Friday 4th July

Day 3 with Jackie Chant

This morning started with Q/A from the previous day and then we moved on to talking about preparation for liberty.
1. Low Phases
2. Slack in the rope
3. Very good HQ yield
4. Established draw
5. All 7 games going well
6. Confident (at all 7 games)
7. Control of energy
8. Rapport, horse wants to be with you
9. Horse confidant at distance

Before playing at liberty we should play with the halter round the neck as a safety net and we also need to get a good balance between drive and draw.

We headed out the play field and warmed our horses up with things we have been working on for the last couple of days. Blossom felt so much better and seemed to be really connected to me – her circles started to get quite strong again, so I used the pole like Jackie had done and within minutes she was so soft and focused!

Jackie gave us a demo with a students horse starting with extreme friendly game, it was really good to watch as Jackie played friendly in all 5 zones, this horse also had some issues in zone 5 so Jackie had to do lots of approach and retreat to gain his confidence – Blossom also has issues in zone 5 so it gave me lots of new ideas and strategies to play with. Jackie then showed us smell the tail, then moved on to playing the first 3 games with only the halter round the neck and finished her demo with stick to me. Gave us loads of ideas to play with.

Me and Blossom had a great session everything went really well for us, had to use quite a lot of approach and retreat for friendly game in zone 4 and 5. But very quickly she was able to keep her feet still and allow me to play extreme friendly in those zones.

Jackie then used Blossom for a demo on Needle prep and lead by the leg – Blossom managed both of these quite easily so gave us a really good demo of what it is meant to look like. Then I had a little play with her before we finished for lunch, she was really good!

After lunch we had a theory session on Impulsion, Balancing Go and Whoa.

Impulsion Scale 1- 10 (5 being the best) Impulsion = Emotional Collection.

We discussed the difference between Extroverted Horses and Introverted Horses.

Extrovert – Consistency, Circles, Repetition, Retreat back to where relaxation lives then reapproach, Establish X (pattern, safe spot)

Introvert – Variety (add incentive/rewards), straight lines, snappy departures (online first), Establish X

We then headed out to the play field to warm the horses up to be ridden, once we felt our horses were ridden to be mounted we could mount up and work on what we learnt yesterday. Blossom was going really well and was able to maintain a steady trot for a few laps on the round pen, which was a massive improvement!! Jackie came over to see how I was getting on and I asked her if she would ride her at some point over the next few days. I have never seen anybody else ride Blossom so thought it would help me to be able to see her being ridden and maybe pick up on some new things I have never noticed with her before.
Jackie decided to use Blossom for the riding demo – Again she worked on lateral flexion, indirect and direct reins. She then moved on to showing us how to use our energy in our body to get transitions in walk, trot and canter. And then also showed us the 9 step back up from a walk. My parents then arrived to pick up Dylan, so I went away with them to get Dylan all packed to go home. Jackie continued to ride Blossom while I was away (Not sure what she done with her) But when I got back and got on her she felt amazing to ride she was so much softer than normal and listened to my body energy better than she ever has. Just shows that the proper realise does teach them to be soft. It was brilliant to watch Jackie riding her and I feel I learnt a lot from it.