Can’t use the Accelerator if the Brakes are Cut
Blitz and my mom warm up
On Sunday Boomerang and Blitz traveled 2 1/2 hours to the site of the United States Equestrian Team training facility, Hamilton Farm, in Gladstone, NJ. It was a long journey (with us up at 4am) but it was well worth the trip for the hour of riding we did due to what we accomplished alone. We were to compete against two other teams in the pairs division – teams with top riders and ponies much more advanced than our boys. My mom and I saw this as another step in their training – to play against better/faster horses…and for the boys to keep their cool.
See in mounted games many of the horses feed off eachother. They stand at the start in a line waiting for the flag to drop, one horse jigs and gets excited, the next starts to rear, and before you know it the whole line is dancing around with adrenaline. Adrenaline – its the curse for all of us, how do you control a 1,000lb animal that can’t control its own emotions? Trick question – because you can’t! But you can teach your horse how to control these emotions – inturn making your horse controllable to you.
As the other horses reared and danced Boomer and Blitz stood like statues waiting for their cue from us to take off. And take off they did…well Boomer did atleast, Blitz’s idea of taking off is a few speeds slower – but thats fine, because thats the way my mom likes it. I decided to use this fairly low key competition to ask Boomer for a little bit of speed. Despite the overnight rainfall I felt the footing would be ok so I used the opportunity to test out his wheels. And wheels he has. We aren’t too far off the speed I want out of him, but I definitely don’t want to ask for it all yet.
I strongly believe that the “meltdowns” of many a games ponies are due to the fact that the riders push them too much too fast. As a rider in an extreme speed discipline its hard to not want to go fast all the time. Once you feel that rush its in your blood and its hard not to want to feel that all the time. But for a young/green horse going fast is the last thing you want to do. In training, ponies should be working on spins, stops and most of all control. You can’t step on the accelerator if your brake lines are cut!
So when I asked Boomer for a little more speed I only did so because I was comfortable in knowing that I for one had a really good stop on him. I say whoa and he slams on those breaks (and of course looks for his reward haha). I also knew that he had his adrenaline under control. Our months of racing up hills than asking him to stop and stand after a flat out gallop have really helped to teach him to control his emotions.
So speeding away we went. I was so proud when several times we came neck and neck with another rider and thanks to Boomer’s speed we actually crossed the finish line first! And what I didn’t expect out of Boomer’s speed was that he actually transferred it over to my vaulting. If you have been following along in my posts, you remember that we’ve been working on leading (and not biting) while under saddle. All in the hopes that Boomer will match my speed when I’m ready to vault on. So in the past several weeks we’ve completely stopped working on vaulting and focused only on the leading part. I expected Boomer to be somewhat respectful while leading, but I still thought he’d revert back and stand still while I vaulted. I definitely was surprised when I placed my hands on his neck (in my typical vaulting position) and he proceeded to take off in a controlled canter. Wow this is exactly what I wanted (I really made sure to make a fuss and click and reward him)…however since I didn’t anticipate this my vaulting was a tad delayed. Sadly I’m a little rusty on my speed skills since we’ve spent the past year doing things slowly. So when I vaulted I kept ending up behind the saddle – or missing alltogether. Thankfully Boomer didn’t buck me off and I was able to claw my way into the saddle as he galloped towards home.
All this made me realize in what bad shape I’m in. I’ve been focusing so much on Boomer’s progress I forgot to keep myself up to par. Looks like I’ll be spending the winter doing pushups again!
Anyway to wrap up the day. We placed 3rd – but respectfully points wise. And although we didn’t take home the blue ribbon, we were both extremely pleased with the boy’s progress and thats all that really matters. Riding to us is about personal goals. Winning is nice, but if you can’t be happy with what you have done/accomplished than none of it really matters. Each day the Trick Ponies learn something new, and for that we are proud. We are thankful that we have been able to create a partnership and a language with our horses – and it makes riding and competing that much more enjoyable for everyone involved!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
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Sounds like you two and the ponies did excellent!
Great discussion on training for speed. I like that you said:
“I strongly believe that the “meltdowns” of many a games ponies are due to the fact that the riders push them too much too fast”
I don’t know much about games ponies, but you often see very similar meltdowns in barrel horses and other Western speed event horses. The riders spend way too much time drilling at a fast speed, instead of first working on getting everything right and controlled at slower speeds.
Mary H.
Exactly! Same goes for race horses.
I had this discussion the other day with my mom. She used to exercise racehorses as a kid – and they never train slowly. Everything is about going fast. They never enter a horse in a “slowly run” race (or some sort of training race)- that just doesn’t exist, its about going fast right away. And some horses just can’t handle that pressure…as seen with the horses that meltdown at the start gate/etc. We were contemplating what would happen if someone trained a race horse slowly – meaning working on control first (regulation of speed/etc.) and then after maybe a year of “slow controlled racing” they added speed. I wonder how different that racehorse would be. Just something to think about.