Winter time in the indoor arena--well, it can get pretty boring. I do ride outside whenever I can, but often, all I have is part of the driveway to walk up and down. Though it is nice to get outside, that can bet a little boring, too.
I recently had a revelation--Cole can learn how to line dance. He has all the moves. I just have to teach him to put them together. I would be in the saddle, and when he knows how to dance, I will have to teach Ellen or Kevin to do it with him; as I guide him. Knowing Cole, once we get to that level, he will learn how to follow his dancing partner on the ground, but that is a long way off.
He can do side passing in both directions, forward, (of course,) backwards, (kind of,) turn on the haunches where he rotates around one back leg in either direction--up to 360 degrees and stopping. He can leg yield, (forward and sideways at the same time,) but that isn't very accurate, and I'm not sure if I want to use it because he sometimes gets it confused with side passing. He can also do a nice shoulder-in, but I don't know how to integrate that into a dance routine.
He also has 2 forms of bowing--and we can't forget his silly walk.
All of these he will do and get a click/treat after it. What I need to do with to chain the moves so we don't stop after every one of them, and make going from one move to the next seamless.
It has only been a couple weeks, and we only practice about 10 minutes a ride. Here is how it has been going.
In the very beginning, I wasn't getting any side passing at all--which was strange, because we had been practicing it this winter. I kept getting leg yields, instead. I decided to work with what I had. My first project was to train sideways right with sideways left. To do it, I had to put a couple steps of straight in between. We have done some of this in the past, and he started doing it very well, right away--but it was leg yielding, not side passing.
I added a spin, (turn on the haunches,) after the second sideways and then clicked him. He was getting it.
As I hinted above, his backing up has always been less than stellar. He is very reluctant to take that first step. The rest of the steps are effortless; with only a shift of my weight as a cue. If we wanted to dance, he had to be quicker with that first step.
I had to think about what was going on. If he was only bad on the first step and not the subsequent steps; all I needed to work on was the first step. I got the good treats out--no boring carrots for this. Cole always learns the fastest when he really likes the treats.
I asked for the first step in the standard way--ask for forward, but not allow him to go forward with the reins. Patience. Finally I got it, clicked and treated. We did it over and over. After about 20 times, he wasn't as sticky. A few more times--and he was stepping back when I had very light rein contact, and I shifted my weight. Bingo!!! Cole is a genius. I just needed to explain it to him.
The next ride, he started offering to back up when I didn't want him to. I had to make my cues clear enough so he knew what I wanted. If he offered backing up, I immediately told him I wanted forward. He was able to sort it out. He is a genius. After that, when we practiced our dancing, I started rewarding him for more steps than one. Sometimes, I asked him to step 5 steps back and then do a few forward steps before a click.
After years of struggling with backing up, I was able to fix it in a few lessons. I just needed to use my most important tool; my brain.
About this time, he replaced the leg yielding with proper side passing. I knew he would. A real surprise happened a few lessons later when he, on his own, decided that he no longer needed to put some forward steps between the right and left steps. It took a little coordination on his part, but he was able to sort it out. Such a smart pony! Of course, he got treats and praise for it.
One other maneuver we have been practicing that we started doing last year is spin 180 degrees one way, take a couple steps forward and spin 180 degrees the other way.
This is where we are at now.
I have discovered when training horses, that often when you work on one thing, there are other positive things that happen that you never planned. Well, it happened again, and it really took me by surprise. The one who is learning something new is me. The last time we practiced, I noticed that I was timing the commands at the moment that his foot was ready to change directions. For the first time, I really know where his back legs just by feeling his motion. I know that we are supposed to know that, but I never could quite learn it--and now I am. Talk about a tremendous bonus! If I never get any further than this with our dancing, we have both made real strides.
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