Riding Thoughts

[Excess]

I haven't really ridden Speedy much lately because I can't wear jeans until my new tattoo heals up. It was so cold so we haven't been doing much. Just been working a lot on round penning and groundwork. Sometimes I would just hop on Speedy with just his rope halter and bareback. On some occaisons I did saddle him up and ride him.

What I notice is this. When I ride him without tack and bareback with just the halter he is amazingly much more responsive and I can get him to do so many things with FEEL. I can feel him easier and he can feel me easier. I think also my mindset when just hopping on him bareback with nothing but the halter is in a better place too.

When I ride him with tack it seems like something get away. We just don't click as well when we're without tack. He chomps at the bit and sometimes resists me when I ask him to go one way and he wants to go the other. His teeth were done last May but I'm going to have them re-done by someone else.

I sort of just realized this change today when I was talking to someone and showing them Speedy on the ground. I then jumped on him and had him yielding his haunches, turning on the forehand, backing, neck reinning (which we have trouble with in the bit) even spinning like a reinner and all nice and lightly with just a flick of the leadrope. Last weekend it wasn't a horrible ride by any means but it wasn't as smoothly and wasn't as light.

Maybe when I tack him up I always have an intention to be doing something but then freak out because I don't know WHAT I want to do. I always have this overwhelming fear that I'm going to fail him or myself or our trainer. I want both of us to be the best we could possibly be. But there's always some obstacle when I tack him up. AGAIN I want to stress that there is nothing going wrong. He is not acting out in any way, he's not being bad, but we just don't CLICK as easily....

I ride him in a custom Balding D-ring snaffle. It has a small ball in the middle so it's broken in two places. I was thinking maybe putting him in a bosal. But I want to get his teeth checked/fixed first to rule out a tooth problem first. I have ridden him in just a saddle and rope halter and it's better than riding with the bit - he's lighter, we're more in tune - but not as smoothly and RIGHT as when we're tack-less.

[RanchHQ]

"I haven't really ridden Speedy much lately because I can't wear jeans until my new tattoo heals up."
That tells this Old Fart where your priorties are. How do you explain this to Speedy?

[Excess]

[QUOTE=RanchHQ;176 That tells this Old Fart where your priorties are. How do you explain this to Speedy?[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure if you're a new person or not, but I advise you never again to insinuate that I don't care about my horse and that I'm petty for not riding him. A tattoo (which actually is of Speedy) is a lifetime investment. I want to protect it and make sure it heals properly. Speedy gets the absolute best of care money can by and is very dearly loved. He is in a state-of-the-art facility, gets high-quality supplements and hay to his heart's content. I live in Buffalo NY which I don't have to tell you how compromised our weather is for six months out of the year. I sign up for all the clinics that I can possibly attend and he recieves the best training that I can find in this area. I see him several times a week and weather permitting, I ride him. And if I don't ride, I will do groundwork with him. I may not do as much as some people on here do, but unfortunately riding is not my life, I live in the snowiest city this side of the Mississippi and I can't make it out there every day to ride. Speedy is the happiest horse out there and he knows that he is quite loved.

[RanchHQ]

Exy:
Guess I am a "New Person", but not a new person to the horse world.
Hold on here, I just thought it was odd that you could not ride for a while because of a tatoo.
I have never been tatooed, don't know anything about the process, just seems like it would not be something I would to do to my body that precluded me from riding.
Who benifited from the tatoo, you or Speedy?
Your call.

That is all, no more, no less.

[Mares Tales]

Excess, first of all I have to say congratulations for looking beyond the surface and trying to find out how to help your horse. We come upon many answers when we ponder. I think you are finding your own answers and that is how we learn.


"I think also my mindset when just hopping on him bareback with nothing but the halter is in a better place too."

I believe you have discovered that your horse goes better when you don`t have an agenda, when you aren`t bothered in doing things perfect, when you are living in the moment, when you are having a good time and just being. Your horse also lives in the moment because thats how horses are. Perhaps you let go of your own braces when you ride him tackless. We all have braces so that is not a criticism for you.....it`s just a matter of letting go in ourselves that we need to do. My sport used to be dressage, no sport revolves around more analysis and is more goal oriented than dressage can be, especially competitive dressage so I think I know from where I am speak. I think you are saying that when you are also "turned loose" so then can your horse be also.

"He chomps at the bit and sometimes resists me when I ask him to go one way and he wants to go the other."

Think of why Ray Hunt likes people to start colts in a halter, it`s so they do not give conflicting signals to the horse. It is so that when their body says go, that they can`t pull back on the reins, it`s so that when they are asking to go right, they aren`t pulling back or on the left rein. If a person only has one rein then he`s only going to be able to use one rein at a time for one direction at a time and the rider is not going to be as confusing to the horse. There was a time when Ray had his clinic participants start their colts with NOTHING on their heads so there would be no confusion or temptation of pulling back and building a brace in those colts. The reason that he liked to start colts with nothing on their heads was to PROTECT the colts from the riders. He doesn`t want the riders unknowingly building a brace in those colts.
This may or may not be the problem that you are having, perhaps it`s just a matter of you getting a bit rigid and not focusing where you want to go so that it gives the horse a place to go. Perhaps it`s because you get braced up because you`re not sure about how to use your hands with a bit....... but what IS important is that you understand that things aren`t the same when you have a bit on him and THAT is a very good observation. When you recognise that things aren`t the same, its time to think of WHY it is not. Remember Rays quote of "The horse is never wrong." :)

"Maybe when I tack him up I always have an intention to be doing something but then freak out because I don't know WHAT I want to do. I always have this overwhelming fear that I'm going to fail him or myself or our trainer. I want both of us to be the best we could possibly be. But there's always some obstacle when I tack him up. AGAIN I want to stress that there is nothing going wrong. He is not acting out in any way, he's not being bad, but we just don't CLICK as easily...."

This is what I mean about answering our own questions. Inside of you, you already had the answer and that is how we learn more completely and why Tom would speak in metaphors.......it got us to think and search for the answers ourselves. The point of all this horsemanship is to work on ourselves.

(In Reatas Aussie accent)...Good on you Excess.

[MyAmigoMaya]

Exy:
Hold on here, I just thought it was odd that you could not ride for a while because of a tatoo.
I have never been tatooed, don't know anything about the process, just seems like it would not be something I would to do to my body that precluded me from riding.
Your call.

That is all, no more, no less.


Since Exy's tattoo is on her lower belly, any rubbing against jeans/breeches/waistbands of just about anything could rub scabs off the tattoo at this point and damage the tattoo. Even with loose clothing instead of jeans or breeches, it's pretty hard to ride without moving your abdomen and hips at all. (: The really scabby part of a tattoo is only for the first week really, though you do have to be gentle with it for another week or two after that. It takes between a week and a month for most tattoos to heal. While it's scabbing and peeling during healing, removing the scabs can pull ink out and leave bare patches and unevenness. So if I'd just gotten a lower belly tattoo, I'd not want to ride for a week or two afterward.

Sarah, who's just realizing as she's writing that she now has to reschedule the riding lesson that she scheduled for the day after a tattoo touch-up!

[RanchHQ]

That might be why I have no tattos, or care to have any.

[RidgeRider]

I too ride ride in the nude, well, not me, my horse (but that could help with the tattoo...). Anyway nothing or just my custom bucking rigging - which is just a stout handle and girth. Anyway, I find not only is there no tack and the horse can sense you, but you can sense the horse better. You can feel exactly when your calf touched him/her and when you got a response. You can feel which set of muscles he used. It become easy to use the smallest amount of pressure that works. Just a lean changes your hip bones and he can work off that, too. On my gelding, I went from a choppy stepped, uncertain horse to one which a huge swinging step - once he figured all I wanted to to was walk in a circle. On my more schooled and confident mare it is like thinking as one - a real treat and something I do sometimes after a saddled workout.

Good luck to you and your horse,

[Two Cents]

Ms. Mares is a wise woman. Put some real thought into her ideas.

I'm not sure I could work up the courage to get a tattoo.....especially on my lower belly. I am pretty sure "Speedy" would not make the list. I am absolutely sure "Shorty" wouldn't.

You know, if you end each ride on a really good note, you and your horse are feeling confident and sure about yourselves and each other, it doesn't really matter how long you wait until the next ride. A day, a week, a month, a year. The horse will be just as good or maybe better than the last time.

If you end on a not-so-good mood, you and your horse are at odds with each other, it doesn't really matter how long you wait either. The horse will be just as bad or probably worse.

A little break sometimes does wonders for people and horses. Enjoy your time off! I hope the tattoo turns out great.

[AWSpinks]

I have had several people say that their horse is better when they "just hop on bareback with a halter and lead rope". I always wondered if it is because they don't ask as much out of the horse when they do this.

I know people that are pretty good hands whether they have a saddle or not but I would venture to say that a large percentage of us are not as stable on the back of a horse without something between us and the horse. So when we just "hop on" bareback we don't really ask for the same thing as we do when we are fully tacked up. Therefore the horse feels really good because you are doing simple addition and not calculus or even long division.

AW

[reata]

I have some thoughts on this..
I know my horses feel a lot different when I'm just bareback and in a halter.
My little mare, in particular, listens so intently to my body. This little mare is super super quick, so bare back I'm extra careful to be so light and particular with my aids, otherwise I would be off on my butt.. real quick!!! I'm sure the close partnership achieved by being bareback has helped me control my aids tacked up, and I'm sure my mare has learned to listen to my body more..
As for the halter vs the snaffle bit thing.. I remember years ago I asked Buck B why my old quarter horse went lots better in the rope halter than in the snaffle bit ..His answer... Marie, you give him a better deal in the halter than the snaffle bit.. That sure got me thinking and working on myself!!!:eek:

[Excess]

Seeing that I cannot ride until this weekend (I'm counting down the days to being able to wear jeans), I made a slideshow video of me and Speedy complete with music. It has some pretty goofy pictures of both of us in it. Enjoy. =) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoijvtqFGY4

[red]

OH!!!! Jeau. You make me laugh, til I can hardly stand myself...thank you for the wonderful snapshot of life...it is all about having fun...just like Chilli, Speedy knows, "it is good to be a girls horse."....love your tattoo, and if I were a yute, (youth...ala my cousin Vinny)..I would have one too...maybe..!

My personal favorite is Speedy in parachute...but the happy on your face, and the kind soft look in his eyes, tell the whole story..the only one that matters..

[FrancaV]

I have had several people say that their horse is better when they "just hop on bareback with a halter and lead rope". I always wondered if it is because they don't ask as much out of the horse when they do this.

I know people that are pretty good hands whether they have a saddle or not but I would venture to say that a large percentage of us are not as stable on the back of a horse without something between us and the horse. So when we just "hop on" bareback we don't really ask for the same thing as we do when we are fully tacked up. Therefore the horse feels really good because you are doing simple addition and not calculus or even long division.Well, I won't speak for anyone else but this would certainly be true of me! There is no way I would ask as much of a horse nekkid in a halter as I would with saddle and snaffle bit. I know that I have an easier time feeling of a horse that way, but the horse can also feel me better, too. This is only a good thing when my confidence is at 100%. ;) Therefore I would never push the envelope or ask my horse for anything I wasn't quite sure I could handle unless I were sitting in my saddle. Yeah, I can use a halter instead of a bit - my mare is pretty responsive and I think I have pretty good hands - but keeping my butt squarely on my horse is another story, LOL. Workin' on it and making steady progress (many compliments on my improved riding at a clinic this past weekend) but I'm not "there" yet!

[Cinch]

One of the reasons they are so much more responsive is because bareback you are so much closer to him & he is closer to you. You can both feel each other beter. Also when you ride with just a halter you have to stay mentally ahead of your horse more. Which is really what you should be doing in a snaffle or anything else.

[reata]

Exactly cinch!! If our horses go better bareback with just a halter.. That's what we should be working on .. having the same "Feel" in the saddle and snaffle bit..I think you can be more subtle in the snaffle bit .. and its a whole lot more comfortable for the horse and the human ..:eek:

[FrancaV]

I think you can be more subtle in the snaffle bit .. and its a whole lot more comfortable for the horse and the human ..:eek:I agree. I'm working on convincing a friend of this. She can really get to hauling on her horse when using a halter or sidepull. She had a couple of lessons using the snaffle bit and I thought she was appreciating how little she could do to get him to respond but something in her still thinks she's being 'nicer' to use a halter on him. I think it frustrates him and makes him pushy - he is a very braced-up Peruvian Paso - but all I can do is suggest and support ... she's going to do what she's going to do with her own horse.

[reata]

Franca, I think her horse will just get worse. Once a horse gets heavy in the halter or sidepull folks get to doing more..The horse leans more and before long there is a pulling match ..and that can be quite dangerous if the horse runs through the halter or side pull. Halters are fine but there comes a time in the horses education when you want a little contact..ie a connection with the horse.. As Ray says "The feet are in your hands"
I know you can have the feet in your hands in a halter.. but the feel is more bettera in the snaffle bit!!
One day your friend will realise that but at the moment she is where she is and that can be a little frustrating for people further down the road..:rolleyes:

[FrancaV]

I'm hoping she might come to a Peter Campbell clinic with me later this year. Mostly she just moseys along on her own without any help so she's a bit set in her ways. It's hard for her to make changes.