AEBC Intensive - Day 1

As promised, (almost) live blogging from the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre in Victoria where Jedi have come for what is essentially Pony Club camp for grown ups!

It was certainly a long, hot drive down from Dragonwood, for both horse and human. The temp topped 36 by the time we hit Holbrook and I took Jedi out for a little leg stretch and drink. This was the first long haul we had done together so I was very impressed with him when he stayed pretty chilled, drank a bucket of warm water and munched on some hay while I choked down a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. Considering we'd parked next to a truck stop in heavy use he was downright awesome!

We got here around six at night and he went into a little yarddock (a paddock that's really the size of a very large yard!) while I met a couple of my clinic buds and settled in. First lesson at 9:45 am with Manuela Mclean.

The next morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I led Jedi into the arena. I was a little concerned how Jedi would go in the big indoor but he was a real star. A bit of a spook here and there but nothing catastrophic. I could release the breath I'd been holding since we got here.

I have to admit to being quite proud of how good Jedi has become at the basic stop, go, turn buttons. Considering how crappy and unfair my training has been (more on that later), he has shown remarkable train-ability and resilience. He was soft but not ducking behind the bit, attentive (in general!) and good off the leg.

Manu picked up immediately that he was not straight. She talked about needing to have his poll in line with his withers to ensure straightness and it was clear his was always a good few inches one way or the other!

The cure? Using the reins to turn him back to straightness. It worked a treat. He often carried his head to the outside when on the right rein (so, left), and Manu had me close my inside hand, open that rein off his neck at times and use the outside rein as a guide to hold him to his line. Within a few minutes he was straight and started slowing down of his own accord to a really nice rhythm.

Keeping him straight turned out to be the key to a range of Jedi annoyances like chucking his head around, resisting the leg, lengthening and tension. He was, after 20 mins, bloody supple compared to the horse I was used to riding!

She had me do a 'shoulder yield' using an indirect turn to push his shoulder over like a leg yield. No leg involved, just rein and the aim is to have shoulder leading across the diagonal line to the side of the arena. It was an interesting exercise as Jedi was great to the right but literally led with his quarters to the left. It took some very obvious and initially heavy direct turns left to get him to lead with his shoulders, like most horses would in a turn! Poor Jedi. But he got it fairly quickly and felt great once we got a couple right.

Back to my unfair training. The last few weeks I think I've been de-toxing from Tuxedo and this has flowed through to Jedi in a very negative way. Firstly, I have had such a high tolerance for tension and stress in the horse I'm sitting on that I barely notice when Jedi is tense or freaking out. Or, I do notice but don't give it much thought. It's normal to me. Or was. Jedi lost his mind completely just over a week ago, bucking and rearing, almost taking us through an electric fence until I fell off and he could get away.  He even jumped on my leg (with me literally having to roll out from under him as he panicked and kept jumping around). This, in hindsight, was completely avoidable had I simply rad the very obvious signs of increasing stress and gotten off him.

He was worried about leaving his herd and already quite adrenalised. Then I saddled him up and he finds the H girth quite aversive ( the back strap sits a bit further back than a normal girth and he had been humping a bit when it was done up). Then Murray the shed guy turned up just as I got on, with his loud truck and bits flapping on it. Jedi gave me lots and lots of warning, let me tell you! But I just ignored all those signals and gave him a kick to get him going forward. Idiot. But hindsight is 20/20 isn't it?

So, being insensitive has resulted in at least one training session where the end result was a very upset horse and a very frustrated rider. Not good.

The second big error I've been making is having a real lack of clarity about what I'm trying to achieve in my training. This flows into what I am asking Jedi to do and how I can reduce the complexity of that training rather than constantly trying to get him to learn 2 or 3 things at once. Poor training by me, for sure.

I'm not beating myself up too much, though. I have been quite stressed with work, uni, life things and didn't give the thought and consideration to my horse training that I should have. That being said, I love the phrase, 'when you know better, do better' and I will certainly be doing better from now!

So, more blogging later today, hopefully with pictures! More in equitation theory and some interesting things I learned about tails too...