Adventures with Ginger

[KelseyBoxer]

Keep up the good work Ginger! I had an Quarter horse when I was in 4H. (30 years ago).
He was off the race track and had the most stubborn streak about taking up the right lead. I only showed him in the local fair but what a sweet boy!

 

[Chiknoodle]

Hello! As some horse people on here may know, I've been helping train a mare at my barn, and I thought it'd be fun to start a thread about her to log her training as well as milestones with her. If people also want to talk about their own horses/training experiences, please do!

Ginger is a big (16.1 hands!) 6yo Thoroughbred who was supposed to be a racehorse but she didn't make the cut, lol. She's pretty lazy and laid back so I can imagine why she didn't make it. It's a bit of a long story of how my trainer got her, but basically someone bought Ginger and began to board her at our barn, but through a series of events she decided to sell/give (I don't know the details) Ginger to my trainer as a lesson horse. They were a beginner at horses and Ginger was green so that was a part of the factors leading up to it.

Anyways, no one else had the time or wanted to work with her, so around our winter camp since all the other lesson horses were being used (I only take lessons/help out at the barn) I began to! I've been working with her for around 2 months. Ginger was broken to ride, she just didn't know how to do anything really. She will be leased out in another week or so, but I plan to keep working with her around the other girl's schedule. (It's a half lease)

Right now in her training I've been focusing on the basics, although I do ride her western and I hope to get into some trail stuff with her at some point. I know the girl leasing her wants to teach her to jump, so I think that will be good for Ginger too! She's already shaping into a lovely all-around horse for my trainer.
View attachment 2562183

She is SO pretty!

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Keep up the good work Ginger! I had an Quarter horse when I was in 4H. (30 years ago).
He was off the race track and had the most stubborn streak about taking up the right lead. I only showed him in the local fair but what a sweet boy!

Thank you!

And how cool! Ginger's biggest problem about the lead is that she just doesn't really have the muscle/strength for that side yet, so it's uncomfortable for her. Hopefully she won't be always this stubborn about it.

She is SO pretty!

Thank you!!!

 

[littledog]

Ginger's biggest problem about the lead is that she just doesn't really have the muscle/strength for that side yet, so it's uncomfortable for her.

Agree with you and your instructor there! Barring an injury or something, that's almost always what it is. They're right or left-handed just like us, and their muscle-memory makes one lead more comfortable/familiar than the other, especially when they're not at top fitness.

I'm sure your instructor knows more than me, plus she has Ginger right in front of her and can tell what to do for her, but here's a couple things that have helped me when a horse has a hard time picking up the correct lead on their weak side:

1. Say you're going around in a circle to the right, you ask for the canter, and she is obedient, except she picks up her left lead.

Instead of bringing her back to the trot and asking her again, just praise her for cantering and let her keep cantering on the wrong lead, but gradually make the circle smaller until it becomes more comfortable for her to change leads, than it is to continue on the wrong lead (make sure when you do this, to keep your own weight completely centered, so that it's her own balance that makes her want to change leads.) When she changes, praise her A LOT, keep sending her forward, and gradually make the circle bigger again, until she can canter a few circles in the correct lead. The first few times, she might break to the trot or go into a cross-canter (front legs on one lead, rears on the other) but this is only because it feels awkward for her. Keep repeating the exercise, as long as she's not tired.

This way, she doesn't become frustrated, thinking, "you asked me to canter and I'm cantering, but you're acting like I'm doing something wrong, I don't get it!" Because "going forward" is always the right answer, even though going forward on the wrong lead is not the perfect answer, you want to reward her for trying.

2. Once she is capable of cantering circles on the correct lead, even though you might still have to get it by starting off on the wrong lead and shrinking the circle, she's developed some muscle-memory of cantering on the correct lead and it won't feel as awkward to her.

Now you can start working on getting the right lead in the trot-to-canter transition. This takes some perfect timing - ask for the right-lead canter when she's heading for the corner of the arena (kind of faking the "smaller circle" exercise) and ask for it when you would normally be sitting your post (I have to keep counting "up-down" to myself, even though I've actually quit posting a stride or two earlier to ask for the half-halt) so that her rear outside foot will be the one to push off into the canter.

Sorry this ended up so long, but hope it helps a bit. Ginger is a lovely horse, and you're making amazing progress with her.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Agree with you and your instructor there! Barring an injury or something, that's almost always what it is. They're right or left-handed just like us, and their muscle-memory makes one lead more comfortable/familiar than the other, especially when they're not at top fitness.

I'm sure your instructor knows more than me, plus she has Ginger right in front of her and can tell what to do for her, but here's a couple things that have helped me when a horse has a hard time picking up the correct lead on their weak side:

1. Say you're going around in a circle to the right, you ask for the canter, and she is obedient, except she picks up her left lead.

Instead of bringing her back to the trot and asking her again, just praise her for cantering and let her keep cantering on the wrong lead, but gradually make the circle smaller until it becomes more comfortable for her to change leads, than it is to continue on the wrong lead (make sure when you do this, to keep your own weight completely centered, so that it's her own balance that makes her want to change leads.) When she changes, praise her A LOT, keep sending her forward, and gradually make the circle bigger again, until she can canter a few circles in the correct lead. The first few times, she might break to the trot or go into a cross-canter (front legs on one lead, rears on the other) but this is only because it feels awkward for her. Keep repeating the exercise, as long as she's not tired.

This way, she doesn't become frustrated, thinking, "you asked me to canter and I'm cantering, but you're acting like I'm doing something wrong, I don't get it!" Because "going forward" is always the right answer, even though going forward on the wrong lead is not the perfect answer, you want to reward her for trying.

2. Once she is capable of cantering circles on the correct lead, even though you might still have to get it by starting off on the wrong lead and shrinking the circle, she's developed some muscle-memory of cantering on the correct lead and it won't feel as awkward to her.

Now you can start working on getting the right lead in the trot-to-canter transition. This takes some perfect timing - ask for the right-lead canter when she's heading for the corner of the arena (kind of faking the "smaller circle" exercise) and ask for it when you would normally be sitting your post (I have to keep counting "up-down" to myself, even though I've actually quit posting a stride or two earlier to ask for the half-halt) so that her rear outside foot will be the one to push off into the canter.

Sorry this ended up so long, but hope it helps a bit. Ginger is a lovely horse, and you're making amazing progress with her.

This is extremely helpful, thank you!! It is similar to what my trainer has been having me doing, and hey, I'm always willing to try new things since she seems to figure out one way then learn a way around it, lol.

What I typically do with her now is turn her in a circle at a walk or trot then go in a straight line at the fence, then 'jerk' her to the right to try to make her suddenly pick up her lead. We've also tried just doing it in a circle, or doing it off the rail, but she's figured out all of those tricks and has gotten pretty resistant about even picking up the canter, so we've been trying to do different things instead of those. The one thing my trainer had me doing was canter her over a pole to make her switch without her realizing, but she's already figured out how to go over it without switching her lead. The last ride I had with her last Thursday I just mostly got her to canter on the wrong lead to at least get her cantering, like I was saying in my other post.

Because like you said, and my trainer has said this too, I don't want to frustrate/confuse her about cantering so after trying to get her to switch we always have her at least canter that direction to show her it's what we want.

I really like your circle method, though! I will certainly try it tonight unless my trainer asks me to try something different, though I should be able to. The biggest problem I see is that she may refuse to pick up the lead at all or break into a trot and refuse to canter, but we'll see. I may just need to focus on getting her to just canter to the right even if it's on the wrong lead and focus less on working on her getting to pick up the lead, since she's gotten pretty stubborn about it at times. Because the less I work on it, the less she refuses or gets annoyed about simply cantering, and it could just take a few rides to 'give her a break' before really focusing on it again to keep her from going sour and having a better attitude about it.

Thanks so much!

 

[littledog]

Can you longe her in both directions at the canter? I'm curious if she picks up her leads with no weight on her back.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Can you longe her in both directions at the canter? I'm curious if she picks up her leads with no weight on her back.

You know, I never thought of this. I could probably lunge her, although I heard she doesn't really like it. I believe her old owner would 'lunge' her (I have no idea what she did though, from what I saw it looked like she just had her run around) but I've never tried. I can ask my trainer about it possibly, though.

She's been doing a bit better about her lead this week, which I'm glad about! I took her over a pole on Monday, and since it was set up in a straight line and not a circle I don't think Ginger was really thinking about it, since I asked her to canter on the wrong lead and then actually got her to switch going over that pole. Again today my trainer had me working on turning her in a big circle over poles at an angle (of the turn), since apparently the girl who is trial-leasing her was doing that yesterday and was actually getting her to pick up her lead, although she kept breaking apparently.

Today she was very stubborn and was refusing to even go over the poles at one point, but I finally got her to somehow switch her lead but I didn't realize it and went to go over the pole and she broke into a trot. (Well, it was more like race straight toward the fence going sideways since miss Ginger didn't want to go to the right and then turn away at the last second )

I know the circle trick works, but I really wonder how she'll do again tomorrow if I set up the pole along a straight line like Monday where I don't canter her in half the ring, but the whole ring. It's easier on me certainly because I am not in shape and got quite winded today Because if I'm being entirely honest, she knows exactly what we are doing cantering a circle in that direction, and changing it up seems like a good way to get her mind off of actually switching her lead and going sour. But I'll see if my theory is more solid tomorrow once I've tried it a second time! Plus I think we were both getting very tired and frustrated about it today and it'll be less work for both of us to simply canter around the ring and swing in a bit to go over a pole in a straight line, at least once to change things up like I've said.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Quick post before getting back to homework lol:

Had another good week with Ginger. She's been doing amazing with her feet and has hardly danced around when I go to pick and treat them. She's never tried the backing up trick again either, which I'm glad aha. The only problem she has given me this week is that she tried to kick me the other day and when I slapped her for it she decided to just leave the wash rack (the very reason why we don't actually tie her down!) but I got her back in them and we finished on a good note.

It's been a bit of a roller coaster with getting her to pick up her lead, as ya'll can see with my last few posts lol. Today she was doing pretty good, but I kind of failed on my part because I'm still not very great at telling which lead she's on all the time A small part of the problem is her mane is so long it'll cover her shoulder, so I may try braiding it for the next ride to get it out of the way.

Overall very happy how she's been doing! Poles haven't been an issue and on Wednesday we were even doing little mini jumps over a raised pole which was fun. Apparently another problem she has with other people in lessons is that she'll cut out of circles, so I've been working on a lot of circles and leg pressure this week, and she's been doing pretty good!

 

[littledog]

Sounds like you're making good progress! What you're doing by trotting circles and keeping her balanced by not allowing her to cut in, is helping her develop fitness in both directions which will help her canter leads in time.

set up the pole along a straight line like Monday where I don't canter her in half the ring, but the whole ring.

She sounds like an intelligent mare who anticipates what you're going to do and plans out how she's going to evade it! What you're doing with poles is a good idea - if she takes the correct lead (at least most of the time) over a pole, switch around where you put the pole so she can't anticipate it.
I wouldn't worry about her mane - trying to look at her shoulders to check your lead just encourages you to look down, which affects her balance. Try to train yourself to feel the lead - I know, not so easy to do when her leads are all over the place - just let her canter while you're looking up and towards the direction you want to go, keeping your weight centered. Cantering the whole arena like you've been doing, helps develop her fitness and keeps her from becoming sour, good job!

Here's another hint that has helped me, with my very own Mr. Grumpy who hates the wash rack and sometimes gets kicky when doing his flanks or rear legs: I grab his tail and pull it towards the side I'm on, so his weight is on the leg near me and he can't kick with that leg. He lets out a big sigh and gives up, LOL.

 

[riss]

My goodness what a beautiful horse! She is just gorgeous