Oh I am so excited by what happened with Ace yesterday. If I say it myself I think he looks magnificent in the Prelim video. he has put on so much substance that he is beginning to make me look small. I'm 5ft 8 and my feet aren't even reaching the bottom of his belly.
These two videos will show you exactly what I have been dealing with. First the Prelim, where he was on target for a 70% until he blew up in the canter work at the letters. The judge said he did not look the slightest bit afraid and that it was right to use my spurs and my whip on him. I am thrilled with his trot work though.
We took him out of that test and kept him working for the 20 minutes before the novice. He threw a complete paddy about being asked to do canter trot canter between two showjumps, and I rode him through it. So by the time we did the Novice he had been working for a whole hour, and he was tired. But his behaviour was incredibly improved and he scored 64%
It was very interesting. I don't think he behaved better just because he was tired. I came out of the warm-up and the lorry was to the right. As I turned left to go up to the arena, he suddenly felt as if he gave in, and said to himself "OK, I have to do what I'm told, or I won't get to stop and go home", and he was very different in feel.
When I can get the suspension and presence from the Prelim and combine it with the obedience from the Novice, he'll be in the 70's in Novice tests. It's only a matter of time now, which we have plenty of.
http://youtu.be/IU2jqu-0MfA
http://youtu.be/qUc3YinmrfU
What do you reckon?
C
ps I turned away at the start of the Novice because he set just before the boards
pps I am using very high hands in the medium trot because he has been pushing downwards into it. I am asking for too much, and spoiling it too.
ppps the first canter circle in N24 has medium canter for the second half, he didn't go silly, I asked him to go.
Hello there. Well done you two :D
ReplyDeleteI really like the high hands, at the end of the trot work in the Novice test he went overbent when you relaxed your hands and lowered them, he looks much more secure and confident in the high hands outline - and what an outline it is.
Great riding when he was norty, a lesson learnt there I think for him, in the 2nd test when you were cantering on the right rein towards the camera, a lorry was very noisy behind the camera and I saw him consider using it as a reason to misbehave and then stop, think again, and continue like a good boy. The give and take back of rein in the canter was also very impressive.
Great stuff. He looks very "straight legged" in front in his canter work, compared to his trot work - observation. I have no idea how to change this mind, but he looks so fantastic in trot, it just makes him look slightly stiff in front in canter, although I know he isn't.
xx
It's a good point about the canter Tracey. I think the truth is that he really isn't yet giving the canter that he can, because I am still more interested in keeping control. At home I send him on and get a whole new level of activity, but if I was to do that just as he decides a letter is frightening, that would be the excuse for an explosion.
DeleteHis give and retakes have always been like that. I never even had to teach him. It just shows that his outline is completely bred into him.
Glad you like him :-)
C
Perhaps he just needs a longer warm up before the first test?
ReplyDeleteWell done though, if it was easy everyone would be doing it!
I'm not sure Judith - it seems to be the arena that sets him off. On other days he has done the explosion in both tests even after two warm-ups and a test already under his belt.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure we turned a corner yesterday though.
C
The new outline is developing really well. I like that now, instead of overbending he pushes out a little with his nose. It's not quite steady yet but when it's there...nice. Thinking perhaps he needs to go into the outside rein a bit more. The feel is "inside hind to outside hand." If you can sort of drive him into that feel, those darn canters might happen a little better.
ReplyDeleteHe was naughty, that's for sure, but I keep wondering why. It almost looks physical, as if he is tight in the hind end or just having a bit of difficulty in getting his balance in that first test. Tension? Could well be, rather than willful disobedience. I only say this because he did canter...it was just the wrong lead. Your corrections were fine...not criticizing that...but then, being corrected made him upset so he protested. It's almost as if he was saying...."I'm cantering. Why are you picking on me?" And he's right, but so are you.
Too bad he doesn't like to go out, because I'm thinking some nice long gallops with hills would help him free up his back even more and develop that canter.
You did a super job of riding him overall and there is great progress from what I've seen. The fact that you got him working well in that second test is a big accomplishment. And, aside from the canter issue, the first test was going great. Ace is quite an impressive horse and the he does suit you really well...or is that vice versa from Ace's lofty perspective? *S*
It's wilful Jean. He does the warm-up beautifully, then picks a point where he decides to test out whether he really has to do the test. The judge said so too.
ReplyDeleteIf I was to take more contact he would come back at me and I would have to use my legs to drive him out again. That's not how I want to train him, I want him to stay very light in my hand. That way, the outline that he is giving is 100% natural and he feels like a dancer :-)
I think from his perspective, the Princling deigns to allow me to ride him !!
C
I've watched the vids again.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like I am being hard on him just because he has struck on the wrong leg. That's because if I allow him to do that on the right rein and strike left, then the next thing he will do is spin hard left and rear or buck.
The canter does look very straight legged in front. It feels beautifully balanced to ride, but it will look a lot better with more knee bend. Any suggestions from you all how to get that?
The one that I am going to try is to circle smaller, because I think that will do it. But anything else??
C
i've given up trying to watch any videos online as our broadband is so dire.....
ReplyDeleteTry it Claire, it is extemely low definition because our broadband is also a piece of wet string. SH shrinks the file to 30mb to get it to load. It should run - let it load until it's half way through, then touch the timeline with the cursor and move the "button" back to the beginning and it should run without jerking.
ReplyDeleteC
I am thinking any kind of suppling at the canter may help. A serpentine with no change of leg so he has to balance and bend from counter lead to correct lead may help. Try, instead of just circles, spiraling in from say, 20 meters to 10 meters or less and then leg yielding out to get him to step through to the outside rein. Shoulder in at the canter may help too.
ReplyDeleteHis short back is a benefit and hindrance as it does allow him to evade pretty quickly--the buck and whirl--and it makes him a little harder to supple laterally. The plus is that collection should be a cinch for him and getting that "together" feeling from him should be easy too.
Any exercises you can do to make him more flexible are going to help. Years ago a trainer I knew--mixed feelings about her expertise--cantered her horse over cavaletti to help develop more roundness in the gait...not the horse's back, but some elevation in the legs. Never tried in myself.
Ooh...another exercise a trainer had me do was ride the canter up the quarter line and then leg yield to the rail to get the hind end better engaged.
Hard to see for sure on the videos, but often those wrong leads come because the horse is not really straight for the depart. I see him flipping his hind end about at times, so the more exercises you can do to gain control there the better.
Also, if he most often is worse taking one lead than the other, then for now, you need to school him a little more on the "bad" lead then the "good lead." It's just kind of a bit more muscle building to balance him.
Just read my comment again and thought...oh, yeah, counter bend at the canter is another idea to loosen the shoulder and you can even try counter bend on the counter canter--even harder--circle left on the right lead, but keep the left bend instead, despite the counter canter.
ReplyDeleteI did consider poles Jean. I think he will flick them all over the place! I worked out that the problem is that he is so uphill in his movement that he has simply never needed to bend his knees to bring his legs through.
ReplyDeleteHe's equal on each lead unless he is spooking, and he counter canters easily. I have a feeling that counter bend and excess inside bend may do the trick.
I'll be trying out all suggestions when I have a video on offer from SH, and we'll see what works.
It's ironic really, that something which is a result of how uphill he moves, and therefore how easy it is for him, actually makes him look stiff. To ride, he is not stiff at all, just beautifully light and balanced. But Tracey is right, unless he starts to bend his knees his canter is never going to score as well as that expressive trot.
C
Glad you enjoyed your outing!
ReplyDeleteHe has such a lovely lift and cadence to his movement which I think many horses lack, but watching the videos, for me he does not yet have the flexibility and softness through his body, and particularly through his rib cage which will give his work that extra quality and consistency. All horses work in different ways and I think he needs to' let go' through his body more so that you can really sit into him so that you can be more subtle with your seat and pelvis. Whilst there is no doubt about his talent and ability it can just appear a bit 2 dimensional ( if that makes sense) and I think if you can work on getting him more supple throughout his body then that combined with his lift and prescence will be fantastic.
For me this lack of flexibility and softness through his body is what causes the rather straight legged canter, I understand that in that kind of environment he also has to be under control so at present you will probably not get your best work at a party.
But I am of a different opinion to improve the canter, it has never made sense to me to challenge a horse who is having difficulty with something with more difficult exercises. So if the canter is a challenge anyway how does making the circles smaller make it easier for him to work out what he needs to do? I think the missing link is in the flexibility laterally of his body. If you were to walk a small circle to the right and you wanted to leg yield out, could you do it by 'dancing' your seat bones over right, left, right , left etc and as you do so would you feel the right side of his rib cage drop as he stepped over and lengthened the left hand side of his body. I think working on his flexibility through his body, first in walk and then trot you would find the canter improved significantly, as if he is more malleable he will be able to lift in the way he already can but with the added bonus of taking his weight back further which I think will give him more room for his front legs to really move.
Just my thoughts from having had a horse who cantered in a similar way - when I first went to gallop him the other horses shot off and left us for dust he just didn't know what to do and continued his rather lovely but straight legged canter! Interestingly he is also a horse with a rather inflexible mind, which improved when I got him more physically flexible!
Thanks Kate, it's very interesting to have your view, you obviously have a lot of experience. Part of my problem is that when I am on him at home, none of his work feels terribly difficult for him. I have just come in from doing smaller circles and leg yielding out, and counter canter in true bend (outwards) and he seemed to find both a piece of cake. They both caused him to bounce more, but not with any obvious difficulty.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the canter is actually difficult for him. It's not so obvious in the Novice video because he is tired, but he is built very uphill. We chose him for it deliberately. I think he simply hasn't needed to bend his knees much to sweep his feet though, so he doesn't. My challenge is to find exercises where I can make it clear to him that I want him to do it even if he doesn't need to. A bit like it will be to teach him to pick his legs up in piaffe.
You are correct that he does not yet let go through the body, but it's improving a lot at home as he gets stronger physically. You'll be pleased to know that I spent most of my time today in walk in serpentines, shoulder in, travers and half pass :-)
I think Ace would do the same in a "race the others" situation - canter beautifully while he watches the others disappear into the mist. It is a pity that he hates hacking, because I'm a big fan of a real gallop myself and I also think it would help loosen him up.
Thanks for the suggestions.
C
I don't think it will be long before he starts scoring consistently highly..... And really it's just tweaking things to get them even better, he has everything there to be a star!
ReplyDeleteI hope you think so Kate. I've never owned a horse as talented as he is before and I'm a bit biased, but people do seem to rate him. The judge came into the cafe after and asked me about hih, and that's not the first time.
ReplyDeleteWhat marks him out for me is how darned easy he seems to find everything if he keeps his brain in his head :-)
C
Nice to have some videos to watch!
ReplyDeleteMy thought were just that he could do with developing a bit more balance, you won't get good marks for this, but working the trot slower an developing the sit power....then the front legs will sort themselves out.
He's a stunner though eh!
I do a slower trot at home Mandeigh. All the judges want to see something quicker in the ring. I did say to SH though, that I was shocked when I saw the videos because I could swear I was trotting a lot slower than that!
ReplyDeleteGlad you like him. He's a bit backward physically for a six year old and is changing so fast he is still learning how to use his own body. He's grown an inch this year too :-) The balance is coming .... watch this space.
C