Small successes

Chippers1

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Just thought I'd start a thread to celebrate the little successes we all have but maybe don't want to start a while thread about it! (And my boyfriend doesn't want to hear any more 😅)

I'll start...today for the first time I did a transition from trot to halt using only my seat! That probably doesn't sound to impressive but when I got him 18 months ago, although not unschooled, he was lazy and hadn't had to work properly pretty much since he was broken...probably 5 years or so, he wouldn't leg yield and was quite unbalanced etc so it's been a long process but so pleased!

Ooo and we did his first asked for flying change the other day too 😄
He's brilliant 🙂

Feel free to add yours
 

Bernster

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Hey, sometimes it’s those ‘small’ moments that are the best. And can be the hardest to really master. I’m still working on nailing transitions up and down but it’s a lovely feeling when they go right.
 

milliepops

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Lovely idea for a thread 😄
Today's achievements are at funny ends of the spectrum. Kira managed some on the spot piaffe steps with her bum down and her back soft 😎 quite a big thing for us.
Salty managed to come in from the field like a grown up horse with no attempts to knob off or ridiculous spooking 🤣 like you say, it's the little things...
 

Wheels

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Brill idea for a thread.

Lightbulb moment for us this morning - I've been struggling for a while to increase the quality of M's shoulder in - he just wasn't stepping through quite enough with his inside hind. So this morning we tried a different method of renvers on a circle, carry on a few steps renvers straight to get a good step over and then change bend. That really clicked for him and I think will give us some good improvements
 

Denbob

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I love this thread already!

New instructor last night and she triggered something of a lightbulb moment when she got on Denzel and pointed out that I've been a bit relaxed (understatement of the century) with establishing a proper contact, I got back on and within minutes he was starting to push from behind and drop into a contact, something I've never managed to achieve on my own. It was inconsistent and bitty, but for a first lesson there was a real feeling of "wow he really is something a little bit special" when it went right.

Very pleased with baby pony!
 

SpringArising

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My young horse was a bit fidgety and tense at the mountain block (only had him a few weeks), so for a few weeks I've been teaching him that he only gets a treat if he lines himself up perfectly for me to get on and stands like a rock. He will now move himself to which ever way I'm standing just by me pointing in that direction, and then wait for me to get on.

When we had finished the exercise last night, I got off the block, walked over to my phone and he followed me. When I was looking at my phone he took himself off to the block on his own accord (about 15m away) and lined himself up! I love the moments when the penny drops for them.
 

Fiona

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Super thread chippers :) and well done everyone who has had a tiny breakthrough this week....

Mine is that Fionn and I jumped (grids) before work this morning, which was great as we had a horrid experience at our XC lesson last Sat and I was worried that he would be careful or backward, but he was his normal happy self.

I can approach our second lesson now tomorrow with a much better mindset....

Fiona
 

ApolloStorm

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Start with something meaningless, I managed to NOT get a shock from the electric today.
But on wednesday took nutter out for a little walk hack since he came back from the woman who turned him into a nervous wreck, he was a little tense to start but once he got going he settled and was fine apart from wanting to go for a gallop up the grass verge!
 

HufflyPuffly

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Lovely thread idea :)

Mine this week have been getting Topaz soft through her transitions in her jaw and neck, I'd not noticed she was blocking me until I had a lesson with someone new. As he rightly pointed out that 'block' or her dropping me was what the issue with the changes are. Last night I set to putting it all into action and we managed some very clean feeling right changes!

Skylla has nailed half-pass, she initially had been quite upset about travers but suddenly it's all clicked, she is such a teachers pet at the moment which is so nice after the stroppy five year old stage!
 

Wimbles

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I had to have some time off work being poorly and whilst I was off I watched some of the Tristan Tucker episodes, not someone that I had ever heard of previously.

Ever since my accident I struggle with getting on, in fact it is by far the most tense part of every ride I have.

Not feeling well enough to ride one day, I introduced some of the principles that I had seen on the TV to my new mare. She's mainly pretty amazing but is rubbish at standing at the block and walks off as soon as my ample behind hits the saddle!

Within the hour I had her lining herself up and standing whilst I lent all over her. Now I'm back riding it's amazing that this still works and she even did it away at a clinic last weekend. It gave me a timely reminder that instead of just moaning about something, if you take the time to teach your horse then you WILL get results.
 

rosiesowner

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I like this thread! Small success for Chill and I is the much improved walk! It's still not the best but the thing is that she will now walk, which she wouldn't before. If we'd had a trot or canter she'd walk five strides max then jog. So to have no jogging is marvellous!! *touches wood so that she won't go back to her jogging ways*
 

Fiona

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I had to have some time off work being poorly and whilst I was off I watched some of the Tristan Tucker episodes, not someone that I had ever heard of previously.

Ever since my accident I struggle with getting on, in fact it is by far the most tense part of every ride I have.

Not feeling well enough to ride one day, I introduced some of the principles that I had seen on the TV to my new mare. She's mainly pretty amazing but is rubbish at standing at the block and walks off as soon as my ample behind hits the saddle!

Within the hour I had her lining herself up and standing whilst I lent all over her. Now I'm back riding it's amazing that this still works and she even did it away at a clinic last weekend. It gave me a timely reminder that instead of just moaning about something, if you take the time to teach your horse then you WILL get results.

That sounds amazing Wimbles

My hubby has always let his mare walk away from the block as soon as his bum hits the saddle, unfortunately now he has a v poorly hip and getting on takes about 5 min and is v v slow.

Of course she still walks away, which hurts him.

FIona
 

JFTDWS

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My mare is back to being her chilled, charming self to hack - which is nice after a little post yard move blip - and we've been upping the miles a bit this week. She's also getting more consistent taking a bit of a contact and working less like a feral polo pony. Ponies have also been having fun out hacking, though that's not a new success.

I totally agree about teaching horses to stand for mounting. My mare edges round to line up for mounting wherever we are - even when I mount up from the back of my land rover at competitions (which is a feat with a trailer hitched up!), and stands like a rock. It's probably the most useful thing I've taught her!
 

Wimbles

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That sounds amazing Wimbles

My hubby has always let his mare walk away from the block as soon as his bum hits the saddle, unfortunately now he has a v poorly hip and getting on takes about 5 min and is v v slow.

Of course she still walks away, which hurts him.

FIona

It might be worth watching some of the TT stuff? I've never knowingly done any natural horsemanship before but what he was showing seemed to make sense in the fact that he tells the horse where not to be, rather than where to be so it's a conscious decision by the horse. No-one was more surprised than me when it actually worked!!
 

Denbob

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Bringing this thread back to squeak about how today baby Denzel finally plucked up the courage to go in front over the scary bridge, AND we did two gates! In front! With rein back and turn on the forehand and everything!

For a horse who wouldn't lead on a hack 6 months ago let alone walk past a nappy horse to open a gate with his ears pricked and not having him think backwards for a second I'm so pleased and have been walking on air ever since. Baby steps all the time. Merry Christmas all! :)
 

blitznbobs

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I went to the trampoline park with the kids and didn’t break any bones... actually I didn’t realise the standard behaviour was for the kids to play and the adults to sit on a bench staring at their phones... still I think I had more fun and I know I got a better work out than they did...

Horse wise Henry managed a whole circle in rhythm yesterday... so that was nice ... now for the other rein!
 

Leo Walker

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Bobbie is the dirtiest, soggiest pony in the field. Does that count? Otherwise I am thrilled to note just one small tear in the Optimo. She literally shredded the PE rug into strips!

48405706_10156200085938667_2763976154086899712_n.jpg
 

SEL

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I think Militaire can match Bobbi for mud LW!

We had a shocking start to a solo back yesterday when someone decided to rev up a sports car sending us bolting for home. Today's little success was going back to the spot it happened with OH as onground wingman - pony behaved like an angel. Phew!!
 

melbournesunrise

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I've had a lot of small successes in the 19 months I've owned my boy - and it's really nice to read all of yours and realise that I've had some of the same ones.

Today, our success was that he led a hack for the first (scariest!) half, on the buckle pretty much the entire way without a single spook, and was the only horse sensible enough to walk past some terrifying logs... the other riders were on young horses, so it wasn't that he would walk past them that was the success. Simply that he would never have been considered sensible enough to be the horse to do it before I got him!
 

Red-1

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I have had some other stuff happening in life and we have not done much horsey lately. Today I boxed up and hired an indoor arena.

We did very little, just a walk/trot/canter on each rein as she is not very fit, about 20 minutes all told. The success was that she was cool all day. Cool to load, cool to travel, to see other horses at the other yard and focus on me, just all round cool. Pretty good for a baby who had not been doing much.

Sadly I probably won't have time to do much again for a while, but we have today that we both enjoyed to keep us going until stuff gets sorted out.
 

Chappie

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I'm glad of this thread as in the three and a half years I've loaned my cob there's been many small successes, which at the time of happening I've been bursting to tell someone, but most of the other liveries at my yard are children & don't get why they would be a big deal! (Though sometimes they do & are nice about it, too!)
Since the fields were harvested round here I've been training my boy with the aim to work at different paces in them without freaking out, in particular to canter up a good sloping big field near the yard.
He's 18 next year & I don't know if he ever hacked alone before I tried; hes not an alpha type of horse & can be very anxious & nervous sometimes but we do manage to hack alone - I kind of have to!). We've had some positive attempts recently with the field cantering thing but on Saturday (ok there was a short battle to get him INTO the field but after that he knew what to do, and actually proper GALLOPED up the field at a nice controlled yet enthustiastic pace!
MY FACE!!!! Beaming! So happy with my little cobbus!
 

Teajack

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My young horse was a bit fidgety and tense at the mountain block (only had him a few weeks), so for a few weeks I've been teaching him that he only gets a treat if he lines himself up perfectly for me to get on and stands like a rock. He will now move himself to which ever way I'm standing just by me pointing in that direction, and then wait for me to get on.

When we had finished the exercise last night, I got off the block, walked over to my phone and he followed me. When I was looking at my phone he took himself off to the block on his own accord (about 15m away) and lined himself up! I love the moments when the penny drops for them.



I need a mountain block to get on these days :)
 

Leo Walker

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I have something useful now! When Bobbie came we cracked on and got her to the point she was in the carriage and the next step was to actually start driving. The everything kicked off, had to get the police involved leaving that yard, work went mad etc, etc so shes been chucked out in a big hilly field for the last 10 weeks and my instructors been long reining her twice a week to keep her ticking over. Having decided that it was now time to get on with it again organising a school, helpers, instructor, carriage and pony all in the same place at the same time was such a logistical nightmare I gave up.

So Christmas eve I contacted my friend who breaks and schools for a living and Bobbie is going off to be professionally broken on Friday. Someone else can deal with the hassle and do the crash test dummy bits. I'll take over when shes back and can do the rest of it. I'm still shocked I actually did it. It felt like it was going to be one of those scenarios where Bobbie was 17 and I was still talking about when she was broken properly 🙈😂
 
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