Sunday 6th July

Day 5 with Jackie Chant

We started the session of with Q/A from yesterday one of the questions was about the horse I had watched Jackie ride yesterday afternoon. So explain why she done what she did with him and how it then got her the results she wanted. Very interesting to hear what she said about what she had done as I had watch her riding, and there was a few points I thought to myself why did she do that.. so in this session I got all the answers to my questions!

We then had a little theory on balance point and riding with fluidity, really interesting and I felt I got a lot out of this. Next we had some simulations on fluidity – brilliant!! Wow what a difference it made to the way I will now think when I’m riding!!

The rain had went of a little so we headed out to the playfield with the horses and warmed them up – Blossom’s circles and yo yo are just getting so much softer!!

Jackie then gave us a demo on lowering the head, then asking for backwards and then sideways with the head down. This should then encourage to get the horse to keep its weight on its HQ and the FQ and will make things a lot softer and better for when we come to riding.

This was really good fun and made both horse and rider really think – Blossom got the hang of this quite quickly and was soon able to back up with her head down. Sideways still needs a lot of work but that needs work still on the fence I think before I start asking for this. We could then combine it all together and ask our horses to do the sliding rock pattern as this would help us get our horses to keep there weight on their HQ.

Jackie then gave us a demo on using sideways on a circle, this will prevent horses falling in on the circle and also good for keeping there attention. Very good demo - Something I would never of thought of!!
Blossom wasn’t too sure of this task to start with and was running from the pressure instead of moving sideways. So I broke the game down for her and made the distance shorter to help gain her confidence – got some really nice circles from her once she got the idea in walk and trot!!

After lunch the rain was heavy so we done more theory, this time it was on saddles and shimming. I just got some much from this, I suppose having a pony and not being able to get a Parelli or Balance saddle makes saddling the Parelli way more difficult for me. And also because of the type of job I want Blossom to do I can’t get her a wide fitting saddle as if I bend down the chance is the saddle will slip and come with me, so not really a good idea!
We watched a part of the new saddling dvd – Wow I didn’t think a horses back could actually move so much – It makes you really think more about how your saddle fits your horse and how you ride them!! I would recommend everyone watch this dvd – mega cool and loads of info in it!
We talked about the new Parelli saddles and how they are designed to work and also the difference between the English and western saddle. We then moved on to talking about the theraflex pad and how they work and the different ways they can be shimmed to help different type of backs – Really learnt a lot from this as I suppose I have been put of buying on as I wasn’t sure if I would be able to work out how to use it correct, but they are pretty straight forward, so think I might get Blossom one.

The rain had gone off so we headed out to the playfield to ride.

Jackie then gave us a demo showing us how to use the circle then into sideways we done on the ground this morning when we are riding. Very cool – I can see how this pattern could really help Blossom to become softer, Jackie actually told me this is what she used the day she rode her to get her so soft.

Blossom was quiet bracey today, don’t think the wind and rain was helping her! Jackie seen I was having problems and came over to help me. She got me to walk round the outside of the round pen and then ask her into sideways from there so she was facing the fence. To start with I had to do 2 laps of the pen before she softened, wow I would never have thought I would have had to go for that long. Jackie stayed and watched me for a while and what we noticed was every time she soften quicker and quicker – so that was really good!

The end of the day came before we all new it, we all gathered and shared what we felt we had learnt from the 5 days mine was I have to stay at things for longer until Blossom finds relaxation. Jackie then gave us all a badge with our horses horsenality on it and we finished with a huge Savvy Clap!!