Grid work

I am getting an error message.

Check the privacy settings.

HG, you may have to friend her. I know your resistance to Facebook, but you might have to hold your nose and get with it! That's how I usually vote too.

I have my weak moments!

Through the magic of facebook friending, I can now see the videos. Thank you Karen and Katy. How do they know that something happened between yesterday and today and allow me to see the videos? They know too much. I went to Lowes the other day and when I came home and logged on to this page there was a Lowes ad at the top. Creepy.

Grid work is great stuff. What stands out for me is how this horse is learning/experimenting with hind foot placement in the first video clip. He comes in at a rhythmic trot and the grid disrupts his rhythm. He trots the first ground pole and improvises the first jump out of the trot, then he encounters the second ground pole and keeps striding (his hind feet are spread with the right hind ahead of the left). Then finally at the third ground pole he figures out the rhythm of the grid and plants his hind feet more together and bounces over the third pole into the box and bounces out over the jump.

I don't know if this is his first time through a grid like this, second, third? But I'd bet it's early on in his training with this grid tool. The use of the rail wings to keep the horse on the line would confirm it's early. When I start a horse through grids I am apt to not use ground poles at first because I want to test the horses perceptive abilities. I always want to know more about how the horse sees the world. So, I will often set up a three jump grid like this but with only the first two jumps and no ground poles first time through. Some horses stop or stutter, some bolt through to escape. You get different reactions, but the best one is the horse goes through and plants his hind feet like the video horse did on the third jump in his first pass. If you get that response, you have learned something special. But if the horse fails miserably, you also have learned things like about their courage, their problem solving ability and more. grids can tell you a lot.

After the first "rorschach test" through a grid, I will add the third jump and see how the horse adjusts, and then after my evaluation phase I will lay down the measured ground poles to help the horse discover the rhythm, as this horse did. Once the rhythm is discovered I will add more jumps. I like five to really teach rhythmus, and I will start to vary the height and the spacing as time goes on.

Some horses love these grids. We had a "been there, done that" horse named Piero at the farm who could figure out any grid rhythm you could throw at him first time through, and he'd act bored doing it. But you knew he loved it because coming into the line of jumps he'd accelerate and thus reveal his hidden enthusiasm.

The second video is very interesting. I would say to any young riders here who are starting out or have ridden only for a few years to not try that at home. It might confuse a horse in training and confusion can undermine confidence. The rider in the video, Jimmy's daughter Katy, is very experienced and demonstrates great skill in this odd approach and jump using a grid jump in a way generally not intended. What strikes me is the foot placement in the first video says the horse is still figuring out a few things and the second video says the horse has confidence and is trusting of his rider, and/or he is bold and commits well to a jump. Beautiful horse.