This week's Challenge!

I have a challenge for all lesson students and boarders who wish to participate. There may be a prize for the top three challengers!

Time to beat is Izzy at 11 seconds.

The challenge? Push the soccer ball through the "goal". The horse will start from three meters away, and have to push the ball three meters through the pylons that will be set three meters apart.

Video of Izzy's attempt

Of course it won't always go that relatively smoothly, so to show the other extreme:

Video of Coregel's attempt

Now Coregel was nervous from the get go today, so had I wanted this to go easier I should have let her trot/canter around a bit to get some of her energy out, but I wanted to show how it COULD go, and how to recover.

Ideally I wouldn't have let her go past the ball, and had her stand in front of it until she relaxed (like when a horse tries to run out at a jump), but she was too agitated so instead I allowed the small circles, but did not let her leave the general area.

Her little rears are the same avoidance behaviours she exhibited when I tried to show her at an arena with cows way off in the distance, so it is good to be able to work her through the same type of pressure situation. Rearing happens when a horse feels trapped...in this case she feels like I am sending her into an immovable object (in the video the ball, at the show it was being within half a km of a cow...)...so we need to work on trust. As you can see once she figures out the ball moves, she relaxes considerably.

Aside from building trust and being entertaining, this exercise, and the follow up exercises will help riders think about how to control the horse's body, hopefully without over thinking it!

Some hints:
- Try to keep the horse's nose pointed at the ball, but hold the opposite rein enough that you don't loose the other shoulder.
- To be able to aim the ball, the horse's hips have to be lined up behind the shoulders and pointed at the ball...it isn't enough just to aim the nose. Use the same skills you would to do a turn on the forehand (leg back) to control the angle/aim.
- If you feel the horse getting agitated, either allow them to stop, or allow them to do a smaller circle. Do not praise them to try to relax, but just sit passively to give them time to relax. Only praise when you make gains...which may be just halted facing the ball, or (hopefully) when the horse pushes the ball.

And no cheating...the horse has to push the ball!

Karen