Broke To Dead

Remember my darlin' schoolie Sparky? Here he is at an HSE show in 1983. I love this picture. Yes, they left way long, and yes, he's stretching/flat-backed to clear the back rail, but they look utterly happy and confident. Look at Sparky's ears. This rider was one of my favourites. A once a week rider, more than capable, more than hard-working. She listened and learned from everything we did.

She loved to ride. It showed:)
Look at the deep healthy gleam to his coat.
(sigh)

It was wonderful reading of Nicely Dun's successes with her Dun, and I remembered correcting her impression that GoLightly was broke to death. That's exactly how Peter described him one day, but it was said admiringly, not dismissively.

I think a lot of people think of broke as boring. Somehow, less exciting. More of a challenge to ride the unbroke, or the badly broke, isn'ta? Makes for much more exciting reading/watching, that's for sure. It bores the heck out of me, of course, because all of these horse problems pretty much stem from being broke to dead.

Dead-sided, dead-mouthed, dead, emotionally. Dead to the aids. Deaf and dumb, horses become, if you rattle on them hard enough, for long enough. Any horse will build up a callous around whatever part of his unfortunate anatomy you're pounding on, including his brain.

It's a bit of a paradox, the beginnings of training. At first, all you really want is for them to go. You work on go, for a while. Leading reins, go that way. Go. Be forward, be relaxed, learn to be your own metronome, horses live to move to rhythms, anyway. Let the metronome mesmerize both of you.

Go a little faster, until the horse says, Oh, I'm tired, and then the horse discovers that the balance will still be there as he slows down. You the rider stay light on his back, out of his way. That's when bit pressure can be carefully introduced, as the horse slows down on his own. It's a positive reward, that way. Always always, a bit's pressure should be timed as a positive reward. This is crucial, in early training.

Rinse and repeat the go in all situations possible to be found, and for heavens sakes, vary what you do. Hours and miles take time. Patience. Muscles:)

Rein pressure applied harshly, early, badly, deadens your fragile connection to the horse. It's hard to re-grow those delicate nerves in the horses mouth. Trust is key.

With Mr. No-Mouth Gray, super-heavy on his forehand, expecting/leaning into the pressure, constantly, his surprise at my softer hands was palpable. I didn't WANT to hold him up. He was freakin' heavy. I had "held" up horses with my hands for years, until GoLightly explained the balancing errors I was committing.

As soon as I straightened/lightened my way of going, voila. Take the mouth of a broke-dead horse as you could a feather, AFTER a firm half-halt. Let him feel the lightest touch possible. Eventually, he'll take it, if you keep giving it to him.
Eventually. It can take a loooong time. For the truly, truly nerve-damaged, I think a side-pull and some form of extra leverage would be helpful. I never had to resort to that, but for safety reasons I can see it being a handy accessory. But only with pretty quiet hands, of course. Soft.

I saw a new soft in Sunshine's hands/arms in her latest videos she shared riding sale horses. It has everything to do (in my cranky opinion) with how much Sunshine's own "carry" of herself has improved. Sunshine looked relaxed and focused. Voila, so did the horses.
OH, except for the dirty little duck-out the draftie made. I'm glad coach nixed him.
Sunshine had just tipped her body a smitchen right, as the draftie wiggled and waggled. Sunshine corrected it well. But he didn't strike me as an honest sort, to do that. Most drafties I've known would drag you over fences, they LOVED to jump. He didn't seem to, so much. But hey, he coulda had a bad day, too.

Don't we all.

Anyway, I'm huffing and puffing on the old GoLightly light, it's flickering/sputtering, buffeted by those things in my life I cannot control.
OH, I have more incredibly exciting video of the girls!!
HUGE file, sorry, you dialer-uppers.

Any techies out there reading?? Please explain how an asian comment could get through my new word verification protocol? My computer is capable of making me feel dumber, every single day.