This was one of the earliest mornings we were able to get to the barn. Unfortunately it was also one of the hottest days of the year in what has been a very hot year. Still, we had a good ride. Recently Robin and I had watched Martin Black’s video, The Hackamore. Martin is one… Read more »
Martin Black
A Hackamore Horse?
We’ve had Martin Black’s “The Hackamore” DVD sitting around for weeks, but fresh on the heels of the Buck clinic, we felt we had enough new ideas about riding in the snaffle to keep us busy for a while. I feel like when I have these intense periods of learning, I need some time to… Read more »
Warning: Horse Will Make You Ride
I couldn’t think of a title for this post, so I found an online generator to do the job. It was a little damp and chilly today and we were tired. It’s so easy not to go to the barn after a long week at work. But we rallied and headed out. We tromped out… Read more »
Thinking in Circles
After our excellent ride in the indoor arena, today we had another beautiful day that just begged us to head out and about. We decided to start with some work on the strip and then do some meandering over on the second strip and the three hills. Somehow yesterday Brian and I started discussing circles,… Read more »
Doubling
I’ve continued to read through Martin Black’s book, and I spent quite a bit of time reading about doubling. I’ve encountered it before in his work and by others, but I never fully took the time to understand how it works. I’m certain I haven’t got it all down just yet, but today I put… Read more »
A Quiet Indoor Ride
Last night I was reading through a little bit of Cow-Horse Confidence by Martin Black. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I might have found just what I needed to read. I ended up reading a section on balancing with the horse, and of course in that section Black was constantly talking about… Read more »
Slow and Steady
I don’t mean that we didn’t go fast at all, but rather I focused on keeping things more systematic. So that if anything did start to not go so well, I could easily slow down and work out the problems. After thinking more about my last ride, reading some things, and talking to Robin (it… Read more »
Too Much?
We were about 10 minutes into yesterday’s ride and I was wondering if I had been doing too much lately. It was only about a week and a half ago that I started riding quite consistently again. Those rides were on the easy and short side, and Bear seemed to respond well to them. Then… Read more »
Stopping from the Lope
We’ve had mucky weather and Saturday was so wet and chilly it just wasn’t worth a barn trip. I stayed home and wasted a ridiculous amount of time creating, raising and training a digital version of Steen instead of hanging out with my real horse. I guess turning 30 didn’t entirely break me of my compulsion… Read more »
Soft Feel, At the Walk!
This one has been eluding us for some weeks. Actually, a couple months. Shortly after the clinic when I started getting the soft feel consistently while we were standing, I started asking for it at the walk. And never getting it. I kept it up for some time, but I just don’t think I was… Read more »