To this day it still amuses me how riders automatically assume and adopt stereotypical logic before they actually know anything at all. Some people will see a horse going nicely and assume the horse has always been easy, and could never possibly be as naughty as the ones theyve owned or trained themselves. Some will see a big flashy warmblood horse and assume it won its class because it is bred to do it and so of course it will be easy to ride. Some will see a little cob warming up for an medium class and assume it is there for a jolly day out because it could no way ever do any good. All insanely wrong of course. I know a few people assume Twiggy was bought as a push button horse, and sadly this wasnt the case. She is wonderfully talented but she too came with quirks and had gaps in her fundamental training which in turn affected her mental ability to cope with tests. She knew all the impressive movements of a GP test, and these movements had been taught impeccably well, but maybe not using the traditional slowly slowly method, and so when we tried to link the movements for a test, the basics of schooling just werent there to hold it all together. 2 years on she is a totally different horse to ride, and it has been a far from easy journey but it has been unbelievably rewarding and educational for me, not to mention an eye opener as a rider. So now I see each horse for what it is, and always bare in mind what the rider may have been through and how hard they may have worked just to get that horse to where it is. I also keep this in mind when I teach. I have clients who own traditional cob ponies, to thoroughbreds, to big beasty warmbloods. And theyre all fab in their own right. So on Monday she was overly forward, which is great until I find myself being a total out of control passenger when we were on any straight lines! So we spent a long session with lots of canter, playing with the tempi changes, ignoring all the mistakes and trying to focus on the good bits. I got a mixed bag of reactions with some really good bits and also some really not so good bits, unless she was training to be in the riding school of Vienna, or maybe a stunt horse, then those moments would have been good. The reason for it was not enough work the past week so totally my fault. She thrives off being ridden and needs a good 45 mins most days to keep her on the ball otherwise she is a bouncing ball of energy despite only having a handful of balancer morning and night. Yesterday showed all the benefits of that long session. I completely mimicked the work we did the day before and this time she was a different horse. Calm, obedient, more accepting of the leg. All of this resulting in the most perfect 4 stride tempis I think we have ever done. No loss of balance, no running through the hand, no over excitement. And so after 45 mins we ended with a happy rider and a mare that was rather pleased with herself x
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:03:09 +0000
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