Welcome to the Hands-On Horse Training Blog of Troy Griffith
With this blog I hope to document and track the training of horses in my care. Below you will see updates posted each day after training is completed. By clicking on the Categories to the right, all the entries I have posted for that horse will appear. This way you can follow the progress of each horse.
With any luck, some of you might also find some of my “observations” useful.
Thanks for taking the time to have a look.
Iago – Round Pen short line work. Arena lunging under saddle. Ridden. 45 minutes of solid progress. He was perfect today.
Orion – I rode.
Jupiter – Nancy rode.
Bella – Brynn rode.
Worked with Brian and Iago in the round pen. Showing Brian how to ask the big guy to step under himself with his inside hind foot and use his rear end to support more weight.
Brynn and I are signed up for the Buck Brannaman clinic (Horsemanship 1) in Redmond Oregon, beginning on June 29th for four days. We are hopeful Iago and I will be ready to go by then. The requirements for Horsemanship 1 state that it is for a green rider and a green horse already comfortable in the snaffle bit. Iago is doing swell with the bit but I find it irritating to the roof of my mouth. Training him is progressing at a steady and sure pace. Each time Troy and I work him, he seems to be more and more responsive and willing. His Round Pen behavior is light years ahead of where it was when we brought him home on January 11th. I look forward to spending more time on him in the saddle myself but being a novice, I don’t want to set back what Troy has accomplished with him.
Round pen session for Tempo
Round pen and riding session for Iago – Moving much better. Bending well.
Long session with Iago, first in the round pen then on the lunge in the arena, followed by 45 minutes under saddle.
Long riding sessions with Jupiter and Orion. Both did very well.
Iago – Round pen, short line work, lunging under saddle and ridden. A little distracted in the arena but moving well and responding to the aids.
Ground Work Iago – Arena was too wet to ride, but had a very good ground work session with Iago. He is moving more freely and willingly, with good impulsion. Starting to get proper lateral flex.
Wow! I am so far behind in updating. When last I left you, I was moving rapidly towards ‘horse acquisition’. And, it happened. Khali came first. She has been teaching my youngest, Maizy. She is such a sweet girl; and so is Maizy! As you are probably aware, Troy has been training Iago. I found him in January and he is now my horse. Love at first sight? Yup! Brynn has been working with Bella and the two have developed quite a bond. (See attached photo). Although Bella is not our horse, it is not a question of if; but, when and how much? We are all growing so much under Troy’s leadership and the sublime, intense and often very subtle but 100% honest instruction from our equine partners.
As I mentioned previously, this experience has done nothing but bring us closer together as a family and provide instant therapists with four legs. Lately, my work has been “crushing” in both intensity and volume so I haven’t spent as much time at the barn as I would like. However, that being said, when nobody is looking and I can manage, I sneak away to the pasture, round pen, arena or go on walk-abouts with my “boy” often doing what I’ve learned horses like to do; NOTHING. Which, paradoxically, is very much SOMETHING!
Brynn is excelling at a fantastic rate. Riding, it seems, is quite natural for her. I’m doing better after finally ‘getting it’ concerning how to use aides and a balanced seat. Now I’ll see if what I perceive to be progress remains consistent. Maizy, is learning a great deal about horse care and bonding with her Kahli. She is coming along but seems to have regressed a bit on her ability to pay attention to riding her horse as opposed to just going for a ride. Troy and Nancy have devised a plan to reacquaint her with Kahli in a teaching and riding fashion more suited to her age.
All of us have had some ups and downs through this process and have become the richer and better for it. Training in any discipline is not without aggravation and stress. Horses are no different. The pay-off however, is huge and stresses from the learning process are anemic compared to the joys. We remain resolute and undaunted in our quest to feed on the euphoria when horse and human merge and the ballet performed is flawless!
A very good day with the horses.
Worked with Brian and Iago and Brynn and Bella on in-hand trust and control. Leading the horses out into the orchard, through water, trailer loading, etc. Everyone did great.
I did gentle ground work with Orion, looking for the connection we always had in the past, but has been missing for me of late. This time, I never got frustrated, never increased the level of pressure and he did everything I asked him to do. I have known all along that this is how one properly trains horses, but in the last couple weeks I have not been able to find my center and as such have been unable to justly work with my boy. He has shamed me time and time again with his forgiveness of my excesses born of… i am not sure what. All I know is that today I felt that am once again deserving of him.