Monday, October 28, 2013

Lariat Work from the Ground Up

Here we are at the end of October and 'ol man winter is knocking heavy on our Eastern Oregon door this morning. I have been woefully neglectful with my blog posts over the course of this summer and I apologize. The feedback we have received from so many regarding the usefulness of the Tip for the Ride videos is encouraging.
As many of you know, this has been a year of terrific lows and never to be repeated highs in my personal life. Thanks to you all for your kind prayers and thoughts. I look forward to sharing on paper very soon, the findings and feelings I am exploring as a result of my trip to Connecticut to visit Bettina Drummond. Suffice to say for right now...It was amazing! Much more to come as I explore further my understandings and comparisons of the development of the horse relationship between that employed by the traditional vaquero, and that utilized by the Classical Dressage masters.  What fun...keep watching!

The next series of Tip for the Ride videos will be showing some establishment of very basic movements and attitudes between horse and rider, both on the ground and in the saddle. We start with this ~ Ground Work Using the Lariat. 


Our model student is Cougar, a 3 year old Missouri Fox Trotter, owned by Lynn M.. We had already played with Cougar in the round pen using the lariat several months earlier, but our consistency over the summer was rather hit and miss. This video shows a way of safely working with the horse to "sensitize" him to things coming in and out of his vision, feelings and sounds on both sides of his body at one time, all with forward movement. For the human this exercise helps establish your employment of the 'Horseman's Protocol' with clear intention (picture), all while you multitask properly handling the lariat, the coils, rhythm, timing, with a positive attitude.

The results of becoming handy with the use of the lariat on the ground will directly relate to the saddle, which will be the follow-up video. So, go out to practice with the lariat first, then head to the round pen for a little 'sensitizing' with your horse.  Call or email or Facebook me if you have any questions or comments.

Happy Trails!
Alice

1 comment:

Karen and Pam said...

Hi Alice, good to see you on the blog. Been horsing around a bit here in Washington. Miss learning, have a young gal here, turning 13 who is horse crazy, so trying to pass along things I have learned from you and all the others over the years.
My friends where I keep BW moved to Ireland for two years, so I have the care of their horse, another 25 year old, can you believe BW is that old? Anyway, so trying to remember what to do when I teach Lydia about ground work, etc. Sonny is an appendix QH, and used to be someone's roping horse before my friends got her. Anyway, it's fun, and there are a lot of arena's to ride in the winter, just need to get my truck clutch replaced so I can trailer. Have a good winter, it's coming! Karen Brock