Walk to canter on Ace. Already. Second lesson only, howzat?? And no mad rush into canter either, a step and a gentle, balanced, unrushed canter circle to follow.
His walk is oddly restricted. He does not seem to be particularly tense, but he finds it hard to release his back in walk, particularly on the right rein. I persisted and got it by holding a supportive contact, not allowing him to go through it, and jogging when it was the only way to loosen him off. He got there eventually but it does leave me wondering if it's just that no-one ever taught him to walk, they were so busy sending him "forwards, forwards" which seems to be the modern training mantra.
Great changes happening to the feet - increasing concavity, much harder horn hitting the floor, much harder soles under a coating of chalk that scraped away. And speed of growth has gone up by an order of magnitude too.
I was working today so no-one else got done but I must ride Jazz tomorrow as he is competing M61 on Wednesday. It has extended trot in it, which we can't do, but other than that it's a really simple medium.SH and I are both looking forward to getting back in the swing of competition.
C
Good going. Ace's natural talent for dressage just oozes out of every challenge.
ReplyDeleteLots of people don't spend time at the walk, and many trainers tell people not to school it a lot as it is an easy gait to mess up.
Exciting to know Jazz is in show mode again.