Ideas please! Ace is setting on my hands when I want him to do any downwards transition. I can stop him doing it by keeping the circle small, but I mean really small and of course he needs to come back quietly on a 20m circle and on a straight line too, though we are far from that. I need some exercises to release him and I've had an inspiration breakdown.
Jazz did some lovely work on half pass today in all three paces. He really has cemented his understanding of half pass left and he gets it every time. You said he would Jean. He got stroppy after the trot work because he thought he had done enough, and for a while he was a bit of a buckeroo when made to go forwards without yanking at my hands. I repeated canter/walk ad nauseum until he worked out that he wasn't going to get to stop until he behaved, and suddenly we had it - a super canter into half pass, repeat on the other rein, get turned out to play.
Schooling for Radar tomorrow no matter what the weather.
C
OK, for now, displace Ace's hindquarters on the downward by doing a bit of leg yield or displace the front by taking a shoulder-in position. The idea here is to put front and back end on slightly different tracks so he can't really set his whole body against you. You can repeat the transitions until he surrenders and then go to doing them on the straight.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to do it on a 20 meter circle with a little haunches out kind of thing and it's not very visible from the ground. Think of the spiral out exercise you might do on a circle after a spiral in and you've got it.
Over flexion on the inside before the half halt can work too, but again, you have to kind of ride the hind end into the outside rein as you transition down.
On the straight, he can block your aid, so "wiggling" him for now will help break the cycle.
Another thing. You want to make sure that your seat does not get "back and heavy" in the saddle. Think of hips forward as your weight drops and lift your core up, thinking that his back will come up under your seat as you close your leg a little in the halt. If he's dropping his back to brace or dropping behind, that will help him come under with his hind legs and give to you some more.
Hope some of those ideas help. If he's a little sore somewhere, that might be causing some of the problems, but it's more likely just young horse confusion--or stubborness. *G*
Wonderful jean, thankyou, I knew you'd come up with the goods. The shoulder in idea is one I think will really work, and I had not thought of it.
ReplyDeleteHe is trying to stop me sitting where I need to sit to control him, and today he bucked when I sat myself there and had the cheek to ask him to work with me there! I cracked him a sharp one for that, and then discovered that the small circles would sort him out.
C