Dressage prospect: Bunny hops

How about Artemis, the goddess of the hunt? It’s a slightly androgynous name but Artemis was a noted beauty. “RT” for short or “Arty” for short.

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Just wanted to say I think this is great and dressage is for all horses, and mules, and I believe there is even a dairy cow somewhere that is doing intro right now. With your eight equine crew you’re bound to find someone who takes to the discipline, hope you have a wonderful time!

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Oh wow I somehow missed this video - she looks flippin’ excellent!

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Thank you :slight_smile: Turns out she is prettier than i had thought and def has a decent canter and her walk (just around the corral, at leisure), overtracks half a hoof… She’s grown since BLM took their measure and will be at least 15h, i think, once i’m able to measure her. I’ve named her:
“Tovah”

Have yet to touch her, but she approaches. Stops about 12ft away. I can walk past her without her moving off too …again, about 12 away.

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Just read this whole thread, her trot at home looks beautiful! I’m picking up my own mustang from the burns facility next week, I’d love to see how Tovah is doing now!

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Mazel Tov! Will this be your first mustang? Is s/he a dressage prospect for you?..link to his/her BLM page(??)

Lucky you to get an Oregon mustang. Is s/he from Warm Springs? -i have 3 from that herd, two from Beatys Butte.(both are OR herds)

Tovah now will eat carrot slices and takes from my hand. She lingers/smells my fingers before taking too. We’re making progress. She knows her name, is directable by hand signals (most of them are really adept at that…anything body-language related they do well)

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Just stumbled upon this post again. She’s lovely eightpondfarm, here’s to a fun future with her (from one mustang lover to another!).

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ty :slightly_smiling_face:

She’s gorgeous!

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Because i train R+ i don’t lunge/chase around/roundpen my mustangs. So i kinda have to wait and also have my phone with me to catch them moving. FInally both things collided and yesterday i was able to capture a couple of my young mares moving. The bay is the horse i adopted as my ‘dressage prospect’. Unfortunately, the only time she has a good wide rear footfall is when the overo mare is blocking view of her. But you can still see the feet.
I think her canter is ok enough. Her trot is so…arab-y huh LOL

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I love mustangs! Thanks for the update!

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Tovah has grown the past 9 months and is becoming tame. She now leads and allows touch just about everywhere on her body.
Here are a couple pics I took of her today:

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She looks great. What a difference some time makes.

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She is with 2 other mares and four geldings on 123 acre pasture and run-in barn with big giant fans. Because of horseflies (:frowning: ) they are in the barn all day long. I go in and clean and we have little sessions. She is the second in line all the time. She wants to learn/interact. I bet by her 1yr anniversary she will be wearing tack. Do not know if i’ll be on her by then or not. There are three others i am more interested in training ahead of her.

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LOVELY!!! I still think that things undersaddle and in-hand like canter poles and cavaletti will help her improve her canter. That walk looks very 4-beat and speaks a lot about what her canter could be. I’m still smittin’ with her trot!

Keep updating us as time goes on!

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Googling “canter poles”…

The difference between trot poles and canter poles is just the distance between poles. You can look up standard distances but will probably need to tweak it a bit for any given horse depending on their stride length and what you want to accomplish.

On my short strided horse, trot poles make her lift and open up and get a bigger trot. On the longer strided horse, they make her lift and balance and stop racing, slow her down a touch.

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huh. well, if my coach decides to have us do it, i will. So far we have not used any apparatus on the horses i’ve taken to her.

edit: o wait, once there was one tie in the middle of the arena. I think to show the person in lesson ahead of me where X is?

Trot poles and cavaletti are very useful in getting dressage horses to develop the trot, but usually that would be a bit further along under saddle. For longeing or groundwork you can use any time. Some horses will choose to go over them in liberty work because they are more interesting. Longeing over cross poles for a tiny jump is also useful.

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ahh…well then, we’re probably just not ‘there’ yet! *(what we do when is my coach’s call)
Actually, i don’t generally longe a horse for training purposes on my own either…not anymore anyway, (i used to way back when) with or without a line. Once in a blue moon, to check to see of a horse is lame, i might move a horse around a pen until i figure it out. My guys all have large acreage pastures and move freely at will, so no need to longe to get any ya-yas out before riding.

again, if coach has me work on it at home, i’ll do it of course. Generally, she does not give out homework though.

The wild mustangs will all get some sort of hand-signal training (i guess it would be called liberty lunging?) and fine tuning just in the course of events, and that’s all before they are gentled…so that’s a bit different.