Sunday 11 May 2008

Pics.........lots!

Had a brill couple of days weather perfect,neddies brill and fun with the dogs too!
Polo fullfilled his 'responsible adult' role and we had a cracking long ride out in the sun.Really brings it home how lacking in fitness and stamina AliG is as Polo's not been in work long and ive been very carefull doing everything in walk and shortish rides but he just eats up hills and powers along..you'd love him Caroline:)Poor pony was lathered when we got back to farm where as Polo was slightly damp on his neck.Gave him a bath to get out the last of the dead winter coat.
Today we took the dogs to the beach in the morning(pics to follow) then long reined AliG he was brilliant apart from grabbing gob fulls of grass whenever possible:)
He wanders and half heartedly tries to turn for home during the first 10mins but then forgets about it and walks well,thats the silly thing he really seems to enjoy being out once he gets so far.My brother was saying its like when he's going to the gym he cant be bothered at first but when he gets going he enjoys it.
We did the same loop as last time but in reverse,he was excellent going over the motorway flyover again there was a fair bit more traffic out on the roads today not that he's fazed:)
Next weekend we are going to go a bit further with more roadwork too.

Polo and Ali in the sun







Buster,Minx and Mouse enjoying the sun too....


Fun at the beach we took my Mums dogs too.The GSD Zak is Buster playmate,Buster torments the life out of him :)Plus Mums two Borders,Sky, who is Minx and Mouse's mum thus Buster's granny and Crag who totally spoilt himself by taking off across the beach to try and fight two other GSD.He's a complete thug and wants to fight anything bigger than him so is muzzled when out:))

7 comments:

Muriel said...

I love your reply on your other post.

The other strategy is for the horse to offer motivation. There is a vid of Linda P working in-hand her horse Remmer. He is in piaffe she has to use quite a bit of stick to get him going. Then she takes a cookie out, and that horse lighten up offereng piaffe steps. It is so funny to watch.

I do not like to use food with horses. I do not like clicker-training at all. Because Karen Pryor has a game called "training game", when you are the animal and a friend the clicker trainer. You have to do task unknown to you. Your trainer clicks you ONLY when you are right.
OMG I hated any minutes. I like to betold yes and no. We did with my son, he bursted into tears :o

So for me that was the end of any clicker-training, maybe with a food-orientated horse it will work. If you establish very clear boundaries.

But I do not like it.

Great photos. The dogs looke dthey had a great time :)

Nicola said...

I suppose a lot depends on the type of person you are to what technics appeal. Im probably too impatient and matter-a-fact type of person, much of it just seems a bit of a faff to be honest:))))
I know im not a good trainer but i dont see that it necessarily needs to be complicated& im ok with the get on with it common sense part .

I have toyed with clicker, have dabbled a bit with the dogs, we'll see if things dont work i may still give it a go.
Spending time at Rachel's showed me how correct,no nonsense,sensible training produces fabulous horses and thats the route i'd like to go down.
Im definately going back down in the summer:)

cptrayes said...

What lovely pics :-) An English family on the beach in summer!

Polo and Ali look like they might have been overdoing the spring grass :-)

Rachel sounds like a girl after my own heart. I watched a friend try to get her horse to back up Parelli style the other day. She was stood there shaking the lead rope at this three year old, who was staring at her looking quite amused. My horses back when I walk into their space. They back when I say "back". I don't need to shake ropes at them, why would I - far too much effort !? Why shake a rope when all you have to do is use the horse's own signal - a touch on the shoulder point? And associate that with the word, then they do it just to the word. Like you Muriel, no titbits, just the reward of being told that they are a good boy/girl.

C

Jean said...

The pups really are having fun! Looks like a grand place to play.

I agree with Caroline. The Boys do look a bit plump. (Not that I should talk.....)

All the successful training I've done is based on simple principles. "Here's the pressure, give in and it goes away." Horses seem to learn very quickly that way. Once in a while you have to adapt the "pressure" or the cue, but the reward is praise and an end to the pressure.

Kenny Harlow, a John Lyons based trainer, uses that method with truly amazing results. No fancy gear needed, no magic wands, special ropes, flags or whatever. just hands on, hands off. And no treats or clickers.

Nicola said...

I told you they were fat..AliG in particular:)
Would you believe they've wintered out had no rugs on for the last 2months and barely get fed!
Ive stripped their grazing down but wanted to create the track again which worked brilliantly for Polo last year but cant do it until the fence has been repaired.Good doers are hard work{sigh}

.///// "Here's the pressure, give in and it goes away." Horses seem to learn very quickly that way. Once in a while you have to adapt the "pressure" or the cue, but the reward is praise and an end to the pressure. /////

Thats exactly my thinking.

////the reward of being told that they are a good boy/girl.////
Yep Ali definitely knows 'good boy' now he does try and use it as an excuse to grind to a halt though:0

I know what you mean about the whole flapping of the rope thing.When I went to the Pete Ramey clinic in Yorkshire there was a LOT of Parelli people there had me in kinks.They were waggling the rope around to try and get horse's to move and the horse's just stand looking.So much easier to just ask them to move over the 'normal' way!

Im open minded to clicker training works fabulous with the dogs to get them to stand and hold in practice for showing cos they know exactly when the treat is coming.I reckon its probably an excellent tool to have fun with regarding horses but I certainly wouldnt want to become reliant on it to get my horse to do anything as I 'think' some do.But in truth im probably to lazy and impatient to put the time in for it to work anyway:))))

Claire said...

fab pics.

i used clicker successfully with Molly per getting the feet picked up without grief, which was an issue.

and Max was at John Lyons this year ... educational visit for him

Muriel said...

John Lyons had a VERY good Round-penning techniques.
I have doen it with Linda. She was coming to me on cue when she was at liberty.

JL's riding is not that particular ... just Western riding ...