Arizen, and helped me to unlock her poll and get her focused when she became distracted or flighty.
In between the +7/+1′s, the goal was to keep her straight on the circle. She pops her shoulder out as most horses do, so I needed to focus on keeping my outside rein and thigh contact steady to bring her shoulder in while using my inside leg to push her haunches out. This was the goal for my most recent lesson, too. We started by going on a large figure eight and keeping her straight. Then I asked for a few strides of “slowing her legs” while maintaining the rhythm. I asked for this by squeezing my legs into a steady hand, and then letting her go. I increased the number of strides of collection every time I asked. Once she was straight and moving with “slow legs” in a forward manner, I asked her to canter. We went to the right first, since that is her more unbalanced direction. In the canter, I still focused on getting her straight on the circle. To the left, it took a little longer to get her straight and balanced in the trot, but I am NOT to move on to the canter until her trot is balanced. There is no reason to canter her unbalanced.
So I really wanted to start working with my dressage trainer with Arizen, but she needed some initial behavioral work in addition to needing time to get back into shape. Things have been going really well so far, and I’m not disappointed to be working with my old trainer again. Once Arizen builds up strength and confidence, I hope to work with my new dressage trainer a little more to fine tune her technical dressage training.
Interesting. I totally agree with the giving of the neck exercise, I use that with Solo too when things start to go haywire. A 10-meter circle seems pretty intense for an out of shape horse though, I know Solo can’t do them very well at all!
Hhhhhmmmm, I’ll have to try the neck bending exercise with Salem. He tends to be slightly resistant to the bit (as in, he opens his mouth a lot). He goes in a nice oval mouth snaffle, so I’m not quite sure what his problem is — and I certainly do not want to put him in a flash!
Hmm, I have no advice for you.
Rizzie is generally not resistant to the bit. She will chomp when she is nervous or flip her nose when I’m asking for too much contact without enough energy from behind, but that’s about it. She’ll also try to root the bit out of my hands, but that is solved by not giving her a steady rein to pull on. The neck bending exercise is kind of a mind game. It gets her to think about what she is doing and really helps to calm her. 
I pushed her into a smaller circle to force her to balance herself. Then, once she stopped running and became soft, I pushed her back out to a 15 or 20 meter circle. I make really crappy circles, though, so they always tend to be bigger than they are supposed to be haha. I really think Rizzie tries to fake me out a little, as far as how out of shape she is. I rode her pretty hard this week compared to the couple weeks before and she didn’t even break a sweat…
I think Solo is immune — when I try to make him balance himself by putting him on a small circle, I swear he laughs at me going, “I can trot around slumping in on my shoulder all day long, lady, whatch YOU got?”
Haha! Rizzie does that to her left. It’s her stronger side so she gets more creative going that way. I really have to work to get that shoulder in!