Dahli and me

[magical thyme]

I've raised her since she was 18 months old, so pretty much everything she knows is what I taught her. This video is from 2013, when she'd had about 4 months under saddle.

&feature=player_embedded

[elleng]

1. Good work you 2 have done, magical thyme!

[magical thyme]

2. thanks! now that I've done a practice video

I'm hoping to put together a demo video of low level exercises and dressage movements next summer, along with following Maizie's training.

Maizie will be interesting: she's 8 years old and done nothing, other than she does stand reasonably well for farrier (me) and probably for vet as well, and sort of leads unless she doesn't want to go where you want her to go, and then she backs. Her first few days here she wouldn't even let me touch her. She didn't know what carrots were, either. She finally got interested last week when she heard Dahli crunching. I slice them into mint-sized rounds -- she couldn't figure out how to eat the first one and kept dropping it, lol.

[elleng]

3. Will be good to hear of Maizie's lessons.

Imagine, a horse who has to be TAUGHT to eat carrots!!!

[livetohike]

4. This is so cool! In just four months? Good job!

Looking forward to seeing more .

[magical thyme]

7. well, 4 months under saddle after loads and loads of preparation

off and on for a couple years, lol!

thanks!

[Curmudgeoness]

5. She must be very smart

to have learned so much in 4 months with no prior training in all those years. She looks great.

Next time you do a video, watch the angle of the camera with the sunlight. This was difficult to see well. I look forward to seeing her progress.

[magical thyme]

6. I gave her tons of groundwork prior to backing...

I've had her since she was 18 months. I started her groundwork, beyond leading and general handling, when she was 3, but I wasn't able to back her for a few years because life kept getting in the way. So she was introduced to tack, lunged, and ground driven off and on for a couple years before I backed her. As a result, she already had basic steering, voice commands, knew to go forward from a touch of the whip. It really pays off to take the time in the beginning to give a solid foundation. The hardest thing about backing her was her combination of sensitivity, reactiveness, high energy and fear hidden behind bravado.

She is very smart, though, like most arabs. She learns as much during her downtime as when we are working. So she moved very easily from direct reining to indirect, and I can see from comparing this video to one I made a year later how much her balance was already improving under the weight of a rider.

I'm aware of the camera position and sun issues -- I really had just videotaped to get a look at my position and seat to see what I needed to work on. Because my pasture/arena is a work in progress I didn't have much choice on which end to stick the camera, and time of day was determined by getting chores done plus least buggy time of day. I think I'll finally be able to use the other end this year to keep the sun behind the camera.