Our young horse project "Farao" is going well still. He is very social and clever and really wants to be ridden and to learn. His body is very young for his age so the joints and muscles and all are not very strong. It s difficult when you feel that a horse could do more advanced things at a young age but has not got the physical condition to do it. The solution is often to show the horse a new movement and as soon as he begins to do it, stop and reward. This way we have managed to introduce sidewards movements and turn on the forehand. Farao's flying changes are still just as lazy and heavy. The last couple of tries he only changed with the front legs. His owner probably wonders if it is all right but from experience I just keep trying occasionally, knowing that the changes always work out sooner or later. In Farao's case it is purely a matter of a very cool and calm horse with less muscles and not bothering to put in the effort because it feels like hard work. So I will just have to wait for him to get stronger. Farao is also typically uninterested in the riders leg aids. Same thing, it means work, so he does not respond very well yet. On the other hand, he can not resist his instincts, so when I carefully just tickle him on the sides in the rythm of his pace with light lower leg aids, he takes off forward anyway. This is a bit technical to do, so I'm still working on his leg response to make it easy for other riders. One day last week, the coin fell down a bit and I got a great forward free trot for about ten seconds at the end of the ride. This was in the indoor where Farao always runs out of fuel as soon as he enters it. I rewarded him a lot and wanted to establish it one more ride before giving him a rest. Lena took him out of work straight away since
he was generally tired anyway. When he was brought back to work after five days he went forward lighter and more powerful than ever. The owner and I are still discussing the reason. I believe Farao got the message the last ten seconds before the break and his owner claims it was mainly the time off that made him go so well. I took some photos of Farao being ridden before the break and I think that they already show how he is more forward than on the earlier videos.
Our young horse project "Farao" is going well still. He is very social and clever and really wants to be ridden and to learn. His body is very young for his age so the joints and muscles and all are not very strong. It s difficult when you feel that a horse could do more advanced things at a young age but has not got the physical condition to do it. The solution is often to show the horse a new movement and as soon as he begins to do it, stop and reward. This way we have managed to introduce sidewards movements and turn on the forehand. Farao's flying changes are still just as lazy and heavy. The last couple of tries he only changed with the front legs. His owner probably wonders if it is all right but from experience I just keep trying occasionally, knowing that the changes always work out sooner or later. In Farao's case it is purely a matter of a very cool and calm horse with less muscles and not bothering to put in the effort because it feels like hard work. So I will just have to wait for him to get stronger. Farao is also typically uninterested in the riders leg aids. Same thing, it means work, so he does not respond very well yet. On the other hand, he can not resist his instincts, so when I carefully just tickle him on the sides in the rythm of his pace with light lower leg aids, he takes off forward anyway. This is a bit technical to do, so I'm still working on his leg response to make it easy for other riders. One day last week, the coin fell down a bit and I got a great forward free trot for about ten seconds at the end of the ride. This was in the indoor where Farao always runs out of fuel as soon as he enters it. I rewarded him a lot and wanted to establish it one more ride before giving him a rest. Lena took him out of work straight away since
he was generally tired anyway. When he was brought back to work after five days he went forward lighter and more powerful than ever. The owner and I are still discussing the reason. I believe Farao got the message the last ten seconds before the break and his owner claims it was mainly the time off that made him go so well. I took some photos of Farao being ridden before the break and I think that they already show how he is more forward than on the earlier videos.
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