Yesterday we took the boys to use a friends 20x60... We couldnt have chosen a better day for it, wasnt the weather just gorgeous?! Fig went first... He came off the lorry like a fire breathing dragon!!!! There was a LOT going on. Horses having a wayhay in the paddocks surrounding the arena... Mowing... Trains... Cars... And a very scary man making very scary tree/hedge trimming noises next to one of the corners! The ducks fornicating (lol!!!) in the pond next to the arena raised some horsey eyebrows too :3 To be fair to him, after spending a bit longer in walk that usual (gradually spiralling our way down to the corner of doom), he popped up into trot very sweetly and was really swinging through. Was nice in the canter too, really trying to keep him together and hold him on my seat. Its nice when he wants to relax but sometimes he goes a little flat and doesnt really stretch over his back enough for when I pick him up. Practised the lateral work positioning (mine rather than his) as we had some mirrors to use. The left SI and HP is a ton better than it was a few weeks ago. Amazing what you can achieve when youre not riding in a broken saddle!!! As well as Fran shouting at me, I imagined JLC shouting too. Double shouting to sit with the ruddy horse actually worked, hurrah! Im getting better at keeping him consistently up and making ever stride count for something. Worked on the HP to med trot, which hes definitely gaining confidence in. We had 2 really good ones so I left them there. The extended trot is really coming along, long diagonals work much better for him (I think the fence line backs him off, so I always try and keep him going onto the track a little rather than starting to stall at X). Up into the canter. Much keep the neck round and the nose tucked in (by that I mean on not slightly in front of, the ever important vertical ), makes all the difference to the swing of his hips. A few gear changes to get him listening and waiting. And then onto the working piris... Keep the neck straight, use the outside hand and leg to bring him round, inside leg to keep the step active (VERY pleased with what I saw in the mirror, passable piri!). Practised these on the PSG line and apart from one duff change (not helped by aforementioned terrifying hedge man and fornicating ducks), the whole sequence was very smart indeed. Had a quick run through of a 4 loop serpentine incl changes, and were definitely getting there with the rhythm and timing. He still goes a little flat left to right, but thanks to a non broken (albeit borrowed) saddle, we can set to work on that HP I need to keep my inside leg on on on to keep it active (that inside leg is important huh), make sure Im turning my stiff as a board hips with him. My main aim of the session with Fig was to have a run through AM98... Which weve decided will suit him much better than AM85 - the changes are directly before/after something else which works best for him as he can anticipate and then get his cute orange little knickers in a twist! We had a few bogus starts - coming down the centre line in canter means you must want HP right? Then all we wanted to do was canter! Got there eventually and actually the practice test was quite sweet. I am mega chuffed with the trot work, consistent and powering along without being somehow tight and flat at the same time?! Everything that was not within a 10m radius of the hedge man was great I need to push that med and ext canter more, whyyyy do I starting putting on the handbrake over a marker away?!!! Had a bit of confusion on the final centre line - we cantered down the first one, why on earth would you want med trot now??? Bless him, he tried *really* hard for me and it did us (both) a great deal of good to just get on with it. Typically, by the time Pea came out to play, most of the duck fornication and hedge trimming had ceased so he had a fairly quiet hour to work in! His work at home has been based around developing his ability to stay truly submissive in the hand and also taking me forward at the same time. He can tend to either fake the submission a little and drop me, or brace his jaw and pull me along a bit - tiny degrees of this (its not like hes running round like a tank), but at this level it makes a big impact. Its mentally hard work for him more than anything - he isnt the most naturally submissive horse (!) and likes to think hes the boss and its take a few weeks for this new way of going to really start to sink in. Some days he really *gets it* and the next day dropping me again. Frustrating, but all part of the training process! However, he was very good at JLC and even better today so Im hopeful its starting to become the norm, and no longer new! Certainly today I felt that I had to do a lot less pestering for him to maintain a more GP way of going in between the twiddly bits so was very happy with that :) The main aim of the day for Pea was to video the ground-plan for my PSG FSM, however its about 10 seconds too long Will need to twiddle, which is a shame as I LOVE the canter work and not sure how much I can adjust the trot portion... Much scribbling on random bits of paper to be done! So an Inter 1 debut for Pea this weekend, then maybe again the following weekend. Fig will go out for 2 x Mediums and thennnn its time for the BD Winters :D Eek! Fran and Nic x
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:22:38 +0000
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