Serpertines with Claire

I had a great day training with Claire, incorporating the Clicker training completely under saddle today. The day started out kinda of on a bad note. First I got Annie and tied up her wearing the bit. She, by the way, managed to completely untie the intricate knot that I fastened her with while I was riding with Claire. Very frustrating! Annie is very smart and can untie herself EVERY TIME I tie her. I really need to address this as she is learning a very bad habit!

Anyways I took Claire to the trailer as her saddle and bridle were in the trailer. She was calm until I tied her and she heard the weed eater (she couldn't see it) on the other side of the trailer. I went around the trailer to ask Brian to stop weed eating, when we heard a long bang and she had pulled back and broke the lead rope. Yeah she was pretty shaken, but I calmed her down, and saddled her and lead her into the arena for our ride.

Today we worked on yielding the hindquarters (clicker training) and trot to walk transitions by using my seat and voice. I clicked everytime she transitioned down by just using my seat and voice. She completed it about 80% of the time. The only problem is her trot really isn't smooth and part of it I believe is the deep sand in the arena. I am going today to see if I can come up with a pump spray for our water tank. Brian is going to rig up some type of water tank I can pull behind the 4-wheeler to spray down the sand.

Here is what I worked on with Claire:

1. Lateral yielding

2. Yielding the hindquarters

3. Trot cue (she does is very nicely!)

4. Trot to walk transition (yeah-- she needs more work)

5. Serpertines with gently swinging her head and keeping it low in the serpertine.
I tried to ask for her nose with as little as pull as possible and to just get her to follow her nose with her body.

6. I really worked on getting her to respond to a slight pull on the reins by both hands to see if she would lower her head to asking for her head. I 'clicked' every time that she lowered as a response, but I was a little confused because sometimes she would root way down to escape the pressure. I clicked the first few times for this, but then she started rooting down all the time, I defintely don't want her take the bit down like that. So I have to do some reading on this.

7. I cantered her a few times and she got it about 50% of the time. She picked up the left lead everytime.

I rode her out of the arena and got off her at the place she spooked by the trailer.


Annie:

I worked with Annie today on the lunge line. She has the trot to walk transition down about 80% of the time without me having to pull on the lunge line to get her to break to a walk. We
'clicker' trained on that and on the canter transiton on the lunge line. She got that about 50% of the time. When she just trotted faster after I asked for the canter, I just said no and brought her back down and then usually the next time when I asked for the canter, she picked it up and then I 'clicked' and gave her a treat.

Poco:

I worked with target training with Poco, and she has it most of the time. She is the most impatient with touching it, and that really shows her impatience to learn new things. I can really see that she has an impatience with learning new things. She is however, my most trustworthy horse.

Great day of training!