This is part of something Pat says all the time. "Our job {referring to himself and Linda} is information and inspiration. Your job {the students} is dedication and perspiration." I watched my January Savvy Club DVD last night which gave me alot of both. It was an hour and a half of highlights from the Performance Summit that was held this past September in Pagosa. The same amazing campus that I'll be heading to in just a few months (!!!). Pat and several of his top students and/or proteges showed how you can make Patterns provocative whether riding Western or English. During this, he talked about a couple of Patterns that are underdone by students: Follow the Rail and Circles. "Everyday for a week I had a group of 8 riders Follow the Rail, and thats it... at the end of the week they said, 'we're going back to New Zealand, Australia, etc. and our students will do this. We get it.' " And about circles, "my horses do 40 laps... at a canter... with me at neutral, not doing anything, whether On Line or at Liberty." WHOA! Hearing that and watching not only what is possible with Patterns but that Pat expects a certain level of competence when students ride with him got a fire under my butt to really get going, and being consistent with them 7 days in a row. "Consistency is a great teacher, but variety is the spice of life."
So today I went out and had the plan to Follow the Rail for an hour. Not be out there for around an hour and kinda mosey through it, but to really be particular with Maliki. I noticed that our Liberty is getting much better than it was a couple weeks ago and he acted like a partner when I needed to get on him.
I set my alarm and we were off. At a walk. 'High in the corners, turn with all my "eyes", only use the rein when he comes off- make it a game of "don't make me use my rein" and add some variety (direction, speed, stops)'. All that was going through my head while riding in the small pasture. As well as the thought that I need to chop off half of a sticker bush that I kept getting caught on. Something I figured too, is that I've kinda left Maliki off easy lately. I've not really pushed him to be better or do more, like I know he can. Hmmm, sounds kinda like how my parents, or God, treat me sometimes... So I wasn't about to let him outmaneuver me when he thought he was "done". The first day of doing this Pattern seriously didn't go great, but it wasn't awful either. 1 day down, 6 more to go. Then I'll be on to the other ones; slowly adding til he knows em all. After that I can mix em up and keep him guessing and adding more Finesse or detail to them.
I did find out that we'll need to work on his confidence with gates and that if something is found to be out of order, fix it! Leave the task, Pattern, whatever, and fix the game. His issue was with the Porcupine. He wasn't following a light phase and then when I got firmer he became less confident, so I backed him of the rail and played with pushing his fore and hind end over and going sideways til his confidence was back and he easily understood. I had him walk over to a wood flat, the kind sod are stacked on, and asked him to stand it with his hind feet. Still working of all 4 feet at the same time, but he did do front and back. Then with him standing at the fence I took the halter off from his back and undid the bareback pad while up there too. I can't wait for the day I can do that and then ride with him free like that. *Insert daydream sigh here.* ;)
So I have alot more perspiring to do, but "success is 90% perspiration and 10% luck, spelled w-o-r-k."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment