The tip that jean gave me yesterday to practice down transitions on Ace in shoulder fore worked really well. He didn't respond quickly enough, which we can work on, but he did stay soft. I realised today that I have probably misjudged the moment when he no longer needed as firm a contact to balance as he had been asking for recently. Today I set off deliberately to test him on a softer contact and he went beautifully for me, very forward but carrying me with his back underneath me. I was very pleased with him.
I was, emphatically, NOT NOT NOT, pleased with Radar!!!!!
I turned the other three out before I rode him, and he made it perfectly clear that he was going to be pretty well uncontrollable in his hunting bit so I took him back to the stable and put a Liverpool on him with a set of draw reins. Yes, I really do mean THAT uncontrollable. Even in that lot he reared, pirouetted in the rear, ran backwards in the rear and at one point was seriously contemplating throwing himself on the floor to avoid simply working forwards steadily. He bolted out from underneath me more times than I could count. He set solid and refused to turn left or right.
Needless to say (this is me writing this after all :-) none of this got him anywhere except to work harder and longer than he ever would have had to if he hadn't been an overfit hunter who hasn't had a gallop for too long!
He did some very nice work in each pace, self balanced with a very light contact before he finished, which only went to show that it was not a physical problem, but a mental one. I so hope the hunt is on this week!!!
C
Aces!! And on Ace, aces is really great! So glad I could help out. Kind of a "been there, done that" suggestion. Eventually, you will be able to be much straighter, but even in a test you can kind of cheat most of the time to be slightly shoulder fore on a transition. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteRadaR is back? Still could be physical--sometimes is just works out as they work. If it becomes more of a habit, the ulcer angle needs to be in your mind. Just saying.... With him, though, I tend to agree that a lot of it is just high spirit and attitude.
The only reason I keep mentioning physical things is that my PJ would throw tantrums at odd times. Turned out he was muscle sore and there were just some days he couldn't do it until we worked out the pain. (I suspect he had ulcers too, but I never treated him as I was ignorant of the problem back then.) He almost went down with a trainer who decided to battle it out with him one time. I never let the guy ride him again.
RadaR just puzzles me a bit. I would think by now he would want to go correctly more often than not. Then again, could be the lack of opportunity to gallop about--lousy footing in turnout, no hunting, etc.--just frustrate him beyond the norm.
Jean please excuse me if I forget, but I'm not sure that you have ever got a horse as fit as Radar is, ready to run and jump non-stop for 15 - 20 minutes. It can make them behave very differently. They can become very spooky when they are normally very quiet, but Radar shows it by wanting to run and run and run and gets cross when he isn't allowed to. He's been building up to it out on hacks and it was no surprise really when he objected to the suggestion that we school. The bad news is that tomorrow's hunt has been changed to a beginners meet (no hedges) on a windy hillside in a foot of mud and it is unlikely that I'll be going.
DeleteThat'll make two of us really miserable tomorrow!
C