Shadow Progress- 3rd April 2010

The rider starting to train a young, green horse must have a definite idea of what he requires from his horse and the method by which he proposes to achieve it. The greater his knowledge and experience, the more quickly he will obtain success. But the thoroughness of the training should never be sacrificed to the temptation to gain results too quickly. Above all the rider must be warned against trying to hold too rigidly to a pattern and should give priority to individual education. Only then will he be able to perceive the many fine characteristics that will reveal to him the latent talent of his horse and will help him to obtain the best results from his training in the easiest manner. Throughout the entire training the rider must develop his horses mental and physical proficiency so that he will not only obey but also want to obey to the limit of his powers.

That paragraph comes from Alois Podhajsky's book 'The Complete Training of Horse and Rider'

which is going to be my bible for the next God knows how many years! I think it's true though

and really does refer to how we should train our horses and that we shouldn't be rushing into

things directly and just to take things slow, I know how it feels to be rushed into things and

then ending up confused trying to do to many things at once and getting brain freeze,

which poor old Shadow also suffers from, so small chunks- small steps make big steps- that's

what I keep saying in my head. Patience IS a virtue and I know it'll be worth it in the end.

So anyway, Saturday we had our first lesson with a women named Pennie, it was good, she

was okay, and was quite helpful, and I understand he's young so we musn't rush these things

but what I did is what I do with Shadow anyway, I did pick up a couple of tips, but I am

not going to spend my money on lessons for a while, I might go and have some on other horses

to help my riding, but for the time being, we're going to work on the basics and take it

in our stride. Our issue has been at the moment that Shadow struggles to listen and respond-

his reactions are slightly delayed and he has to think about what he is being told, he will

walk on beautifully, but is still ever so dependent on someone walking next to him, even

with a rider on his back, he'll want somebody walking round next to him in the school, so we

need to wean him off that issue, so I think the solution to that will be to lunge him with me

on him and then he will get the idea that he doesn't need somebody next to him all the time,

so that's the plan and my idea for the time being.

We also need to work on our halting- it's all well and good having a nice walk, trot, but the

halt is my main priority at the moment.

Our other task is to stop power walking to the gate to get out- he wants to get to his hay and again, I know it will take some time for him to learn not to do this, but I hoping that he does stop this eventually, but again, these things take time and however long it takes, we'll just keep going at it, hopefully we'll overcome it though in the not to distance future.

So our tasks for the end of April are as follows-

• Halt and Walk on when asked.
• Walk past the school gate without stopping.
• Be able to walk round the whole school and walking on and halting when asked.
• To begin working In-Hand.
• Walking and Trotting on the lunge.

I don't expect him to achieve this all by the end of the month, so even by May time would be nice ;).