It's a foul afternoon, so I will backtrack a couple of days.
I have schooled Jazz twice that I have not yet written about. On Thursday I wanted to try for some lengthening in the trot. I don't know how many times it's gong to take me to learn - Jazz ALWAYS works best at home if I warm up in walk. I had turned the others out and he was lacking focus, and for some reason I sent him into trot instead of staying in walk. I've done this before and it has always been a mistake. So WHY, tell me, WHY do I try it again ?!?!?!?!? Anyway, needless to say that lesson was not a joy. He tipped onto his forehand, he got very gobby and we did not get medium trot. The best I can say is that I didn't get angry with him, so although we were both dissatisfied at the end, at least no harm was done.
So, I took him onto the arena again yesterday and stayed in walk until I had my lollipop tree (up the centre line, 5-10m walk circles alternating left and right) nicely flowing. THEN we did some trot. This time I had a very fine judgement to make when trying for medium. He has to take some contact in order to give him something to balance his increased power against. But there is a very fine line between allowing him that support, and him leaning heavily on my hand and tipping onto his forehand, or charging through the contact and out of the front.
By concentrating on my own stability, I felt I could tell the difference and half-halted every time it felt wrong. The back end was wiggling everywhere to avoid having to put the weight back on the hocks, but I cured that by coming down the 3/4 line, where for some reason I find it easier to keep any horse straight. I slowed the trot down keeping a big bounce in it and then asked for a lengthening. My reward, quite suddenly, was a powering lengthened stride where I could see from his shadow just how far he was throwing his front feet out. It felt great, and he managed to hold it around the bend too - he's not done that before. I stopped then and we were both happy.
Now, how can I stop myself thinking that I don't need the walk warmup again!?
Live and learn...and learn it all over again. *G* PJ was always better with a long walk warm up and a similar "lollipop" exercise. It made him nice and supple.
ReplyDeleteSometimes working the lengthenings out of a shoulder in works too. You can go up the long side in shoulder in and then lengthen on the short diagonal.
Jazz is still coming along so nicely, but what I really like reading about is that he seems to have developed a good work ethic along the way. It doesn't make him a completely easy horse to ride--he makes you think--but he certainly tries.
It's a long time since Jazz has tried to leave the arena during a session when the work got hard Jean. In fact I can't remember when it was.
ReplyDeleteI've just had a bit of a shock. I turned Ace out and I swear blind I have never seen him stride out on concrete like he did just now. I have emailed the person who recommended it to me to see if she has ever seen a result in 24 hours like that. Fingers crossed I'm not imagining it and we have the same tomorrow.
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"it" being activated charcoal!
ReplyDeleteI love the lollipop tree - I am going to do it too and tell Tetley it was your idea :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's not fair! It's only my idea if he likes it. If he doesn't like it, it's YOUR idea :-) I didn't discover it as an exercise until I needed it desperately for Jazz. Last September/October, it was the only way I could find to get him to warm up with flexion and submission. I love it now, it's very useful. If you can't get the change of bend, or they head toss in the middle, you know that you don't really have control of your horse's shoulders.
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