Week 6 & 7
Hey Good Morning Margo,
Melly has been progressing well! As we continue developing her education so she is prepared to be the best partner she possibly can for you, we have to address the deeper elements that can help her be reliable and prepared. Those deeper elements go beyond just WHAT and they are HOW Melly does what is asked of her. Improving HOW she does what is asked of her has been the forefront these last few weeks so we can deepen her education, preparedness and address other critical pieces as I’ll explain here.
Trail horses have to be the most prepared horses out there. They can come across nearly anything at any time and they have to have the mental, physical and emotional skills to navigate those situations so they stay safe and us as the human stays safe first and foremost.
To make help a horse be a reliable and safe partner it starts with:
1) their knowledge/education
+
2) their confidence in their education and the human.
The same really goes for us people. For us to be a good leader for our horse so we can stay safe and keep our horse’s safe we must also 1) have the knowledge/education + 2) develop our confidence within ourselves and our horse by using our knowledge so together we can stay safe.
Realistically, trails are where are horse’s education is put to the test. In order to develop a well rounded trail horse, the horse has to first be prepared and then they need experience.
When preparing Melly to be the best partner she can for you and to be successful riding out by herself- she has to be confident in herself, her skills and humans. That inner confidence plus the training skills are what really set her up for success and enable her to be prepared.
The first month is as I shared with you is always focused on teaching those concepts and skills the horse needs to understand and overcoming habits they’ve formed that do not serve them well.
The second month we really lean into teaching additional skills the horse needs, teaching the horse the expectation that the horse has responsibilities for what and how they are to do their job and getting that horse confident in what they do know because they are empowered through their education and their understanding of what their job truly is as our partner.
As we approach month 3 we continue improving their skills and incorporate their on-the-job-training and putting to use what they’ve been learning.
Melly has made drastic improvements in being able to carry herself with more softness and lightness while staying connected through her body. This makes for a much more enjoyable ride as she’s easier to steer and not pulling through the reins or pushing on the leg nearly as much. There is still vast room for improvement here but in just 60 days she’s made great progress. A big part of a horse being able to do this better, is them getting stronger which is a process that simply takes time.
You’ll see some awesome changes she’s made in her ability and willingness to carry herself with much more softness in the couple of videos I’ve attached.
Theres many reasons this is important but two primary ones are:
1) she has a stronger expectation of what her job is and how she is suppose to do her job so that way when being ridden out of the arena Melly and the rider have the tools necessary to navigate all sorts of situations.
2) her long term health and soundness. She naturally wants to carry herself very heavy on the forehand. Ultimately so she is easier to ride AND she doesn’t have long term soundness issues- its critical she learns to use her booty and stay engaged from her hind end while staying lighter in her front end so we can guide and steer her where we need her to be.
I share these deeper details with you and all my clients beyond just skills based training because one of the best ways to maintain Melly’s progress and keep building on it is to be confident in her education AND hold her responsible for her job.
As we look towards what is a head, we’ll be focused on doing more and more on the job training with Melly (riding her out) to further reinforce and build upon the foundational skills she’s learned so they’ll become more consistent and reliable while getting her more experience outside the arena with her new understandings and responsibilities.
She had her feet trimmed again on Feb 21.
