Star and our Straightness Training Journey

Introduction

We began our straightness training journey seriously in July 2013. Initially I made a few mistakes but this blog is designed to keep a running log of what we did, how we went and how we improved - both of us - not just Star. So I have a bit of catching up to do with this blog. First I will itemise what we learned from the forum and then I will update my weekly log.

Asymmetry



Star at the moment has some signs of a left bended horse. He has a pushing left hind a carrying right hind. He finds it harder to travel on the right rein. He makes smaller circles on the right rein and has a tendency to travel out on the left rein and sometimes walks with his hindquarter in when walking on the left rein. He has some difficulty with his lateral bend and I think that this is due in part to finding it hard to bend through the ribs and also that he still tends to use his neck for balance. Star’s front foot appears to demonstrate he might be a left footed horse. Star generally tends to conform to the theory that his left hind leg diagonally pushes the weight towards the right front leg. He also has a tendency to step beside his point of weight with his right hind leg.

 



July 27 2013

At this point we have been at it for about 2 weeks (on me and Star). As for Star - we don't seem to be able to fit a bus between his hind legs now and he is not over flexing near what he was before. He is still very forward and I tried a couple of times to ask with a half halt but I am new to this and probably not doing it well at all. Half the time I feel he is a right bended horse but then not - I think he demonstrates all the tick boxes I am learning about. You can see I am still having a little trouble with forward and stelling. I also feel Star's ears are not as 'back' as they have been before we started Straightness Training.

 

 



What we need to work on here is when we are standing and asking for Star's head down, his front legs need to be straighter (perpendicular to the ground) and not angled under his body.  When this happens, his centre of mass is quite forward, and combined with a lowering of the head it tips him forward so he had to take a step forward. I need to stand closer to him; my hand near the rein clip and stand up straight with slightly bended knees. I need t visualize his POW and decide where I need the POW to go (when POW is too much in the front and to the right shoulder), ask his weight back in the direction of his outside hind leg until POW ends up a little backwards and in the middle and try and move the POW on an exhale. I need to also use a half halt in standing by gently closing my hand until his POW comes back a little, then releasing right away.

4 August 2013

I am finding that Star is beginning to over flex again at the moment and I don't think I am helping him. In fact I am sure it is I who is causing it. But I am feeling his weight shift a little better. Or I could be imagining it. I am still getting a little confused with the half halts in hand. I have gone over allot of material in the course and am trying to apply it. I think also I am finding it hard to focus on more than one thing - I focus on his inside hind and we fall apart on the outside fore. We went through a biting stage when I moved my hand closer to the cavesson but this is now allot better. I can see he is falling out still though.

 



The first 30 seconds are pretty good for a second timer but then I over correct, he didn't need that. It's preferred to have your horse standing square like in the beginning and he's great there so now see if we can build up the time he waits for  in balance.  To the left he is over bending and swinging out from behind, so for a while we will work closer to the boundary. The fence will than function as an aid for the outside hind leg so he can't cheat by stepping to the outside.  To the right he's stepping more towards Point of weight but we have to watch the forward stepping, as he has a tendency to step sideways. We hope that using the fence as an aid for the outside hind leg, it will help him get more balanced.

Also what might be happening is I am making too much of the half halt. Around the halt at 2.10 - 2.16, he gets the message, looses balance and starts falling over the outside shoulder, I give a half halt to rebalance and it worked. So my mentor said to me; " The trick is to start again from this (so lots of reruns of your video) and in time you will get faster and smaller in your aid so he's no longer starting to fall but almost losing balance and eventually you'll catch him before the dis balance occurs".

 

10 August 2013

 

This is a combination of this weeks effort. We started earlier in the week being against the wall of the round yard but once I left the wall I let him down. So today I put cones up to make me a little better at staying in a circle. We had some challenges His over flexing is not as bad

 

 

 

 

So its best to make use of the wall for quite a while, because he has a tendency to step to much to the outside with his outside hind leg. But his bending is getting much nicer. When we see his head come up its usually a sign of imbalance because he cannot maintain the posture. By standing him next to the wall and then ask for one step, his inside hind leg towards POW we cut down the exercise for him and explain what it is we want from him with the inside hind leg. We can then start asking for a little more forward. This also applies for the outside hind leg. When he walks sideways he is not truly engaging his inside hind leg. The wall prevents him from swaying out and he'll have no choice but to 1) move faster or 2) step under POW

So the next day with these things in mind we try slow motion a little more - inner picture for me and focus on quality not quantity:

 

 

 

 

16 August 2013

So we are getting a little better - I took Star off the 'wall' at the end to see how he is fairing. I feel that the outside front coming a little to the side is actually my mistake. A while back now he was learning some stuff that Alex Kurland does (3 flip 3) and I fear he either may think he has to do this or he needs more gym time. So I am trying to rectify it but I also think that until he is comfortable from behind and is not pushing and finds is POW better he will keep giving me what he thinks I want. I am also noticing that Star seems to be cantering in the paddock straighter - he is not pushing as much.

 

 

 

 

The bending and stretching in standing is getting very nice to the left, but to the right his right hind foot is standing forward and therefore it's hard for Star to bend through.
The work in walk starts great, but then I over flex him. The advice from my mentor was to see if I can walk as if we are underwater and keep his nose more into the direction we are going. 

 

I have to also remember only to give my whip aids only when the intended leg is in the air. So to the left that would be an aid when the left (inside) hind foot is in the air. For my half halt it is when the outside hind foot is in the air.

 

22nd August 2013

During practices over the week we did not have any overbending, it came out a bit today though, I have to get better at doing more than one thing at the same time.  It got better when we tried a lap away from the wall.

But when I did manage to apply a half halt at the correct time I have been starting to feel his weight shift back and his shoulders lift. I feel also that he is not pushing as much with his outside hind. 

 It is a long haul but I am enjoying seeing Star slowly improve

 

 

 

 

 

In the first few laps I got a better quality than later. The outside hind leg is doing a lot better to the left when I am away from the wall than a few weeks ago. To the right he tends to step smaller with his outside hind leg when I am away from the wall.

So now we are going to try and tackle the haunches in (Quarter in). The benefit of this exercise is that his pace is easier to control because I block some of the 'fast' and working on forward is easier because of my body position and I get to reach both hind legs, which is someone he would benefit from.
 Firstly I need to teach Star the whip aid and I did with the use of the mat from standing, asking his 'hind end' to come to the inside, preferably with his hind leg stepping towards POW.

 

So this is where we start - this is Marieke Van Der Meer (my mentor) with Christofer Dajlgren

 

  

 

 

 

So this is our beginning:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we tried to go away from the mat and to the wall - it will be some time yet. The first thing I have to remember is to walk backwards, try and help his bending and have a mental picture of the outside hind leg coming towards the POW

 

 

In the meantime - this is how we are doing at LFS:

 

Still too much over flexing, so I need to point my leading finger forward on the circle to stop him over flexing and shifting his point of weight to the outside shoulder. At times he is also swinging his outside front leg out.

9 September 2013

This is how we are doing with our quarter in steps - Star had allot of trouble getting this on his off side with near hind coming forward towards the POW, so it is not yet going towards the POW but it at least is now coming forward on cue. I did try the 'magic spot' on his neck,  but all he did with this was think I was itching him .  On his better side (off hind coming forward) he is getting so that he wants to walk forward - I know we could probably do better with the POW and today I noticed on the video that he was not leading with his hind - so I had not noticed this before today. So apart from keeping an eye on this and trying to only click and treat when his hind is better placed towards the POW, I should also be encouraging the step forward yet or mind his head first.  Even though we are not very good at this yet I feel that maybe this is helping his hind legs bend a bit better.

 

 

 

 

and this is how things are going with our LFS; I have to remember that Star is a very very difficult horse in body to work with but it feels to me that he is getting a bit better each week. He does not seem to be 'throwing' his outside leg out as much this week and he is not over flexing as much. He wants so much to 'collect' for me in his way but it is very hard to encourage this from the back rather than from the neck. I hope we are demonstrating progress (slow but still progress I hope). It is interesting that he starts off very slow and seems to almost drag his toes to the back but then he gets better - I don't know why he is doing this but he is a horse that tries very hard to get everything right so maybe this is his way of checking in to make sure this is what I want.

 

 

 

 

 

So I am trying with my aids when he is over flexing, by pointing my finger forwards and taking him more forwards. It was also suggested that I could also try closing my shoulders a little (turn towards him) and walk a little more towards the front of him and keeping my belly pointing forwards. " I see some nice Half halts you are giving, where after he is searching forward down 0.43, really fab. His toe dragging improved when you increased the rhythm and tempo."

 

 

25 September 2013

Man some days this is hard. I think that I am getting some blocks in the bending. It is almost as if Star is bending from the neck. Definitely he is improving in the way he carries himself around the place. He is not falling over at all now in the paddocks (he would trip when running around when he was not focusing). I also think that when I see him canter and gallop up to me when he decreases speed he is not pushing allot with his hind leg and in allot of cases he actually slows down 'straight'. My quarter in attempts are not going well - he wants to send his neck in the opposite direction - oh and I know he is not going forward enough - but he is trying so hard. I tried a 'shoulder in' for the first time this morning.

 

  

 

So here is what my mentor suggested: "I think it's time you start using your whip more, not as a whipping aid, but as a pointing stick of course. When you point your stick towards his inside hind leg when it's in the air, you're able to ask it more towards the POW. You can also point or gently tap his abdomen to ask him to shorten that side. Secondly, I'd recommend working him closer to the rail for now, so you benefit from the boundary for his outside hind leg.  As you can see although he's improved very well he still pushes himself on his outside shoulder. What you can do is start working with reins in stead of a single line, so you have the rein aid to let him know not to do that and to rebalance himself. Another approaches to really start working with whip aids and use the whip aid on the outside withers to rebalance. Also, as an experiment, you could walk backwards in front of him, his head aligned with your outside arm. That way you can see what he's doing in his body and you can focus more on your whip aids and half halt in your hand.

 

 

29th September 2013

 

OK so now we are going into a bridle (that changes soon). I wanted to check in and see if I am getting this (slowly) with the bridle. It is rough as this is only the third time Star has ever had a bridle on and the reins around his neck worry him still. I am also getting used to the reins (from the ground). I am focusing on the indirect rein at the moment and when this gets a little less clumsy I can probably do allot better with the whip for the inside leg at the same time. So this is what it looked like:

 

 

 

 

 

So I think he understands the concept of Shoulder In and not pushing or rushing and keeping his neck muscles soft and loose underneath.  Now my advice was to start to ask for some more quality steps rather than quantity. This is what my advice was:

 

I think that Star is sometimes not bending enough in his body and therefore not stepping under to the POW on every step and his neck is sometimes getting bent too much laterally. I think they all do it a bit like this at first because they are trying to please us, and actually although it looks easy, what we are asking is quite hard for them at first - even if they are not desperately one sided in their bending - and it is very hard indeed for those who have a distinct left or right handedness.

To help the horses learn how to change this, sometimes I use my finger tips just touching the horses ribs to ask those ribs to bend slightly away. I time this finger-to-ribs touch to be in the rhythm of the horses ribs swinging away as he walks along. At the same time keeping the shoulders in off the track and be very careful not to accidentally bend Stars neck too much inwards - it happens so easily I know - but keep your lead rein hand well forwards towards his nose to avoid doing this over bending of the neck at the same time as keeping the shoulders in more, and the final thing is to just touch the schooling whip to Stars inside hind leg at the exact time when he is about to pick it up for the next step. This will bring his attention to the whip and he will take it further underneath himself. If he makes one, two or three steps that are good quality - then be happy with those steps and then when you are both ready, go on and ask for a repeat performance.

 

6 October 2013

We have graduated from a step or two and this is the first time I tried to take him a little further. I noticed that if the indirect rein was not applied he tended to fall out a little. I think I need to get better at managing the reins and this is the next step for me as he is not afraid of them around his neck anymore, So I imagine I have to be a little more 'giving' with my arms. I imagine that this might also help him bend a little better - there were times in this little session that it felt to me like he was becoming a straight horse (I hope it shows - there are moments when it looks this way to me looking back on the video). We were away from the wall as I wanted to see how this was going - I know my circles got a little lost!

  

 



 

 

13 October 2013

 

I decided to go back to the cavesson and see how Star is doing. I know I need to get a little bit more of stepping under to the POW but I am feeling proud of how he is going. I noticed that if I ask for too much lifting from the base of the shoulder he starts to step out with his outside fore - I imagine that this is because we are not yet getting what we need from his inside hind. But why I am feeling proud is that we are back in a cavesson and I can correct this and he seems to understand. I wanted to test how he was going and asked for a small bit of lunging - a work in progress of course.

Now at the end of this I show how we are really not getting things right for the SI and the QI - I think his SI coming towards the camera is getting a little better, although I think he is a little too bent, but I am really making a mess of the QI - it is hard to get him to bend to the inside (the point on the neck just does not seem to work for him) - it looks like I am moving out away from the 'wall' but I am trying to stay straight. This is where I need more help I think - well I need help with the lot also.

It was a really horrible morning weather wise outside -all the flies in the world began to hunt us down in preparation for a very hot windy day - and the neighbours trail bikes were distracting Star at the end. So I called it a day and we went for a long walk. I also did not notice that he was carrying too much weight on the fore when we were practicing out forward down - but I will keep a better eye on this.

I think I might have to think about going into a straighter fence area.

 

 

 

In lunging I need to keep moving forwards and not step backwards as this can encourage him to fall in on the circle. In the quarter-in I have to make sure I am moving straight back and not on the diagonal otherwise star will fall on his inside shoulder, if I developed this along a straight fence line I think it would be much easier.

 

My mentor said: There is definite improvement again Julie, Star is becoming more confident in the LFS and had some nice steps SI there. To the left you see him responding to your whip aid towards the inside hind leg at 4.50 min so that's great! What to look for at this stage is lightness and responsiveness to your aids!  Also the position of his head / neck has improved and though he has picked up the pace through that a little, it's still tolerable I think. See if you can gradually slow him down in tempo, with the same head / neck posture. What you strive for is quality in the forward stepping in any tempo, fast or slow.

The QI attempt is actually not so bad: he is certainly responding to your cue of walking backwards, you just don't follow through and I suspect forgot to keep a clear inner picture.  If you look closely he starts walking half pass, but looses his bending and direction because you loose your focus. Try to start thinking QI a bit sooner, as you come into the direction of the poles, lift your whip towards his outside hip (pelvis) and if he looses his bending, point with the handle of your whip at the neck.
Important here is to be very calm and composed. In mind, posture and movement. Imagine you're dancing and his time you're in the lead, inviting Star for an elegant dance. It doesn't matter now what it looks like, you want him to 'get' that you want him to bring his hindquarters in, keeping his bend in shape and keep moving forward.

 

 

6 November 2013

I feel he is starting to come forward more often but it might be my imagination. I am also trying to get a better shoulder and quarter in - trying in the quarter in to navigate his head better - I almost feel he has a 'pushing' head hahahaha.   I am doing a little now using reins with the cavesson as it seems to me that he prefers this - but today I was still trying to remain in groundwork.

 

 

 

There was some troubles here we got ourselves into and this was predominately because I was clicking for a leg movement - I don't think we can do this here - I think I need to bridge each separate movement and reward at the end of a step as otherwise I might click for the right leg movement but the next movement might be wrong, so best not to click each time I think.

 

 

9 December 2013 

Well we are now using two reins and we are now in a flat area. I am finding this is helping Star allot in supporting him while he learns how to use his body better. There is such a difference between the two hind legs in SI and QI - Star is such a willing horse and I am sure someone with more skill than I would have helped him allot quicker than I am but I think we are slowly getting there. I still see some side stepping in the SI at times (he has done better) and the QI on the right hind is getting allot better - you can see he still coils his neck and is wobbly on the left hind but we are getting some forward movement now and again now.

   

 

 

 

 

We now need to work a bit more towards lightening the front end, some of the footfalls look a little heavy at times, Star can start to use his back more to step under more with the hind legs, and transfer weight off of his front legs, he could carry his neck a little higher.  It was suggested I  could encourage this by walking a little further back , behind the wither, so as not to get the ' leading effect'. When walking on the left rein place my right hand just behind the wither and use my left hand at a similar height , ask for lightness with each step. " The halt is very important, don't allow Star to tilt his head coming into the halt ie by twisting his head and neck and then turning on the forehand and lifting his inside ear as at 1:45, here you can use your left rein more and always ask for a square halt then as you move off make sure you keep an eye on your left rein again , it is just as important what you do with your outside or indirect rein as the inside one".

 

and  more.........

 

"Now he knows Shoulder In and Quarters In, I think it is all about improving the quality of them now.  So when you are in Shoulder in, it may help him understand to take a longer step with the inside hind leg, stepping under towards his centre of Mass by tickling his hind leg with the end of the whip, a little way above the hock on the ham strings, just at the point in time when he was about to lift it up to take the step. This will help draw his attention to that hind leg and he will respond by taking a longer step underneath himself hopefully.

Also when coming from LFS on a straight line to a Shoulder in, breathe and then think inside your head, - S.h.o.u.l.d.e.r. I.n. - and look right along the long side of the arena, expecting Shoulder In and then drift along the long side in Shoulder In. Having that mental visualization is a powerful aid to set you up for what you want to do. It will also work for Quarters In too of course.

The next thing to teach him in the sequence is Renvers - and from what I can see, he looks ready to learn this right now. the funniest thing is, that when you teach them another "new thing" all the old learned behaviours seem easier to them! But Renvers will be helping him in exactly the same way that Quarters In does, so it isn't really new, its just a change of position for you to the outside of his bend using two reins rather than one, and a change of positioning in the school for him".

 

and we are also going to incorporate pole work and pedestal work to help the bending. So this finishes the pre work before we joined the Mastery program. I will now do separate dates till we catch up.