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Comfort Zone Training – part 6

Comfort Zone Training
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Today was our 6th CZT session. We did it in the larger area again where we did our 4th session. Today our ground work went very well and apart from the initial ‘getting away from the mounting block’ thing that he seems to have done the last few session, our ridden session was pretty good too.

 

 

 

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Firstly our impulsion was there…light off the cues and happy.

 

 

 

 

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Secondly our willingness was there…connected and focused.

 

 

 

 

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Thirdly our flexibility was there…..together in harmony.

 

 

 

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And lastly it was FUN. Fun to be in a different area. Fun to have our harmony, focus, willingness and togetherness back.

 

 

 

 

Short video of some fun doing leg yields today…..few strides one way, straighten up and few strides the other way. Solly and I have to be connected through focus and mind to be able to do this….he looses concentration right at the end!

 

 

  • Shelley – HorseSavvy

 

 

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Comfort Zone Training – part 5

Comfort Zone Training
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For our fifth session of CZT we went back to the first area, not because of worry but because it was easier to do with the time we had to work on that day.  Everything was smoother from liberty ground work to ridden, Solly was more willing and able and we had some nice impulsion.

 

 

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SO, things have moved nicely in the right direction and I hope to extend the range of our Comfort Zone outwards to include the next field soon but as we’ve sort of missed Autumn and gone straight into Winter I’ll have to take that into consideration. If the weather deteriorates more then I will be doing mostly ground work in different places to extend our CZ, if the weather becomes milder then the ridden work can continue nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

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One other thing…I just remembered WHY Solly is a big worried about certain parts of the field!! A week or so ago we came to the field and the boys were all sweated up, we wondered what had caused this, maybe shooting nearby or dogs in field next to ours? Then I remember going to check our water trough and the pipe to it had come off and water was spraying about like a garden sprinkler. I think this happened when Solly was drinking from it and THIS has caused some worry issues in the lower part of the field. I am going to do some ground work training near and then around this obstacle as it may be that he’s not found any relaxation or curiosity about the water sprinkler…just worry and I need to help him sort it out so that it’s not constantly on his mind in that part of the field…SO, approach/retreat to help overcome an issue is imperative 😉

 

  • Shelley – HorseSavvy

Picture Quote 9 – “Make a Habit, Break a habit, Make a New Habit”

Picture Quotes
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This fits in very well with the ‘Comfort Zone Training’ series I have just been doing here (look it up on the right side of this Blog).

It reminds us to make good habits with our horses, these habits are the backbone of your training but then you have to break that habit and make a new habit to progress your training. Breaking a habit and incorporating a new bit doesn’t mean leave the original habit behind, it just means you need to move on, even just a step or a minute more, to lengthen/widen the original habit, thereby breaking the original habit and making a new, longer, better, stronger habit.

Habits can be easy things like walking from a stable to the field. First habit would be doing it straight, then you’d break that habit and go for a little walk along a fence THEN into the field, later on you could walk along a fence, down a track and over a stream and back to get to the same field.

It could also be a habit of finding new transitions, more gaits, incorporating lateral work…everything becomes an extension from your original task 🙂

  • Shelley – HorseSavvy