Bye Phil!

With the semester winding down, the Pierce College herd will be going back to the pack station in the Eastern Sierras. Last night was the last night in my Intermediate Riding Class that we would be riding so I made the best of it and even managed to get Phil into an extended trot. :-)

I have been either riding Phil for my riding classes or using him for my training classes and I've gotten to know him over the course of school year. Phil may not seem to be the most impressive horse but he taught me some valuable lessons. Basically, Phil is like a lot of school horses and has been ridden by a variety of people with varying degrees of riding skill. When I first was assigned Phil, I discovered that his mouth is very hard to the bit, he's a bit forward in his gaits and he really doesn't like to listen to the rider. He tolerates them but that's it. To add to it, Phil has also picked up a lot of weight since over the year and his feet are not in the best condition.

With all of that, I had to adapt my riding style to a horse that's considerably larger than Max and who is very dull to the aids. Worse, when you do press with your legs or kick, he immediately interprets that as a cue to speed up and/or go into the trot. When I first got him, side-passing and leg-yielding were an impossibility.

While I was only riding him once a week, I tried to do what I could to put some feeling back in his mouth and I found myself maintaining a loose rein while trying to combine it with half-halts, the idea being to keep off his mouth as much as possible while trying to communicate with him. This was especially important in that he does not have a good stop and often he takes his time- you have to tighten and release the bit. While at first he didn't seem to respond to this, by the Spring semester he was actually beginning to respond and I found that a half-halt combined with a quick tightening/release on the bit usually got results. The key is to RELEASE the pressure once Phil begins to comply but not to do it too soon (i.e. make sure he comes to a complete halt). It's really a matter of timing and sometimes I got it and sometimes not.

I also believe that the training class also helped because I was also doing ground work with him- primarily Pat Parelli's seven games and for the most part these have helped, especially in getting him to yield to pressure without speeding up. I believe that gradually he's developed the distinction between pressure to speed up his gait and pressure for him to yeld off of.

I'm no expert or anything but it definately taught me the value of patience and made me realize that Max lies for me quite a bit- I can get away with things that Phil would just look at me and go "what?". In short, I found that I really had to figure out how to communicate with Phil and sometimes it wasn't easy. By the end of the training class, I even managed to get Phil to jump over a barrel using the squeeze game (albiet, in a somewhat clumsy manner)- the instructor was amazed.

Anyway, I completely believe in the adage that all horses have something to teach you and that's certainly been the case with Phil.

Below is a somewhat poor cell phone picture of Phil and I at the end of our ride last night. I'll miss that boy! :-)