Oooops!

I put my brother's girlfriend on Radar, on the lunge because she is a complete novice. She got a nice walk, once I stopped her cramping up and frightening him, so we tried a little trot and it went quite well. We went to do a second trot and for some completely bizarre reason, to my total astonishment, she kicked him to make him go! Well, she got what she asked for. Straight into canter, which she could not sit and I could not stop him without turning him towards me, so off she came. Thankfully she didn't hurt herself and she insisted on getting back on, which was game of her as she is close to 60, no spring chicken! I'm never, ever going to understand why she suddenly decided to kick him though. He was very upset and it took me a few minutes to calm him down when I rode him.

I've ridden Ace this evening. He's had a winter rug on and his back was much looser and he was fine. I also used his thermocell exercise sheet because it was cool and showery.

I think I have worked out where I am unhappy with his training, and we are formulating a training plan based on Phillipe Karl's system of Legerete (Lightness, can't do the accents on the e's).  It will take longer to get "competitive" performances out of him, but what I want is not novice wins now, it's the long term end result of a horse who dances into piaffe on a light rein contact, not one who is driven into it with the leg and seat on a firm rein contact.

What that  means at the moment is that I have changed my training to focus on lightness in the forehand, with a light rein, instead of submission to the rein and outline. The difference is that on a firmer contact, I am helping him to balance and he is more accurate and more submissive, but he is also able to move weight forwards into his shoulders, which is of course not what we want. It may put his head in a very "pretty" place, and give me much more control, but it's gradually shortening his stride and reducing his elevation. Eventually, to restore the stride and elevation I would have to use a lot of leg, and round we will go in a vicious circle.

So in my last two sessions  I have raised his shoulders by raising my hands, in the method described by Phillipe Karl. The result is a very different feeling horse - taller, bigger, with a much more bouncy stride. He doesn't have the balance and strength to maintain that work to  a competition standard.  But if we don't ask him to do it that way, he can never learn to carry himself in that huge elevated frame, which is the thing that makes him so special in the first place.

Basically I'm at a stage where I can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, and I am determined to have that omelette!



I've been through several cycles of thinking over the  last few days, helped by all your comments. I've been very confused because I didn't feel we were actually improving him. I bought a class dressage horse, mostly for the love of riding one, but partly so I could compete. Now I find that even with the better horse I have trainers telling me to stifle every bit of his character to get total submission and perfect accuracy.

My friend trains with Ferdi Eilberg, a very big name who trains his daughter, and the son who rides the top 5 year old prospect in Europe, Faruouche.  Farouche has already had time off due to a tendon issue, according to my friend. She bought a 5 year old from them and I went with her to a training session. They teach her to start every session with the horse on the lunge on very short side reins, well overbent. (by the way this is recommended in the German National dressage training manual!)  She worked it like that for 10 - 15 minutes before Ferdi got her to get on and start the lesson. Michael also came across later and told her that she could shorten the side reins more, as the horse was losing "top line" since she bought it.
 
I'm simply not prepared to do what it will take to compete against horses trained with those methods and judged by judges who don't mark down overbent horses, so as I said in a comment to Kate, SH and I have decided to set our own game plan and measure Ace's performances against what we expect of him. If that doesn't match what the judge wanted on the day, we'll enjoy our coffee and put the score aside, knowing that we are training towards a long term future goal, not a win in the competition ring, though of course that would be nice too!


C