Wiley is growing up fast! With a few trotting rides under his belt, it was time to try canter.
Just like when I first asked Wiley to trot under saddle, Wiley was put on the longe line. This way Wiley can focus on 1 variable of change-carrying a rider under saddle. He doesn’t have to think about too much. I am in the middle giving cues and supporting him the whole time. Once again I chose Amy for the first canter ride because she is a quiet rider that won’t lock up if Wiley should pull a baby horse stunt.
Of course Wiley has no clue about canter aids under saddle, so Amy’s aids are only a pre-cue. Wiley is taking his commands from me. I just like him to get used to the idea of the under saddle aids. Eventually, he will start cantering off the pre-cue alone. Amy will only use her legs for transition to the canter and then take them off completely (no steering with them…that comes later). Her only steering is through the reins.
When Wiley first transitions into the canter, I click him after only 2-3 strides. This lets him know that the transition was correct. It also gives him a reward before he thinks too much about what is going on. After rewarding him for the transition twice, I go ahead and let him canter a full circle or so before a reward. In his 4th canter transition under saddle, I let him canter 3 full circles before giving him a jackpot reward and ended it there. That is plenty for Wiley to think about day 1.
For those of you that asked….Here’s the Video of Wiley learning to be a real horse!
I was working on Wiley’s upward transitions in the video (both walk and trot). I am using the voice commands that Wiley already knows from ground school to help transition him to tactile leg aids under saddle. You can hear me click after the first couple of transitions to tell Wiley he is on the right path. Wiley was super good. You can probably hear the tractor in the video. It was dumping garbage into the dumpster. It didn’t bother Wiley a bit. There were also 2 workers with string trimmers whacking the weeds. Wiley looked a few times, but it didn’t bother him too much. I guess when you are a dinosaur, nothing much bothers you!
You will also notice that Wiley is throwing his shoulder in at the trot. Since this lesson is about transitions and learning to carry a rider at the trot, I am purposely ignoring the shoulder. When Wiley is more comfortable with the forward aids, I will go back and add lateral controls. He already knows them. I just need to translate the ground school aids to leg aids. I skip the lateral aids in the beginning so that the lesson is really obvious.
Also notice that Wiley can already perform a basic back up. That is something that needs no translation from ground school to under saddle. Wiley’s ground school lessons have paid off nicely.
Baby dinosaur’s big “Under Saddle” adventures are just beginning. Wiley is not quite 3, but I go so slow, that he will actually be 3 by the time he is ridden for more than a couple of minutes. I just couldn’t wait. As of today, Wiley has 4 rides under his belt. He is proving to be a pretty good little dinosaur. My entire goal is to keep each ride under the stress threshold, so Wiley is relaxed enough to do some good learning. Here’s how they went:
Ride 1: I just planned on refreshing Wiley’s memory on mounting and let him walk a bit. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned. He was fine as I mounted, and we walked around. But then, someone’s horse got loose and it ran right by the arena, dragging its lead rope behind him. Oops. Not a good way to stay under the “stress threshold.” Wiley spooked, turned and faced the horse, but that was it. He didn’t run, jump or do any dumb baby horse stuff. How great is that? Of course he had his head up in full giraffe mode. I rubbed his neck and gave him the “head down” command. He just stood quietly. I was so proud of him. He was a bit nervous after that and no good learning was going to take place, so we walked a bit and I rewarded him. Then I got off while on a good note. Not exactly the way I wanted to start him.
Ride 2: My plan was just to repeat Ride 1 but with a relaxed horse. All went well. Wiley was good. Starting to move forward off my leg and doing a bit of turning.
Ride 3: I finally remembered to bring a clicker for this ride, to reinforce the “walk on” leg command. Worked like a charm. Wiley was walking off a tactile leg cue only (no pressure needed). We walked in figure 8’s, backed a few steps and stopped to chat with a friend. Wiley was so relaxed, you would have thought he was an old trail horse. He just stood quietly while I chatted. No fussing whatsoever. I am starting to really LOVE this horse! The picture below is immediately following this ride. What you are seeing is pure relaxation. He worked for all of about 5 minutes entirely at the walk, so he isn’t tired, and he didn’t have to pee. He was just THAT relaxed (this is normal behavior for a clicker trained gelding . They are so relaxed, they almost look drugged). I just got off, tossed the reins over the fence and took the picture. This is the “look” I want to see before moving on to the next lesson.
Wiley’s 3rd ride. Clicker training for the walk transition. 5 minutes of work and Wiley is TOTALLY relaxed!
Ride 4: Today is trot day. I like to start the trotting (or cantering) part really slowly. This is where “stuff” can happen. The added speed can sometimes stress a horse. I tacked Wiley up and put him on the lunge line. After a quick warm up, it was time to bring in my friend Amy. Amy has a great seat, and I trust she won’t lock up on Wiley if he should get nervous. Since Wiley is well trained on the lunge, the only added variable will be a rider on his back. He doesn’t have to think about much except carrying some extra weight. Amy used a tactile leg cue to ask Wiley to walk. I supported her with the lunge whip. Trotting went the same way. Amy pre-cued with a tactile leg aid and a voice command. Then, I supported her aids, by bringing the whip up to horizontal position (Wiley’s cue to trot). He trotted immediately. I clicked as soon as he transitioned. I gave Wiley a reward and repeated the process. After a few transitions, I waited longer before the click, eventually having Wiley trot the entire 20 meter circle. Wiley was perfect. No fuss. His body was relaxed. Most people would never know it was Wiley’s first ever trot under saddle. But I could tell Wiley’s mind was “processing” the lesson because he wanted to chew on the bit and reins when we were done. This is how he shows his mild anxiety. We will stay with this lesson until Wiley has fully processed it, and I start to get the “look.” It could take awhile, but Wiley will let me know when he is ready to move on.
Here is the last step before Wiley learns to jump mini courses! Wiley can:
jump a single pole on command
be “sent”down a line of jumps
be “recalled” down a line of jumps
These are all the basics of free jumping a course. I have started adding some energy to the process as well. Wiley is starting to offer the trot for both the “send” and “recall.” Of course the “jumps” are only poles. I don’t raise the jumps until the horse totally comprehends the idea of jumping courses at liberty. Even then, the jumps are just gradually raised. Wiley is only 2 in this video, so he won’t be jumping any big fences soon, but he can learn the concept! My next step will be to create mini courses out of poles and teach Wiley how to learn the different courses. Even though I can’t ride the baby dinosaur yet, I can still have tons of fun with him….and bond a little in the process!
It’s always fun to look up the ancestry of your horse. And, let’s just say I hope Wiley’s isn’t providing a hint to his future. Oh sure it was full of cool stuff like tracing him back to the Godolphin and Darley Arabians. And, Wiley’s sire line is full of historic UK thoroughbreds like Hambletonian (the racer not the trotter), Eclipse (the 1700’s undefeated Tbred). But it is the lesser known names that concern me. In the 1700s, horse names tended to be very descriptive. There are a lot of names like Darcy’s Yellow Turk, Darcy’s White Turk and even Miss Darcy’s Pet Mare. So imagine my surprise when I discovered names like Clumsey, Clubfoot, SoreHeels, and Sister to SoreHeels throughout Wiley’s dam side. My personal favorite name, however, goes to Sister of Country Wench. I am hoping that this is a preservation of 1700’s humor and not a hint at what kind of quality they were breeding back in the day!
Del Mar Horse Girl 