So after months and months of having a horse with a giraffe neck, I now seem on my way to training a western pleasure horse. Which would be fine if I had intended to do that, and didn't want to do dressage.
I have been encouraging her to stretch her neck and lower her head by releasing contact when she does this. If she has her head high, she gets firm contact. So....she now goes around with her head low and her neck only semi-round half the time. If I allowed her to she would stretch all the way down even at a trot.
Problem being, the moment I try to take up contact, her head goes up. Of course. Because her reward for low neck is release. I created this all by myself and I didn't mean to.
At this point I'd just like to be able to get some contact again without her going all giraffe on me.
Obviously, I've made errors here. Any suggestions would be appreciated. And if you have a western pleasure horse you'd like me to half train for you by accident, feel free to send them along! ;-)
I have been encouraging her to stretch her neck and lower her head by releasing contact when she does this. If she has her head high, she gets firm contact. So....she now goes around with her head low and her neck only semi-round half the time. If I allowed her to she would stretch all the way down even at a trot.
Problem being, the moment I try to take up contact, her head goes up. Of course. Because her reward for low neck is release. I created this all by myself and I didn't mean to.
At this point I'd just like to be able to get some contact again without her going all giraffe on me.
Obviously, I've made errors here. Any suggestions would be appreciated. And if you have a western pleasure horse you'd like me to half train for you by accident, feel free to send them along! ;-)