Today I decided to get a little wild and go into the barn in town to ride Doc. Horses usually get nervous in new places so as a young horse it is smart for the trainer to take them all over and get them used to new scary things. The barn also has a round pen, so I was able to “bit down’’ doc. This looks like it really hurts him, unless you understand it. In the process of biting down, I tie the reins snug from his mouth to the saddle. It creates a little pull motion when he moves. This teaches Doc that when I do this with my reins I want him to get his head down, raise his back, and drive with his hind legs. This is called collecting it helps him move better and faster. As you can see Doc do in the video, he opens his mouth to try and ‘escape the bit’ or he opens his mouth the keep his head up higher. Eventually he realizes this is harder and lowers his head. You can also see that when I stop Doc he backs up. This is so desirable. He felt the pressure and backed up just as I would want him to do with me on his back. I do this in a round pen on the ground, because being on a horse's back while they are learning this is not always safe. Some horses really take time to learn what this means and they fight it. I don’t want to add to that fight by being on the horse's back.
After I worked in the round pen, I got oh his back and did a little collecting there to finish my day. My dad was at work and my brother was not in town, so I did the best I could to video the process for them to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment