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Re: [RC] red ribbons and kicking//Anderson Cruzin' - heidi larsonWe did this in an arena, used to get horses used to riders losing balance (that happened a ton!) being crowded by other horses and still keep one speed. So, you do three things to get the horse into a trot, 1 - squeeze, if the horse doesn't go forward you 2 - cluck, if no response, you 3 - spank. And keep spanking til the horse trots. (I used the string from the end of his "handy stick" and tied it around my wrist as I don't have a popper on my saddle. And as I have an arab, I barely ever had to spank. Once you trot, you drop the reins, hold onto the saddle horn (or as Clinton told me when I was still clutching the reins - "you in the purple gloves, DROP the reins and hold onto the mane, it's not like you don't have 3 bucketfulls!!!" (Ash has a 3' mane!!) And away they all go toward the gate!!! Milling around, etc. The second your horse commits to dropping down into a walk, you do the 3 steps again, still not reining the horse
whatsoever. If they break into a canter, you do a one rein stop and start with the 3 steps again. Pretty soon they just trot all over, you think they're going right, they go left, etc. Ash like I said is very herd savvy, so one pinned ear or stare out of the corner of an eye and he'd veer the other direction. Then we did this at a canter, however, the arena wasn't really very large so we only did 3-4 rider/horse combos at a time for this one. You are really trying to get your horse to relax. Like Clinton told us, act drunk while you're up there, flop around, reach back, slap your horse on the butt, lean forward and hang on around the neck, lift your legs, shift your seat, etc. We did the trot for probably 20-30 min. A few horses were super lazy and had to get spanked quite a bit, some were really hot and wanted to canter away. Those hot horses, Clinton ended up working with the owners so the horses BEGGED to slow
down. On the 3rd day, the hot ones were not so inclined to break into a canter UNLESS asked. By the 3rd day, Clinton hopped on Ash and even though he's not an arab person, he had 2 awesome compliments for him, he said he was the ONLY horse he'd been on that weekend that actually moved off of the squeeze first, no clucking or spanking needed and he was impressed with how well he flexed when he picked up the rein. I tried this lesson with my friend's 5 year old spoiled rotten QH, he's ALWAYS been collected or at least on the bit. Well, I figured, lets CRUISE, well, I asked for a trot, dropped the reins and he said, "this is my chance and bucked like a bronc, squalling and hopping like a rodeo horse." Needless to say, Clinton didn't show us how to deal with that, no one's horses bucked during the clinic, so I didn't try it again with Tucker the Bucker!!! Anyone want to buy a pretty bay QH? heidi and Ash (that was the toughest 3 days I've every had!) "Beverley H. Kane, MD" <sensei@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: On 12/20/05 11:18 AM, "heidi larson" <ribbitttreefrog@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: __________________________________________________
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