The Horse Agility Club has just announced 3 new Open classes in the video competitions for 2016.  These are:

1. online
2. liberty
3. equagility

Online and Liberty will comprise 2 obstacles at each of the 5 levels, starter through Advanced one star.  The classes will have placings and rosettes, but will not count towards any of the leagues.  These classes are perfect if you'd like to have a go at different levels of obstacles, either to try some obstacles at a higher level, for fun, or to have some obstacles at a lower level, perhaps to fill in some gaps in training, or just to have more fun and less pressure.    

Once Fat Pony was happy going through 2 noodles, it turned out not to be a problem to make it up to 4 noodles, then 6 noodles (Liberty Silver course) and then 8 noodles (Advanced Level on line course).  Before long, he was walking through, trotting through and happily standing in the middle!  Backwards needed a little more care to build it up, but soon that was no problem either.  In fact, the noodle walk quite quickly became both the ponies favourite new toy!  They would offer to do it if I was around and they also went through it on their own when they didn't know that I was watching.  I don't know whether they enjoyed the noise it makes when they go through or whether they liked the feeling of it "massaging" their legs, but they definitely enjoy going through it! :-D

With any new obstacle, I build it up slowly, even if I think the ponies will be fine with it, but they do like to surprise us like that.  It's not uncommon for horses to not bat an eyelid at things we think might worry them and then to be completely sceptical about something we think they should be ok with, lol.

So I built version 1 of the noodle walk with just 2 noodles.  In some instances, I might then have started with the frames further apart, leaving a gap in between the noodles.  However, in this case, I decided to begin with the noodles overlapping by 3cm, as per the competition instructions.  The ponies appeared whilst I was still building (they have a 6th sense about such things ;-) and the New Girl (aka Mrs. Confident Dominant) walked up to it and walked straight through.  Satisfied that it was New Girl 1 Noodles 0 she then moseyed on off to go and have a drink and a snooze.

Fat Pony, on the other hand, was more sceptical.  That may seem strange, since Fat Pony is now at Advanced Level in Horse Agility and is also very playful, however Fat Pony came to me with a history of fear issues and restraint and things around his legs are a particular cause for concern for him.  I decided to try to work it out at Liberty, giving Fat Pony complete freedom of choice and engaging his curiosity and play.  I used "draw" rather than "drive" i.e. I put no pressure on Fat Pony to come through the obstacle, rather I positioned myself on the other side and I invited him to come through.  Fat Pony wants to do things and he also knows that there will be a reward waiting, however I must stress that I never "bribe".  I never hold treats under their noses, trying to get them to follow.  The treat is retrieved and offered only AFTER completion of the desired action.  But I digress.  I invited Fat Pony and then I waited.  I was ready to give him all the time that he needed to investigate and to puzzle it out for himself.  After some sniffing, Fat Pony decided to try going through.  He didn't like the feel of it on his legs and he shot off to a safe distance, but turned to face the obstacle and he was watching intently.  So I decided to demonstrate that the new "thing" was safe.  I walked slowly backwards and forwards through the obstacle myself (feeling like a bit of a twit, thankfully no-one else around to see, lol ;-) and eventually Fat Pony came over to try again.  This time he was fine with his front legs and then did a funny bunny hop with his back legs to clear the noodles at the back.  The 3rd time, he didn't hop with his back legs, the noodles brushed them and he shot off again.  Again, I did my "look this is safe" demo.  Again, Fat Pony came back to try again for himself.  This time, he went through, a bit rushed but he didn't run off, he stopped, turned and looked for his reward.  I then took him through the noodles another half a dozen times and by now he was much more calm and relaxed about them.  A good place to end the session and leave him to process the experience over night :-)

I have been seeing Noodle obstacles pop up in various "unofficial" guises within the Horse Agility and Trec communities and it has now been adopted into the International Horse Agility Club (IHAC) Handbook, in the horizontal format, as "The Noodle Walk".

In all cases, the thinking behind the Noodle Walk appears to be the simulation of pushing through soft branches or undergrowth whilst out hacking (although for horse agility it is very much a led obstacle).  The IHAC version of the Noodle Walk starts with 2 noodles at Starter Level and increases to a total of 10 noodles at Advanced 1* Level.  The noodles are attached horizontally to a frame of either fixed or moveable height and should, ideally, be at the horse's chest height.  As this was the first time I was building one of these, I used the only "frame" that I had to hand and the noodles ended up first at leg height and then, as they drooped, more at ponies' knee height, lol.  

With last weekend's clinic out of the way (in the nicest possible way :-) I have been able to turn my attention to this month's International Horse Agility Club course and a very exciting course it is too :-D  Lot's of new challenges - again :-) but at least I have most of the equipment this time, or at least materials to build!

The most exciting new obstacle is the Noodle Walk, depending on the Level that you are at, from 2 Noodles up to 10 Noodles, attached horizontally to a frame (2 meaning one each side of the corridor, 10 noodles being 5 each side of the corridor).  The Noodles are soft foam swimming pool noodles, or tubular pipe insulation works just as well and can be found from as little as £1 for 2 x 1m lengths (perfect for the Starter competition :-)  The idea is that the horse has to push through the noodles, preferably at chest height, although mine have ended up more at knee height due to the limitations of the frame I had for attaching the noodles to.  

Another new obstacle for us this month is to pick up a closed umbrella, open it whilst standing next to the horse and then carry the umbrella over the horse's head whilst walking 4 metres.  Fat Pony LOVES flags on poles, but an umbrella is new and a bit of an unknown quantity!

The S bend is also back this month and for the Advanced Level, the requirement is for the handler to stand in a fixed spot outside the poles, whilst guiding the horse through the S without the horse knocking or stepping outside the poles!  

And the stand and wait has morphed from "horse to not move it's feet" to (at Advanced Level) horse and handler to stand COMPLETELY still for 10 seconds!  Eeek!  That'll be a challenge then!  Pony to not move a muscle, not lick his lips, not move his ears......  Ha, ha, ha!  I expect that blinking and breathing are allowed, but not much else.

There is another park the pony at the curtain this month, which I'm not too worried about as Fat Pony's stand and wait is pretty good these days.  But at Advanced Level, the horse then has to join the handler at a trot (from a standstill and not allowed to pull on the rope).  We can do this in walk.  Time to work on our cues for trot then, methinks!

So, LOTS of challenges, again, but the ground has dried out, the weather is lovely and the course looks really exciting (and buildable!).  Have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy this one :-)

One of this month's obstacles that is new to me and Fat Pony is the "Leg Lift".  At Starter Level, the obstacle reads "The horse must place one front foot up onto a solid block (any height) he must not step up just rest the foot on the block for a count of three. You may lift the foot on or he may do so himself."

At Advanced Level, the obstacle reads " The horse must place one front foot up onto a solid block (any height) without the handler lifting the foot. He must not step up just rest the foot on the block for a count of five."

Well, of course, I didn't read the Starter Level course (getting lax!) and so it didn't occur to me to teach this obstacle to Fat Pony by lifting his leg onto the object and then rewarding him!  In fact, that would be a very good way forward and a very good analogy would be to think of the farrier's stand.  Or, in my farrier's case, the farrier's knee!  Thinking of the farrier's stand then also gives you a purpose for the leg lift obstacle.  In the case of the farrier's knee, I'm sure he's doubly grateful for a horse that lifts its front leg politely, places it gently where asked and then holds it still until released!.....

But, no, this didn't occur to me to start off with and I went gung ho for teaching by modelling.  Meaning that I perform the action, wait for the horse to copy me and then reward.  Now, there's nothing wrong with teaching by modelling either.  Once your horse is quite tuned in to you s/he will naturally start to mirror you and then teaching in this way is great fun and quite cool :-)  With Fat Pony it would have worked very well, except for the other mistake that I made, using a log that would roll!  The log just happened to be what was lying around and it was a reasonable size, but also quite round.  Fat Pony got the leg lift pretty much straight away, but then the log rolled, my timing was off with the reward, Fat Pony thought the task was to roll the log and, hey presto, I've taught him to paw the log :-o  Taught very effectively too, I might add!

Back to the drawing board....

Wow!  What a difficult course has been set by the International Horse Agility Club this month!  There are lots of new variations on obstacles that Fat Pony and I haven't attempted before.  Added to which, I don't even have half the materials needed to build it!  And I thought I had a good supply of equipment already!  Goodness knows where I would (cheaply!) get 4m of carpet from!  And the see-saw is one I haven't built yet either (strangely enough, ha, ha, although I am very envious of anyone who has one :-)

If I could get all the equipment together, then Fat Pony and I would give the course a jolly good go, but it may just prove a challenge too far this month.  There are some really nice individual challenges, though, so we'll certainly be practicing some of the obstacles from the course in isolation, even if we can't attempt the whole thing.

The Xmas Course for the International Horse Agility Club always ends early - at midnight on the 24th December, in fact!  That's a real shame, because then trying to get an entry in becomes part of the pre-xmas rush, rather than something fun to do with Xmas days off.  

I thought I wasn't going to manage it, combination of wet weather through part of December and just being busy.  But Christmas Eve dawned dry and even partly sunny and I decided to give myself a pre-xmas treat and take some time out to attempt a competition entry.  Fat Pony was up for it, "where have you been?", he said, "I've missed our playtimes".....  Which is good, because we had 2 slightly different courses to complete - our first ever attempt at an Advanced Level course online, plus the Liberty Silver course.  Both courses had new challenges for us and things we hadn't had chance to practice but it was great fun and Fat Pony thought so too :-D  He had his own ideas about which obstacles we should be completing next, which will have lost us points, but he was so enthusiastic and willing and we just had fun.  With the sun shining, who could ask for a better treat for Xmas?! :-D 

What instantly appealed to me about Horse Agility was how well human-horse body language communication (of the type promoted by, but not exclusive to, "Natural Horsemanship") lends itself to the successful completion of a testing course of Horse Agility obstacles.  Only now and again there appears to me to be a mis-match.  This month, its the "Snow drift jump" that I'm having some difficulty with, although a solution has presented itself.

For Medium level and above, the obstacle states "Create a jump that looks like a snow drift by draping white material or tarp over a jump, the horse must jump handler stands still at end of jump as horse goes over."  (A top tip here is not to worry if you don't happen to have a white tarp, it's fun to get into the spirit of the season, but any jump-able object will do, it doesn't actually have to be white - and it doesn't have to be very high - but the horse must do a proper jump over.)  My problem with this obstacle is that I've been busy teaching the ponies to tune into what I'm doing and to mirror me quite closely.  This is fantastic for leading with a loose rope as well as for effective Liberty work.  The pony goes where I go, matches my direction and also my speed.  I walk, pony walks, I trot, pony trots, I halt.......

So now, pony and I approach the jump in trot.  For a warm up, I jump the (very small!) jump and pony jumps with me.  Fantastic :-D   So next pony and I approach the jump in trot, pony is all set to jump..... and I stop dead "at end of jump".  What happens?  Well trained, tuned in, pony mirrors me perfectly and slams on the brakes just before take off, nearly skidding into the jump, then looks at me with a "what did you do that for?" expression!  

For me, on first inspection, this poses a dilemma.  It would appear that I either have to re-train pony to stop mirroring me, something I am very reluctant to do as I feel this would be a step backwards for our relationship; or I have to somehow get pony going more ahead of me approaching the jump, so that he's already taken off before I come to a standstill, possibly with "chasing" him over the jump as well, which I think would be quite hard for me to co-ordinate accurately and I also feel would not do a great deal for pony's confidence in approaching the jump (or any jump in the future!).  Or I choose not to come to a standstill and jump the jump with the pony and loose marks.

So can I approach the problem from a new angle?  I think I can and this is where the solution that works for me lies.  The alternative solution is for me not to come to a standstill, but to be stationary throughout.  As we have done some Parelli groundwork together, Fat Pony is used to both me moving with him (mirroring) and also me standing still and directing him from more of a distance.  So the solution that works, without compromising our training, is for me to ask the pony to wait at a suitable distance, for me to position myself by the end of the jump, and then for me to ask the pony to trot and to come around me in a slight semi-circle, over the jump and then to slow down, stop, turn and face me and wait for me to re-join him and reward.  As the jump is small (about 30cms) and we have been working on jumping confidence, this is a fairly easy task for Fat Pony to complete (famous last words!) and is in complete harmony with the training methods we have been using.  Phew - dilemma over!

It will be interesting to see what techniques other competitors adopt, but this is the one that I'll be using.

Now that we're working at the higher levels of competition, we're facing interesting new challenges that will test our partnership and communication but also to some degree our "schooling".  November's course includes one trot-halt and two halt-trot transitions and points will be lost if any walk steps are seen by the judges.  

The 2 halt-trot transitions involve "parking" the pony in front of an obstacle, the handler passing through and then asking the pony to join the handler at trot.  At the lower levels, we had to learn to park the pony in front of an obstacle and then join the handler at a walk.  So we have the elements of "halt", "wait" and "join me" already in place and Fat Pony is really quite good at that now.  The challenge is now to teach Fat Pony "join me at trot" and to have him be able to understand the difference between "join me at walk" and "join me at trot", since either might now be required in a competition and I don't want Fat Pony to start anticipating one or the other.  The parallels with schooling and dressage training are clear!

The trot-halt transition is even more interesting, as the obstacle is to trot the front feet only over the pole and then halt.  So not only does the transition have to be super accurate, but the pony has to be quite confident about halting with the pole under the middle of his tummy, where he can't see it very well!  To trot over the pole without touching the pole will require an active trot going into the halt - the beginnings of collection and taking the pony's weight back onto his hindquarters!

The more involved I get with Horse Agility, the more I see the benefits and the challenges.  It started out as something fun to do - and it still is fun, more than ever! - but it's also taking us on a journey that is about developing and refining communication; and about developing the pony's suppleness and fitness; as well as keeping his brain busy and having fun :-)