Effective Training... Fearless Horse

Well its all your fault, but I have now ordered 'The Fearless Horse' and am waiting for its arrival next week.

I already have 101 Horsemanship Exercises from Rio Barratt, countless Mark Rashid books, and others ................. but actually, this looks good. I need to get Toby OUT OF MY FACE as I seem to permanently be wearing him, step back out of his way ALL THE TIME or he will walk over me, and I need to get this sorted. We have come so far in loads of directions, but are stuck on the whole 'you must move out of my way' issue as I tend to move around him, rather than moving him.

So praps once I 'man up' we can compare notes!
 
Looks good! I'm always on the look out for things to be doing and ways to apply my knowledge and techniques to other equine disciplines, dressage in particular!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/3861279649

I just bought this one and it has some good ideas which I'm taking and turning them into my own. The book is lovely, full of pictures and has some advanced moves in it. It also finishes with the story of a horse that was deemed to be never non rideable at the age if 4 because he was sway backed. He's now doing some high school dressage ridden and looks superb!
 
sjp1 said:
Well its all your fault, but I have now ordered 'The Fearless Horse' and am waiting for its arrival next week.

I already have 101 Horsemanship Exercises from Rio Barratt, countless Mark Rashid books, and others ................. but actually, this looks good. I need to get Toby OUT OF MY FACE as I seem to permanently be wearing him, step back out of his way ALL THE TIME or he will walk over me, and I need to get this sorted. We have come so far in loads of directions, but are stuck on the whole 'you must move out of my way' issue as I tend to move around him, rather than moving him.

So praps once I 'man up' we can compare notes!
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I've been in this situation with Inca before, the Kelly Marks exercises are fab for establishing better spacial awareness. I've been watching a few of her tours on H&C and it really does make give a better understanding of what she works to achieve, especially when she had a 3yr old who had been overhandled and as such was very "quirky" you could really see the similarity with this young mare and Inca.
 
sjp1 said:
Well its all your fault, but I have now ordered 'The Fearless Horse' and am waiting for its arrival next week.
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Oh good! I hope you enjoy it or I'll feel guilty....

sjp1 said:
I need to get Toby OUT OF MY FACE as I seem to permanently be wearing him, step back out of his way ALL THE TIME or he will walk over me, and I need to get this sorted. We have come so far in loads of directions, but are stuck on the whole 'you must move out of my way' issue as I tend to move around him, rather than moving him. So praps once I 'man up' we can compare notes!
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I've now done lesson 1: Respect for personal space with both Charlie and Thyme. It was interesting with Charlie - he really seemed quite affronted at first! But he got the message quite quickly, and then he dropped his head and licked and chewed - what they describe as 'chewing over a lesson' or 'soak time' - as in the time that the horse digests the lesson. The key with lesson 1 is consistency. Not doing it as a training exercise - ie backing up when cued - but as an attitude thing. Never, ever, ever letting the horse get into your face! Charlie was good at the trained stuff, but when I was not in training mode I did not reinforce the 'stay out of my space' message so he didn't. It will be interesting to see whether his new deferential manner lasts!
 
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shockblue said:
Looks good! I'm always on the look out for things to be doing and ways to apply my knowledge and techniques to other equine disciplines, dressage in particular!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/3861279649

I just bought this one and it has some good ideas which I'm taking and turning them into my own. The book is lovely, full of pictures and has some advanced moves in it. It also finishes with the story of a horse that was deemed to be never non rideable at the age if 4 because he was sway backed. He's now doing some high school dressage ridden and looks superb!
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That looks good too. A lot of the later exercises in Fearless Horse are in-hand dressage moves - lateral flexion, poll flexion, hinquarter/shoulder yields etc. The ey start with simple 'encourage your horse to yield to pressure' as a respect thing, then build on that basic willingness to increase the ask. Then you build in suppleness, balance, grace, athleticism. So hind-quarter yields turns into pirouettes. Eventually!
 
Yah! I will add it to my wish list. I have a good foundation with the NH so it's nice to be challenged and given new ideas.

I'm having monthly lessons now and usually can't wait because I get good at my homework and need more to do. My last lesson we were looking into using circles to create different canters and I'm getting a bit frustrated with it being so frozen that I can't practice!
 
I've just had a look at February tests for interdressage. Their in-hand test 'Practical Horsemanship 3' basically uses moves from lesson 1-5 of Fearless Horse! Backing up and walking on, turn on forehand and haunches. Following smoothly without leaning/pushing but staying respectful - ie stopping when you stop. Very timely!
Plus an option to do it at liberty too! (Maybe one day.... well I can dream, eh!)

http://www.interdressage.com/testdetails.php?testid=pht3

I will definitely enter this. won't do well at this stage but it will be good to have something to work towards!
 
Gosh, thanks for the link. That looks really interesting!

I like the Fearless Horse too, though I think it is better for bringing on a youngster than reschooling an older horse like Ziggy with long-standing anxieties.
 
Fearless Horse arrived today :dance: So after supper, shall start reading and try to re-educate young Tobes into moving away from me rather than me avoiding his feet!
 
sjp1 said:
Fearless Horse arrived today :dance: So after supper, shall start reading and try to re-educate young Tobes into moving away from me rather than me avoiding his feet!
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oooo let me know how you get on with this. I struggle with my horse respecting my personal space, you could wave a rainbow coloured flag that made banging noises in his face and he still wouldnt move...or would move 'at the pace he wants to' which is generally snail...:sluggish:
 
Laura2184 said:
oooo let me know how you get on with this. I struggle with my horse respecting my personal space, you could wave a rainbow coloured flag that made banging noises in his face and he still wouldnt move...or would move 'at the pace he wants to' which is generally snail...:sluggish:
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No, its all very well with horses that are a bit nervy of you, but Tobes is NOT AT ALL nervy of me - although this morning, I successfully managed to block his way out of the stable until I asked him to come out, AND, I purposefully walked at his head whilst asking him to back up so that I could untie him when I was ready to turn him out (and he did) so felt rather chuffed this morning. However, it may have been because it was cold and 6.30am and he perhaps hadn't woken up properly!
 
Hope you enjoy the book. I'm still working on the first 3 lessons. In the past I think I have ended to lose interest and want to move on to something new. I need to learn PATIENCE. The book says 'repeat, repeat, repeat...'

On the other hand I don;t want to drill Thyme till her brain liquefies!! So maybe mixing it up a bit is ok. Anyway:

Lesson 1: Going ok with both Charlie & Thyme. They back out of my space. But they don't automatically respect my space - I still need to back them up. Charlie is not nervous of me at all either. So I needed to use more pressure on him. But in the end, he understood and then I was able to reduce the pressure for the same response. I've been reinforcing this lesson at random times. eg just walking up to their hay pile and backing them away from it. Felt a bit mean but they both backed off.

Lesson 2: Backing up and moving forward - both are doing really well with this.

Lesson 3: Shoulders over - Thyme has taken a few steps in the right direction. But she tends to walk backwards at the same time. So it's fairly crude but the beginnings of turn on hindquarters are definiteley there. :)

BUT with all this new stuff she;s forgotten how to stand still :rolleyes:

Mark Rashid talks about the 'chain of knowledge'. Each link in the chain leads to the next link. A weakness ANYWHERE makes the whole chain weak. I think this is what I really need to work on. Making sure I don;t neglect any links in my enthusiasm to do 'new' things. After all there are only 20 lessons and a lifetime to learn them. So there is no hurry!
 
Really pleased with both Thyme and Charlie today. Both have a FAR more deferential attitude. No head butting :dance:
And they are both repsonding to light cues in lessons 1-3. Charlie was lunged and he did some jumping on the lunge, which was fun. Then I took Thyme for a walk in-hand and just stopped, backed up, turned on haunches, walked, trotted, stopped dead - all just fairly randomly. She was lovely. Her ear was cocked towards me, her head was quite low. It really felt as though she was listening and copying me. At one point it was like we were dancing - slow step, quick step, stop, back up and start again. :wub::wub:
So, so proud of her.
Time for the next few lessons I think. How are you all getting on?
 
Am going to have to get tougher with Tobes. He backs up and halts on a penny when he chooses. He absolutely understands pressure and release but .......... grr, if he chooses.

He was a proper pain Saturday changing his rugs because he was cross because I was later than the week days and I am going to have to really take him in hand and boss him a lot.

It annoys me really. If he just co-operated, life could be easy for both of us. However, because he won't I am going to have to be bossy and controlling and he will have to listen. For instance, I will now have to put a halter on to change his day time rug to his night time rug, and every time he moves forward to have a mouthful of hay, I will have to move him back. Just takes longer and will be a nuisance for both of us.

Hey ho!
 
Charlie & Me said:
I've just had a look at February tests for interdressage. Their in-hand test 'Practical Horsemanship 3' basically uses moves from lesson 1-5 of Fearless Horse! Backing up and walking on, turn on forehand and haunches. Following smoothly without leaning/pushing but staying respectful - ie stopping when you stop. Very timely!
Plus an option to do it at liberty too! (Maybe one day.... well I can dream, eh!)

http://www.interdressage.com/testdetails.php?testid=pht3

I will definitely enter this. won't do well at this stage but it will be good to have something to work towards!
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When do the entries have to be in by? If my school dries out in time I might have a go at that with Harvey - might even attempt it at liberty:biggrin:
 
By end of Feb :)
I'd love to see it done at liberty. You can see all the submitted tests through the website - so you can see who you are 'competing' against. Hope it dries up and you can have a go. I am definitely entering it.
 
Fearless Horse - Photos!
Now I love this book and don't mean to be picky. But does anyone else think that some of the ridden photos show riders with a really bad seat?! Even in the chapter on the importance of a good seat? I think the worst ones are of Joanne Day herself - her backside looks far too far back and she is in armchair seat as far as I can see... Or am I missing something? (I do recognise she is 1000x the rider I am but the pics just look really wrong to me).
 
sjp1 said:
Am going to have to get tougher with Tobes. He backs up and halts on a penny when he chooses. He absolutely understands pressure and release but .......... grr, if he chooses.

He was a proper pain Saturday changing his rugs because he was cross because I was later than the week days and I am going to have to really take him in hand and boss him a lot.

It annoys me really. If he just co-operated, life could be easy for both of us. However, because he won't I am going to have to be bossy and controlling and he will have to listen. For instance, I will now have to put a halter on to change his day time rug to his night time rug, and every time he moves forward to have a mouthful of hay, I will have to move him back. Just takes longer and will be a nuisance for both of us.

Hey ho!
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You sound like you are describing my horse, to a tee!!
 
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