Month: August 2018

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Mojo Ridden

A couple of snippets from our 2nd lesson with Sally Ede. Mojo was calm and relaxed and focused. I used my body and a slight open rein to turn. We used scratches as reinforcement and he was forward going so only a slight touch with the leg to indicate ‘yes” that is what I want.

I now want to add verbal cues to the rein cues but that will come after I get more confident riding. At the moment Mojo doesn’t seem bothered by my riding and as long as he is under his emotional threshold all is well.

I did feel a little guilty as I wanted to use more positive reinforcement in our ridden sessions but I also need to know he can be ridden  by anyone, as he will most probably out live me.

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Update on the mounting block

Well we only managed one session of training last week, but Mojo was much calmer at the top of the arena. I used the cones to settle him and get his attention away from the mirrors and scary pigeon producing hedge.
He was very good at his cone touching and then he stood at the mounting block and turned his head rather moving backwards for the reinforcement.

We did the mounting block at the top, middle and bottom of the school.

Here is a little montage of the session at the lower end of the school.Collage created using TurboCollage software from www.TurboCollage.com

Another lesson with Sally Ede on Friday 17th so hope all goes well.

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Lesson with Sally

Mojo and I had a lesson with Sally Ede – a Ride With Your Mind coach, and great confidence giver.

We worked on getting Mojo standing at the mounting block – due to me not having done much mounting block training recently he had reverted back to swing his quarters towards me. He was at his emotional threshold once we got in the school as we worked at the top end in the shade. It just goes to show how important generalisation is in our training. He hadn’t been up that end much in our training sessions.
As he was at his emotional threshold all it took was a pigeon flying out of the hedge to tip him over in to a flight response.

This a very bad video of the event, the video was too far away and I had no help to reposition.

Mojo spooking

By the end of the lesson Mojo had calmed down and was beginning to stand still and not swing round.. I managed one foot in the stirrup a couple of times and then added some weight in the stirrup. So my homework is more mounting block training and to so this in other areas of the school.

Also to remember to breathe and do my grounding exercises before and during sessions.

To this end I have written a shaping plan. I am often too lazy to write them but it is a good idea to have a written plan. Having also just complete an Advanced Animal Training course I ought to know and do better!!