- [Narrator] So here we have Jack and Felix.
He has been with us since, I would say,
January of this year.
And, we are now in April.
And, this is going to be his first ride.
This is the very beginning of the ride.
And, you'll notice Jack has the halter on,
he does not have a bridle on the horse.
And, he also is only riding with one rein here initially.
The reason for that is when you start a young horse
it's helpful to have the feel be quite familiar to them.
We've done a lot on the ground with this horse,
both Jack and I, in preparing him to ride.
And, the feel of the halter is something
that he's responded to over, and over, and over.
He understands what our feel means
when we are maybe adding a little pressure
to the halter on one side or the other.
And, this creates a lot of confidence
because it's easy then for the horse
to feel like they understand what's being asked,
and it's something that's just very similar.
You'll notice right there he's doing a lot
of licking and chewing, so we know he's thinking about it.
And, as Jack is asking him to move out and around,
he's opening his hand, and he's having the halter rope
apply pressure in a way that's out and away from Felix.
This opens up the door in the direction
he would like him to go, and suggests that he moves forward.
And, this is exactly what this sort of thing feels like
when we are presenting the same idea on the ground.
The other thing that you'll notice
is Jack is moving around a little bit
and encouraging him to move.
At this stage, Felix really doesn't know
what the leg means.
And, you're looking to, essentially,
make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult.
So, what you're doing is you're,
instead of telling the horse to go,
you're making it uncomfortable for him
to stay where he is.
By making him come up with the answer,
it's giving him a choice, and it is setting it up
so the horse is more of a participant in the process.
rather than us making him do it.
Then he'll mix this up with moments
where he bends him around, and rubs on his forehead,
which is another thing that we've worked on on the ground.
Right now, he's working with his rope, and he's swinging it.
This is another thing we've done
when working with Felix on the ground.
And, it's a way to get them used to things,
but then also if he decides to move
it allows us to use that energy.
So, not only are we helping him learn
about being comfortable with the rope,
but we are also setting a situation up
where he might want to move, which is good for us anyway.
So, either way it's a win.
And, right now, Felix would kind of like to stay,
we've got this other horse here.
He'd kind of like to stay and visit,
and maybe not continue moving.
Which is fine, and he's letting him
stop and settle from time to time.
But, we want to eventually get him to move.
So, you're just trying to come up with scenarios
that will help him find it.
And, in those scenarios if he doesn't get the right answer
that's okay because you are just using tools,
and using ideas as life experience for him,
to get him comfortable with the world as it is.
Now, Jack's going to make it a little more uncomfortable
for him to stay in this area, and he's having to do a lot.
But, you'll notice that the rope connected to the halter
is quite open, there's really not
a lot of directing going on there.
Jack's being a passenger.
And, as a passenger you'll notice he's also sitting
kind of deep and a little slouchy in the saddle.
He's really trying to be a part of the saddle.
So, Felix is just wearing him,
and it doesn't feel like he's perched up above him.
It feels more like Jack's around him.
And, here's another spot where Felix is kind of,
he's like, oh, you know, I know these horses,
and I'd like to kind of hang out by the gate.
So, Jack will use this, and he'll have him circle around
and maybe change directions, and circle the other way.
And, if Felix does get a little bit stuck
he's just going to work his rope,
he'll maybe wiggle around in the saddle, left to right,
he'll work his leg a little bit.
And, you know, tapping him on the hindquarters like that.
And, that's just setting it up so that
Felix starts to move forward.
And, you'll notice when Felix does begin
to move forward, Jack gets quiet.
You can see just by his gait that he's got some tension,
a little bit of apprehension of moving.
And, that's typical when they're doing this.
So, we're just, he's having him move forward a little bit,
and then allowing him to settle back down.
And, you'll see as he continues his ride
this concept is going to be something
that he'll be using the whole ride.
And, again, it's something that we've used on the ground.
And, again, there's that swinging of the rope.
And, he's doing it to help Felix find movement.
And, then when Felix does move out,
he's releasing the pressure.
But, if Felix doesn't move, that's okay as well
because he's getting used to something
swinging around him, and that's a fantastic thing
for a young horse to learn to tolerate and to be okay with.
And, you'll notice with his hand too,
he's just leading out and opening it up.
So, we're really directing the attention,
and directing the life and the body,
and giving him a place to go.
So, he did actually get him out of that zone,
and Felix started flowing a little bit more.
And, then we got to the place where we're in the arena.
Now, this is again where we bring the life up
and then let it settle back down.
And, at this point in the ride
I'd actually hopped on my horse
and rode around just to help Felix
have a horse to follow for a little while.
And, get him a bit more comfortable.
And, actually at this point in the ride
we had actually ridden out on the trails
with the two horses for maybe five minutes.
Not very long, just to get them going somewhere.
And, before we went out on the trails,
Jack did tie the reins, so now he's got
a lead rope on both sides.
And, what you'll see, is you'll see Jack
going in funny positions, and leaning back.
And, those of you that have had horses
in with us for training know all about this
because your horses have gotten used to this sort of thing.
But, it's another way to get the horses
just comfortable with a rider being out of position.
And, that's super important.
And, if you introduce it from the beginning,
it's just ordinary.
And, what he's doing, is he's trying to get
Felix to liven up, go somewhere.
And when he's asking him to liven up,
he's really hunkering into the saddle
and becoming a part of Felix
so that Felix feels like he's just right there.
And then, he'll find places, and using my horse
is a tool that he has right now,
so he's going to use my horse to allow Felix
to find a place to stop and settle.
And, you'll notice when he does have him
stop and settle he's really using his body.
So, he's not pulling on the reins,
he might help suggest with the rein,
and he might give a little feel
that indicates to slow down.
But, what he will do is he will use the body
and the life in his body
to communicate to Felix that he should slow down.
And, we're not doing that quite yet,
he's just getting some free flowing
forward movement at this point.
But, you'll see in a moment
he will have him stop and settle.
Moving a young horse initially is real important
because in the forward movement you're a lot
less apt to get thing where they maybe would buck,
or get nervous, rear, those sorts of things.
When horses feel like they can move, it really relaxes them.
And, it's counterintuitive for people
because we're a little nervous when
initially riding young horses to ask them to move out.
But, when they feel that there's some restriction
where we're not allowing that sort of thing,
it puts them in a place where now they get
a little bit, oh, unsettled, and a little bit tight,
and a little bit stuck.
And, those are the times where they're
more apt to buck or rear.
And, you can see there Jack kind of had
leaned back and rubbed him on the hindquarters
to get him to stop and settle.
And then, he'll do the same thing in here.
And, I think right in here, this is where
he's giving Felix a little bit more of a break.
And, you can see Felix is a little unsure.
But, he's in tune, right,
his ears are flicking back and forth.
And then, Jack's using the saddle strings
to just encourage him to move off.
And, it's not in a mean way or anything like that.
It's just saying, hey, if you stay here
there's going to be a little commotion on your back.
And, you can see Jack leaning back,
rubbing his hindquarters, and really that's working out
quite nicely, Felix is finding his way to the halt
and slowing down when Jack gets back in there.
Which is fantastic.
And, if Felix had continued on,
Jack would just stay in there,
so it's good either way.
And, it has to, when you're riding these young horses,
you have to be a little bit of a passenger.
You can't have too high of expectations.
Now, as we move forward in the videos,
you're going to start to see a little bit more
where he's going to ride him off into the field,
and on the berm, and those sorts of things.
And, that really, really brings back memories for me
of riding out in Arizona, we worked for
a colt starting company out at Lee Smith's ranch.
And, she has a 77,000 acre ranch.
And, I remember, you know, you'd start these horses,
and you'd go with like a more advanced horse,
and you'd just go take them out
and you'd ride in the washes, ride down the trails.
Actually there weren't trails, you'd just
ride off in any direction, which was fantastic.
And, it really was a great training aid
because it was so natural for the horses
to just go along and be interested,
and line out, and do what you want.
There was even a time where I was ponying a young horse
and I had the saddle on her, and I was riding my horse,
and he was a good guy, and he knew his job
when ponying a young horse and that sort of thing.
And, he was doing great, we probably rode
maybe five, 10 miles out.
And, this young mare was getting close to the point
where I was going to start her,
and I though, you know what, before we turn around
and head back home I'm going to switch horses.
And so, I hopped on her, I ponied my horse with her,
and then we rode back to, we actually
had the trailer out that time.
We rode back to the trailer, the ranch was huge.
So, you'd have to like trailer out to different areas
of the ranch just to go see different scenery.
And, we had a six horse trailer, so we'd just load it up.
And, some of 'em had to stop and sit in the trailer
for a while, while we rode the others.
And, it was a good experience.
But anyway, that mare's first ride was,
we just rode back to the trailer.
Walk, trot, canter.
She knew where she was going.
My horse was with her, she felt confident.
And, when they're in an environment
where there's some terrain, they really
have to focus and think, which is helpful
because then it gives you an opportunity
to direct that thought process.
So, I believe that's the end of the ride.
I, there's a little bit more,
but I think that's about it.
I hope you all enjoyed though.
And, I will see you in the next video.