8/ FEBRUARY 2021 THE RIDER MY SPIN:


will ask her to give her face. I want her to be really soft in the face. I picked up this idea of flexing on the ground with Clinton Anderson’s groundwork pro- gram.


Plan B Training


something to do. And that’s music to my ears!! That’s exactly what I want - the horse to be wanting to work. That confirms her breeding.


I would wiggle around, scratch


here everywhere - anything to get her to like me being up there. I would reach over to the stall divide and move around.


And when I get off, I will gener-


ally ask her to lift some of her feet, es- pecially the back ones. I guess it helps me to keep busy as


well. :)


Putting my spin on Plan B Reinersue


@KISS Reiners


By Susan Dahl. We all know to always have a Plan


B. And I was thinking of that for my 2yr old filly and her training. If you’ve read my article from last


month talking about my colt starting pro- gram., it outlined the fact that last fall I backed my filly and walked her a tiny bit in the round pen. And then winter hap- pened. I hadn’t planned on riding her in the


winter anyway. I used to do that years ago with customer’s horses and my own horses but I don’t have access to an arena anymore.


BENDING/FLEXING So I’m still going along with my


training program to use what opportunities I can to get more training this winter. In this first picture you can see that most of the time that I put the halter on my filly, I


HOLD IT Here the filly is holding the bend


herself which of course, is what I want. She even held it there so I could take a step back and snap the photo. She is also starting to like wanting to do more groundwork. It gives her


FROM A BIRD’S EYE VIEW In this final picture, you can see


that I took the photo from my filly’s back.


I used to do this as a kid. I have a


cute story to tell you. I would lead my ole dependable ‘cow pony quarter horse’ up to the fence and little me


would climb on the fence and hop on the horse’s back and sit there for hours. I’d wake up finding myself again


lying in the pasture grass surrounded by horses. I remember getting sleepy from the heat of the sun, gently laying my head on the withers of the horse and then falling asleep. I’m sure at some point, I’d would’ve fallen off in the grass. Amazing. Anyway, I have often sat on my


filly in the stall while she eats her grain. Just to re- enforce the idea of me sitting up there.


HORSE SHELTERS & ROW BARNS Locally Made with Quality Materials! Delivery Available!


About Susan Dahl Susan Dahl, ORHA/NRHA past multi- ple champion, writer, blogger, author and clinician, retired certified profes- sional horse trainer. Owner of Founda- tion Reining Training Centre in Durham, ON. She specializes in effec- tive horsemanship, and reining. For more information on her services: judg- ing, clinics or resale horses, please con- tact her on facebook, her website: www.reinersuehorsemanship.com or reinersue@hotmail.com


Congratulations to Susan Dahl on 13 years of writing for The Rider


Visit our Website for More Info. & Pricing maxwellgardencenter.com 453897 Grey Road 2 Maxwell, Ont. 519 922-1479 / 1 844 564-0224


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