April Showers bring may flowers, and lots of luscious grass! If you are running into the common road block of trying to lead or ride a horse that is dive bombing for grass I hope you find this short video (3 min) helpful.
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions.
Fantastic information, as usual!
Great info! How about when they try to snatch a bite on the fly when trail riding. Rusty is a real pain with that especially if it is about 2 ft off the ground as I am riding by. His head is not on the trail but grabbing that next opportunity bite of grass…argh! Patti
Patti,
This is a classic LBI strategy. You need to decided what the rules of engagement are and then stick to them. First off, is he breaking his responsibility of maintain gait? Or is he swiping the grass as he continues forward motion? If he IS maintaining gait as he grabs the grass and you want to interrupt that pattern lets think about some strategies……. Horsemanship is nothing more than pressure motivating and release teaching. So, we need to reinforce for Rusty that the trail is the sweet spot and it is his job to follow the trail and maintain gait. If he breaks either of those do something to interrupt him. It could be that every time he does it you ask him to stop and back up five steps. Or you take his idea to turn his head towards the grass and say "great idea, lets do an indirect to direct rein" and then resume straight on the trail. Or, tap him on the shoulder every time he dive bombs. The most important this is to not engage in or make it a battle. You need to be more LBI than the LBI and think about a strategy that doesn’t break the promises you have previously made to him (like that you will be in neutral as long as he is maintaining gait).
Helpful? If not, let me know and ill try again:)
Thanks. This has been an issue this season and I am guilty of looking down. Now I have another focus! Great Info..