balance wrap video

http://www.horsehero.com/13908/75601

I recently received this link from one of my distant students and was delighted to see it. In it the young horse is wearing a band fastened to the saddle that goes around the base of the neck. I have never seen this equipment used in this way other than in TTEAM clinics.

I have been using this technique for many years and have seen it help horses who are heavy on the forehand lighten up, horses who don’t have good balance rebalance themselves, and help improve the halt with horses who push through the rein.

The band in the video can easily be reproduced by buying a heavy duty elastic bandage and simply tying it to the rings at the front of the saddle. It will give the horse a new awareness of it’s body, will support it’s neck and shoulders, and help it lighten up. Although it cannot be worn in competition, it can change the horse’s habitual posture and movement enough that it will become unnecessary most of the time, and can easily be put back on during training sessions to remind the horse.

The next step is the balance rein. It can be more effective because it is not elastic, and the tension and support are controlled by the rider. This gives more options, but also requires that the rider be able to successfully control two reins in order to choose when to apply pressure with the balance rein.

I highly recommend that you watch the video and experiment with the balance wrap. Whether your horse is high headed, or heavy on the forehand or, even both at the same time, using it a few times is likely to cause improvement.

I love it because it is another tool which can help our horses do their work in greater comfort and balance.

Nenemi reminds me to deviate

I just returned from a fabulous week teaching at a Starting Young Horses Clinic with Linda Tellington Jones and her sister Robyn Hood. The horses at Bitteroot guest ranch are all started using Tellington Method- TTEAM training during these week long clinics.

As one of the teachers working with small groups under Linda and supervision I was assigned to a 3 year old quarter horse mare Nenemi and her students for a couple of days. Our task was to try to prepare Nenemi for being saddled for the first time. We were at a point where we wanted to begin the process of ground driving to help her learn to respond to signals and to improve her balance. As we moved forward with the next step, we went into a round pen to work with ehr and her anxiety mounted. I was "on a mission" to continue and she reached a point where she reared up. We immediately released pressure and took her out of the situation and backed up a step, ending by soothing her and asking her for an easier task.

That night at our debreifing I realized that I had felt pressured by the situation to continue within a time frame towards saddling. The next day I decided to deviate from my"goal" and my "system" and took Nenemi in the catch pen again with my students. At the beginning she could not stand still and was looking everywhere else, not present, not wanting to be with us, nipping, barging and leaning on her handler. Instead of taking up with the previous day's lesson we did bodywork and balancing work. By the end of our session she was standing quietly and totally present. She had stopped nipping and leaning on us, and walked quietly on the lead to pasture with the rest of the horses.

At "graduation" ceremony for the horses next day, which is a walk across a one lane wooden bridge over the raging Wind River, Nenemi successfully walked quietly beside her handler without leaning, freezing, blowing up, or nipping. Great progress! My lesson learned was don't escalate. Deviate!