Freestyle update

After the long winter of freestyle in the snow I now get to see the results. Juliano is more relaxed in canter, we can finally do the canter-trot transition. I'm going to repeat myself, but this was very hard for us. Juliano is so forward going it is hard to convince him to canter slowly, let alone go down to trot. It's not always perfect but we are getting there fast. I also convinced Magda to ride Dum on a savvy sting for the first time in the paddock.

Best winter ever!

Day after day we have tons of fun, is this what riding is about? For us, yes! We focus mainly on freestyle and it is paying off. Snow helped us improve our walk to canter departures. We can't do much of sideways or backing up as it is to hard in the snow, but I'm sure perfecting the upward and downward transition will came in handy in spring.

Today we went on a short hack with Joanna and Magda. We managed to canter down the field in deep snow, there was no overtaking all three horses kept distance and maintained good rhythm. After the ride horses wen't for a quick roll in the snow and we went for a cup of hot coffee.

Asia and Wisełka

Magda and Dum Dum

Me and Juliano

Boys in the snow

What a day! We have snow fall everyday now, winter of a century most say. Apparently, in this part of Poland, last winter like this was over 20 years ago. Most of my friends who don't ride are sick and tired of shoveling snow but I'm filled with joy. Riding in deep snow feels like sailing or windsurfing in high waves. Yes, it is very demanding for the horse so we do short rides and we only do freestyle, but horses love it. Especially Juliano as he loves jumping up and down anyway.

I arrived at the stables just before 2PM today so got a chance to ride both horses while the sun was shining. Juliano did great, we had so much fun. I left the speed in trot and canter up to him and focused on the way we were going. He was very responsive. Slight touch on the string and he was on the right track again. I didn't have to use the stick at all today. Well, almost :P





Pressing also got a run in the snow. I had problems at first to get him going. When you are used to a horse that canters just because you think of canter it seems like a lot of pressure if you have to squeeze another horse to get trot. It took me few minutes to get the stallion going especially in the deep snow. At first we was not thinking of going at all. He wanted to dig in the snow instead. There are a lot of things I have to get used to again, from my previous years of riding, before I got J. For example, for this horse it is easier to ride with contact. You let go of the reins and he gets lost, looses his balance. He is a great horse to ride, very obedient and willing, just different.





Riding both of the lads today just made me think how much we've changed with Juliano. How different we ride now. When you sit on a "normal" horse after doing PNH for some time you realize how good your horse really got over the years. Pressing just like Juliano is a left-brain extrovert but he does not show that under rider, so for me there is this spark of own invention missing. On the other hand he is easier to control and stop than Juliano. I hope both horses had fun in the snow today, I'm sure I did!

Horsenalities

Juliano – left-brain extrovert (used to be right-brain extrovert)
Way more “go” than “whoa” not only because he used to race.


EXTROVERT features

High energy, more "go", tendency to run: As Juliano is a thoroughbred he has few hundred years of breeding to back his high energy levels. He used to be very explosive and still tends to be quite rushy when he is learning new things. His answer to all new things is: speed up, run. Now he has learned that after running he can stop and face feared thing. He is much more confident and I can see he gets curious about things and situation that could potentially have scare dhim in the past. The biggest challenge for him is to stand still.


Quick: He is quick in everything he does, whether it is getting from point A to B in the pasture, eating grass. His best friend is a left-brain introvert so it is very interesting for us to watch them in similar situations and how they react to it.

LEFT BRAIN FEATURES

Dominant: He tries to dominate every horse, big, small, stallion, mare - he thinks and acts like THE BOSS. Few years back he treated me like a private carrot dispenser. He still tries to dominate me but in more subtle way.


Pushy: Same as with dominance, he pushes geldings and mares around in the pasture. "You stand there. You! Stop eating grass". When people came with carrots to the fence J pushes all the other horses away, same thing happens when standing before the gate, he has to be first one to go to the stables.

Tolerant: He is very tolerant towards his herd. When he plays with geldings he will allow biting on the rump or hocks to some extent. He is very tolerant to my mistakes. Just the other day we were jumping with two carrots and I accidentally put a carrot stick in his face. He put his head way up but just few seconds later I could do a friendly game with the stick and I guess he understood this was not on purpose.

Unconcerned: He can sometimes go into this "I can't see you, not interested" mode when playing on the ground and things are going to slow for him. If you are not moving his feet and asking him to do different things his mind just drifts away.

Confident: This switches from confident to unconfined depending on situation. I'm happy he is much more confident now than he used to be and in new situations he tries very hard not to loose it.

Curious: He is very curious. If he is unsure about something you can see in his eyes that he is scared but at the same time wants to approach scary thing and smell it. When we go into the woods he often suggests that we choose paths we've never walked before.

Playful: At pasture he has to be everywhere at the same time. He plays with Dum one minute, next minute he is eating grass, gets bored, runs up and down the fence. Under saddle you sometimes get a feeling he is not sure what he wants, weather to canter, trot, eat grass or go sideways. On trail rides he can gallop one way, slide-stop, turn and gallop in the opposite direction, not because he got scared, he just felt like it. Funny little horse.


Smart: He learns very fast. You want him to put his leg on a pedestal, next thing you know he puts his leg on a chair and tries to balance with two front feet on a lying pole. He saw me once getting carrots out of my car, same day he run away from his stall, stood by my car ant tried to brake in. He knew exactly which car to pick from 20 others. So once he overcomes his fear issues he gets everything very fast.

Charismatic: Always the leader, most horses answer to him. He is the first one to greet the new horse in the herd. Liked by all geldings, adored by all mares.

Naughty: Oh, yes! As soon as he realizes you can't handle him he is over your head. When bored in his stall and there is a saddle or head-collar he can grab he will grab it and throw it. He undresses horses from rugs in the paddock and bites tails and manes off.

Mischievous: When he learns a new thing and is confident about it he will use it against you. When we started learning sideways he started doing beautiful half-passes toward grass. Now that he likes standing on the pedestal he wrestles with me on it when I ask him to get off. Best scenario: he will get off and than back on in few seconds when I'm not looking. He knows the rules of catching game very well. Once he run away from his pasture and wanted to play catching game in the woods. Every time I lost interest and tried to walk away he would gallop past me, stop and face me within 10 meters from me. He loves to change my games into his which makes it even more interesting for both of us.


Tendency to bite:
Not so much any more. He used to strike very often few years ago.

Mouthy: If I ignore him and leave the saddle on his door I can be sure to find saddle on the ground and saddle pad in the water bucket. If he is not out in the pasture after lunch by 3pm he grabs and throws his head-collar in front off his stall. Than he pulls down the rugs. Usually by than people who work in the stable are so annoyed that they take him out.



Willful: He knows when he is "naughty" and he does it on purpose. Sometimes you can see in his eyes that he is laughing at you.

Exuberant: He can be very exuberant, especially when he is in his stallion like mood. When playing on line or at liberty it is very easy to ask him for collected trot. He likes showing of both around horses and humans.


Friendly: He is friendly towards horses now. He used to be very aggressive but now he is friendly towards all geldings who accept his leadership. He is getting more and more friendly towards people.

Freestyle vs. polo

No day of the week is now the same for us. Trail rides, freestyle, riding with 1 or 2 carrot sticks, finesse, on-line, liberty – we mix, mix, mix to keep this playful brain oh J's busy. I'm getting better and better at surprising him with new challenges so I've decided to make our warm up time at freestyle a bit more creative. My first thought: polo! So after few hours of looking for an on-line shop with decent and affordable mallets I bought one in Argentina. Couple of days later my “weapon of choice” arrived. I was both excited and puzzled, long, much heavier than carrot stick of course. How am I going to ride with this on J? How is he going to react? I had millions of similar questions in my head on my way to see him that day.

To my surprise, Juliano was very confident around the mallet, curious at first. He tried to bite it, maybe he thought is was a carrot? When he realised he can't eat it he started to act just as it was a carrot stick with an expression on his face “No biggie, just another stick, what are we going to do with it?”

Just to be on a safe side we played a little friendly game with it and it was time to get on. We went to warm up to the woods with Joanna and Wiselka. Juliano was fine with me swinging the mallet on both sides and in front of his face. Wisełka on the other hand was very surprised. She imidetly spoted the difference and got a bit tense when I gave the mallet to Joanna.

After our unusual warm up we came back to the arena, switched the mallet back to carrot stick and tried playing with a ball and stick. We approached the ball at walk and trot with me leaning a bit to touch the ball. J was fine with that, didn't change gait and direction. I think we are now ready to try hitting the ball with the mallet. So guess what are we going to do at our next freestyle session :)