More dance partners

This afternoon I met Jenny Eilers at the barn and she worked India in the round pen while I watched and took pictures. As I know next to nothing on starting young horses, it's fortunate that I've got Jenny around. Jenny is quite a good trainer and knows stuff. Lots of stuff. In this series of photos*, India is wearing a rope noose around her neck rather than a halter on her head. Jenny is asking her to change direction of travel.

*My new Canon Rebel SLR rocks. I can take a series of pics, which the Sony point-and-shoot couldn't do.


Here she begins asking India to turn and go the other way. Her left hand is the leading hand. It had been her right hand as that's the direction India is traveling, but to indicate that she wants a change, Jenny switched so that her left is now leading. Just a second before I took this picture, it was her right that was up high and pointing the direction of travel.


India, seeing Jenny's left hand leading, has started to turn.


India is now facing directly towards Jenny and Jenny is using her right hand as a driving hand. She's shaking the rope to tell India "keep moving!" She doesn't want her to come to a stop, which is very common.


India reads the cues: leading hand pointing left, the right, driving hand shaking the rope, she figures out that she's supposed to keep going.


And off she goes to the left!

Horses are very clued in to reading our body language. If Jenny speeds up her walk, India goes faster. If Jenny slows down or stops, India mirrors her. It might take her a moment to stop after Jenny does, but she will. If Jenny opens the triangle (Jenny at the top, India at the bottom, and the rope being one side), India will stop and turn in wondering what Jenny wants next. India "hooks on" to Jenny and takes her cues for movement from her. It's pretty cool to watch.

After watching Jenny, it was my turn. No pics as Chip the Labrador doesn't have an opposable thumb and I don't trust him with my camera. We put a rope halter and a long lead on India and Jenny coached me as I worked with India to get soft, free up her back end, cross over her legs, and think about where each of her hooves was as she moved. All this ground work leads to work under saddle. India's learning to give to pressure, she's learning not to brace her neck and pull against the rope, to cue in to the person at the end of the rope, and how to get herself unstuck should she find herself at the end of her rope (literally and figuratively).