at the beginning of NH...

Another one is backing up with you standing still and motioning your horse back. (That's the goal anyway, but you shouldn't have to move around too much.)

One thing my trainer taught me for backing that's kind of neat: Instead of saying "back" say "sssss", or something discreet. Then the judges couldn't see her mouth moving if she used her voice. Ha ha.

I like those ideas Tiny, she's the kind of horse where once you show her something spooky(like the tarp) once, she could care less. Thank you for the not so light on my feet ideas everyone haha

The things you can do are only really limited by your imagination and maybe what’s lying around where your horse is. I use all Parelli methods of lateral lunging on all the horses I train. Once they can circle round me a couple of times in each direction nice and smooth I go off into a paddock and look for stuff to do. For example I’ll walk out with them and lunge them along beside me or in front of me, get them changing sides, so I don’t just lead them everywhere. I might find a small gully and jump them back and forth over that, then when they do that find a bigger gully; or get them running in and out of the gully. Then find fallen trees to jump over, or a dam wall to run up and down; so I might stand at the bottom of the dam and have them go up the wall and down again, make them go up and stop on top of it then come back the other way. Then I might get on top of the wall and lunge them up and over the other side, or even get them to walk though the water. Side pass along the top o the dam wall. There are all sorts of things you can do. And doing it all, at the start at least, all I use is a rope halter and a 12 foot yacht rope lead with a leather popper on it, neither are the Parelli brand, I make them myself.

Once they do all that in their sleep I start upping the challenge, years ago before I had to put horses aside for university the best lunging horses I had I’d go run in the milker calves or the night with. I’d sit on one horse and work the cattle with the other on a 40 odd foot long lead rope. That was great fun. Never did get them doing it at liberty though. Get them working like that and they will start being good horses.

Andrew, I had a chuckle when you said to do it until they are doing it in their sleep. I was doing that and then one day I got the most incredibly bored look that seemed to ask "Are we going to do that again?" I realized it was time to change it up.

Yeah, I should have probably worded it better. Getting them doing it till they get board can be as bad as letting them get pushy, what I probably should have said get them going till they are doing it without any hiccups, real smooth and with the smallest amount of stimuli

No fancy equipment needed to follow Cynthia Royal, she has a lovely calm way with horses. Worth looking into.

Claire

For $20 on can get at least a dozen downloadable videos on Cynthia Royal and how she works with her horses. Her description of horse communication was based on a story she tells. You have to work in a factory in china and the foreman, speaking his own language, tells you how to do the job. Since you haven't a clue of what he's saying he gets louder like you are a little deaf. Then when he uses hand gestures you start to figure it out. This is human horse interaction. It's more about what our body is telling them than the voice. For $20 you download the videos one at a time, they are numbered, and then save each. It can take a few hours to get them all. It's the best $20 a person could spend on working with a horse.

The other day I spent some time with Zulu just doing fun stuff. I put treats on the barrels in the arena and worked on moving him toward them (at liberty) and pointing to the place I wanted him to put his nose on. He started to get the idea; going off to check out all the barrels. He associated the treats with the barrels and not with my pointing, but one step at a time.

I dont' expect this to really carry over into riding other than that he may look at me with interest, thinking that something good will come of our time together. It's purely for our enjoyment. It's much easier to do with a halter and lead, as I can indicate where I want him to place his thought much easier that way.

You could wrap the rope around your mare's tummy and see if you can "lead" her by this, and just work on movieng the rope all around her body, her legs, things like that. Make her as non-spooky as possibe, so when you get back to riding and your body is a bit whacked out from the birth hormones (they loosen your ligamnets, especially in the pelvis) and you need to be twice as careful as before (because you have a child to raise, now) , you'll have a more reliable horse.

When is your baby due?

Our baby is due either in late July or early August, but since I'm only 4'10" I have a feeling I'll go early for the sake of my body and the possibility that because of my height I may soon be re-evaluated as a high-risk pregnancy . I love the ideas that you have Tiny, the rope one is definitely one I will be trying, and soon might I add. I have a book on bomb-proofing which will be utilized to its full extent, but again I don't have a lot of equipment. Hunny is currently at my friends small horse ranch for boarding and I have a feeling that if I build some small obstacles for she and I to go over (i.e. Bridges) and other things my friend will have me work with her horses on those obstacles as well. At least this means they won't go to waste.