There are no great jumping shots in this album, but if you page down towards the bottom you will get a great flavour of what a wonderful time we all had yesterday on the hunt.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.278982598889277.67787.198034466984091&type=1
But this one, added later, is more like it :-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianharling/8196728428/in/set-72157632041750848
Radar is well and happy this morning and is out in the field on another glorious day.
I have schooled Woody again and he has made huge progress in rediscovering his training and in beginning to understand aids from a rider who is a good bit taller than WPO. He will now, with some persuasion, leg yield to the track in both directions.he is also working out that if he misundertands me, standing on the spot paddling all four feet is not an acceptable reaction, and that if he does it he gets sent on with a pony club kick into a loose rein. He was surprisingly quick to cotton on to that and to start looking for ways to work out what I want him to do instead of getting into a panic.
His trot work was much more consistently down and round with a free back and he was totally sound. He still has far too fast a rythmn, but he made great progress today in slowing the tempo down without losing cadence or relaxation of the back. The canter was also immensely improved and he actually did something approximating circles on each rein.This is only his second schooling session, so it bodes well that he is already learning to use himself so well on his new feet.
He has now lost three inches off his waistline, which was rather porky when he arrived, and he is close to the weight that I have the others at - a covering over the main ribs, but the ribs behind the saddle very easy to feel with only a slight pressure of the fingers. The only problem now is that I need a shorter girth for him, as we are on the last holes with Radar's girth and there is no room to punch any more. I suppose he deserves one of his own now anyway, but the ones I like have gone up to £76 with postage.
I plan to ride Ace later when I get them in. To think that it is exactly 14 days tonight when I got off, came into the house and told SH that I was not prepared to ride him again unless we could find out why his behaviour was getting more and more dangerous. What a change in two weeks.
C
It does look like a beautiful day to hunt with lots of fun looking jumps to conquer.
ReplyDeleteSome of those hounds have amazing jumping form! Wow, are they athletic!
Once again, great news about Woody. He does seem to have an nice attitude about his work. That's a big plus.
And Ace? Transformation miracle. So glad. He is a nice horse that deserves a fair chance.
The hounds are very selectively bred, Jean, and our huntsman won three out of the four categories at the National Hound Show this year. They have pedigrees goign back centuries, some of the hounds hunting in this country.
ReplyDeleteC