Real-Life Training Difference

[Silverine]

I was going through videos of my mare from the past year and wanted to share this progression with everyone. Not everyone has access to horses to be able to see the real difference that proper training can make in them, so it can be hard to understand what it means when our in-game horses have 0% training in one area versus 100% training.

A bit of description as to what you'll see in this video:
-I bought this mare last August (2018). The first segment of video was taken seven days after I brought her home and was my third or fourth ride on her. My trainer and I like to describe the way she was moving as a "drowning giraffe with pogo-stick legs". She did not know how to carry herself properly and instead would throw her head in the air, hollow her back, and drag her hind end. This kept her very behind the leg and off balance.
-The second segment is from January 2019 at our second dressage show (it was Christmas themed, hence the outfit ). She had been in steady training for about two months, having had a few months off as she got over an infection. When compared to the first video you can see that she has started to learn how to come down from her giraffe position. She isn't stretching forward and down yet, but is not nearly as high and tight as she was.
-The last segments are from yesterday (July 2019) - it's also my friend riding her as I don't get a chance to video her otherwise. She is clearly learning to stretch forward and down and hold some connection through the reins. The stretching forward and down is allowing her to use her back and push herself more with her hind end rather than pulling with her front end. She still has a long way to go but has come quite far from her start.



So when you're training your in-game horses, you can think of this as sort of like the progression they go through (though the end point of the video isn't anywhere near what a horse at 100% would look like). I just thought some people would find this interesting.

[vallers]

I was going through videos of my mare from the past year and wanted to share this progression with everyone. Not everyone has access to horses to be able to see the real difference that proper training can make in them, so it can be hard to understand what it means when our in-game horses have 0% training in one area versus 100% training.

A bit of description as to what you'll see in this video:
-I bought this mare last August (2018). The first segment of video was taken seven days after I brought her home and was my third or fourth ride on her. My trainer and I like to describe the way she was moving as a "drowning giraffe with pogo-stick legs". She did not know how to carry herself properly and instead would throw her head in the air, hollow her back, and drag her hind end. This kept her very behind the leg and off balance.
-The second segment is from January 2019 at our second dressage show (it was Christmas themed, hence the outfit ). She had been in steady training for about two months, having had a few months off as she got over an infection. When compared to the first video you can see that she has started to learn how to come down from her giraffe position. She isn't stretching forward and down yet, but is not nearly as high and tight as she was.
-The last segments are from yesterday (July 2019) - it's also my friend riding her as I don't get a chance to video her otherwise. She is clearly learning to stretch forward and down and hold some connection through the reins. The stretching forward and down is allowing her to use her back and push herself more with her hind end rather than pulling with her front end. She still has a long way to go but has come quite far from her start.



So when you're training your in-game horses, you can think of this as sort of like the progression they go through (though the end point of the video isn't anywhere near what a horse at 100% would look like). I just thought some people would find this interesting.

cool post, thanks for sharing it

[Pieta]

I was going through videos of my mare from the past year and wanted to share this progression with everyone. Not everyone has access to horses to be able to see the real difference that proper training can make in them, so it can be hard to understand what it means when our in-game horses have 0% training in one area versus 100% training.

A bit of description as to what you'll see in this video:
-I bought this mare last August (2018). The first segment of video was taken seven days after I brought her home and was my third or fourth ride on her. My trainer and I like to describe the way she was moving as a "drowning giraffe with pogo-stick legs". She did not know how to carry herself properly and instead would throw her head in the air, hollow her back, and drag her hind end. This kept her very behind the leg and off balance.
-The second segment is from January 2019 at our second dressage show (it was Christmas themed, hence the outfit ). She had been in steady training for about two months, having had a few months off as she got over an infection. When compared to the first video you can see that she has started to learn how to come down from her giraffe position. She isn't stretching forward and down yet, but is not nearly as high and tight as she was.
-The last segments are from yesterday (July 2019) - it's also my friend riding her as I don't get a chance to video her otherwise. She is clearly learning to stretch forward and down and hold some connection through the reins. The stretching forward and down is allowing her to use her back and push herself more with her hind end rather than pulling with her front end. She still has a long way to go but has come quite far from her start.



So when you're training your in-game horses, you can think of this as sort of like the progression they go through (though the end point of the video isn't anywhere near what a horse at 100% would look like). I just thought some people would find this interesting.

Wow, nice mare and the progress is really big, but what I can say is that her neck is still a bit hard and her head could be a bit lower than it is already. And somerhing about you in christmas video, try to have your foot parallel with your mare body.

[BlackOak2]

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She does appear to be coming along quite nicely. Congrats!

It does look like she has a bit of good potential in her. I certainly hope she carries you far.

By the way, she looks really big, like 16 hands or more.

[Silverine]

Wow, nice mare and the progress is really big, but what I can say is that her neck is still a bit hard and her head could be a bit lower than it is already. And somerhing about you in christmas video, try to have your foot parallel with your mare body.

Thanks! And yeah, both of us have quite a way to go. She likes to lock up through her throatlatch to avoid giving to the contact but is coming around. I have a whole host of other issues to work on, but luckily our trainer is very helpful.

...

She does appear to be coming along quite nicely. Congrats!

It does look like she has a bit of good potential in her. I certainly hope she carries you far.

By the way, she looks really big, like 16 hands or more.

Thanks! I'm not planning on doing anything crazy with her - some schooling shows and stuff to keep both of us entertained, but I personally don't have the ambition for much more than that. And you're pretty spot on - she's just a hair over 16 hands.

[BlackOak2]

Thanks! I'm not planning on doing anything crazy with her - some schooling shows and stuff to keep both of us entertained, but I personally don't have the ambition for much more than that. And you're pretty spot on - she's just a hair over 16 hands.

She looks good as a hunter equitation horse... One of the tricks I learned, that you might consider, if she continues to 'lock' at her throatlatch, sometimes a change in bit will do the trick, even if it's for a single ride.

It looks like you ride her in a broken snaffle o-ring or eggbutt. A low port curb bit may teach her to give, even if you just let her mouth it for an hour and don't ride her at all.
I went from a broken curb and broken eggbutt snaffle to a copper bits for both (I rode both english and western on an appendix) and that did the trick for that horse. He was an easy ride and very soft mouthed, but kept wanting to spit the bit out. Turned out the sweet bit was what he wanted.

But of course, talk with your trainer, they'll be able to offer more insight into whether a different bit may do it for her or not. Regardless, she's a sharp-looking mare!

[QuesthavenFarms]

Wish we had a like button. Amazing work, thanks for sharing!

[Silverine]

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Unfortunately after riding hunters for years I no longer have a desire to deal with that area of showing. We're focusing on dressage for now, may branch into C/Ts once I have more of my issues figured out.

She's currently in a copper eggbutt snaffle. Her owner before me rode her in some sort of curb bit, though he was very inconsistent and mostly just grabbed whichever bridle was close at hand. I'll see what my trainer thinks of a bit of poll pressure. My friend has a mild one we could try out to see if it makes a difference. Though we do have a show on Saturday so I'll wait until after that to mess with or routine.

Wish we had a like button. Amazing work, thanks for sharing!

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

[BlackOak2]

Unfortunately after riding hunters for years I no longer have a desire to deal with that area of showing. We're focusing on dressage for now, may branch into C/Ts once I have more of my issues figured out.

She's currently in a copper eggbutt snaffle. Her owner before me rode her in some sort of curb bit, though he was very inconsistent and mostly just grabbed whichever bridle was close at hand. I'll see what my trainer thinks of a bit of poll pressure. My friend has a mild one we could try out to see if it makes a difference. Though we do have a show on Saturday so I'll wait until after that to mess with or routine.

I understand growing weary of riding certain disciplines... that's one of the reasons I became a dual-rider very early on (western and english).

My suggestion however, was less about poll pressure and more about tongue room (the port) and holding the bit. If a horse can figure out how to hold a curb bit (or even a snaffle, though most don't have the same types of port as curbs) in their mouth by dropping their head and bringing in their nose, they will then offer the head set without you having to remind them (sometimes constantly) of where to set it themselves.

Julie Goodnight and Myler has a few shows about what I'm trying to explain, but I can't find the one I'm looking for. Very specifically the before and after, old bit and new bit (new bit being being worn for less than 10 minutes)... and the difference in just the way they hold the bit themselves.
This clip might explain what I'm trying to say a little more visually, but it really doesn't do it much justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aII6Y6R_kU

But of course, compared to some horses I've seen, your mare looks like she's got a good mouth and doesn't suffer from being too hard, she certainly doesn't look evasive and she looks more than willing to re-learn what she needs to. I'm just offering some food for thought.

[Silverine]

I understand growing weary of riding certain disciplines... that's one of the reasons I became a dual-rider very early on (western and english).

My suggestion however, was less about poll pressure and more about tongue room (the port) and holding the bit. If a horse can figure out how to hold a curb bit (or even a snaffle, though most don't have the same types of port as curbs) in their mouth by dropping their head and bringing in their nose, they will then offer the head set without you having to remind them (sometimes constantly) of where to set it themselves.

Julie Goodnight and Myler has a few shows about what I'm trying to explain, but I can't find the one I'm looking for. Very specifically the before and after, old bit and new bit (new bit being being worn for less than 10 minutes)... and the difference in just the way they hold the bit themselves.
This clip might explain what I'm trying to say a little more visually, but it really doesn't do it much justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aII6Y6R_kU

But of course, compared to some horses I've seen, your mare looks like she's got a good mouth and doesn't suffer from being too hard, she certainly doesn't look evasive and she looks more than willing to re-learn what she needs to. I'm just offering some food for thought.

Ah, okay, I misunderstood and read shank where your wrote port.

I actually decided to try something different with her the other day - usually I ask for the connection starting with tighter reins. Now that she knows that I want connection and forward and down I decided to "throw the reins away" and see how she reacted. She did exactly what I'd hoped and dropped her head trying to find where my hands had gone. We've still got a long way to go but she's such a hard worker.

And our show ended up getting cancelled due to excessive heat. It was 108F before heat index.