Right, Right, to the Right!

The weather here in the foothills of Georgia's mountains gave us a nice glimpse of fall as October began. The first crisp day of the season was a nice setting for working Whisper together with my good friend, Jennifer. Jen is in off-track Greyhounds now, but has a lot of horse history, specifically with Thoroughbreds. Her dog training style, interests, and technique are very similar to mine, add in that she also runs an "off breed", and a great friendship has been forged.

Whisper was enjoying the snappy gusts of wind, all of them were actually, many of the horses in the pasture were breaking into spontaneous runs. I started with our warm-up of driving her using the long lines. It has really helped her through the last week, dropping her head, coming onto the bit, understanding pressure. Jennifer pointed out that we were turning left a lot more often than right. The way her body arcs and bends at odd angles, it feels easiest to balance her out by using that left bend. I hadn't realized it had become so much of a habit though.

I got bored after about 20 minutes and my second lap of serpentines so I added in a little obstacle course.

After that it was time to get on. She was very relaxed and supple from the ground, but she had energy reserves for when I was in the saddle. We had a few moments of disagreeing over what pace we should be going before just sitting a little while and collecting ourselves. Jen suggested some circles, to the right, and some turns on the forehand. The turns settled her and gave her a suppleness we'd been missing. That "off" feeling that turning into her shoulder that she fell through was exactly the right thing (haha) to do, at some points she even rounded her back and engaged her muscles more effectively.

2 hours into our work, a few strides of a western pleasure horse emerged. Okay, maybe not, but a loose relaxed neck much better than we've had.

Jennifer also got on her for some circles encouraging her not to fall through that inside shoulder. Whisper was really relaxed by then and made it hard to put her up so a lesson could use the ring. I know you're supposed to leave the horse wanting more, what about the rider?

This evening I read an e-mail from Trish, Whisper's breeder, and she told me about how I might look at Whisper's first 30 minutes as time chalked-up to unlearning for awhile. Racehorses go out with little warm-up before going into their gallop. Within 30 minutes, they are done and back in the shed row. She also described the unlearning process as more complex than just "turning them out to unwind as some trainers do". Whisper has to learn that her job has changed, then she must learn my cues are the right thing to do, and finally understand them.