Well we are really getting to know how Ace ticks finally. SH was strimming today, out of sight again, and Ace decided that this was a good reason to believe that the blue barrels were a risk of imminent attack. I had time and no particular objective for today's session, so I kept by the boards, keeping his head looking at them and letting him swing his body out, until he got bored with that game and gave it up.
When I started some real work he was occasionally setting in my hand and stiff through the back, but not as bad as he was on Wednesday and I am also getting better at making him release himself now that I know that it is mostly an evasion and not a body issue.
He doesn't realise what favours he's done me behaving so differently depending on whether there is noise going on somewhere off stage or not. It's so clear when he does that what is a mental issue and what is a physical one.
So we got down to some real work, and practised chunks of E40, our next test. I strung together a section where the moves come very fast, and he was really pretty good. The medium trot across the diagonal into collected for the corner and canter at C is quite a challenge. But he has it spot on to the right canter transition. He bucked into the first left hand one, and then got that much better once he was prepared for the fact it was coming up. This is where it is an absolute blessing to train a horse who
anticipates the moves. I only had to run through it once, and he knew immediately what was going to happen next time. It makes things a lot easier.
I'm tickled pink with his mediums. He's getting that transition into it every time, and reliably giving medium on the aid every time, staying with me and coming back to collected at the end easily every time. Occasionally he hops the first stride, which we will work on, but I think it's only a beginner thing.
I am planning to go affiliated for this next test on Wednesday, which would gain him points if I can hold my nerve and get a score of over 60%. He's well capable of that, but I perform so badly myself under pressure, when I am feeling being judged. I'm setting a strategy in place to deal with that, but it may include taking my hunting hip flask with me!
C
nothing wrong with the hip flask!
ReplyDeleteGordon's sloe gin, Claire:-)
DeleteC
The hip flask my help, but getting your mind in the right place will help more. Just practice taking deep breaths. You have to convince yourself that it's not really that important in the grand scheme of things. We need to learn to laugh at ourselves when we make what we are doing so significant when to the rest of the world, it really doesn't matter much at all.
ReplyDeleteMy friends used to get mad at me when Russell R. misbehaved in the show arena and I would start to laugh. Once I did, all my tension disappeared, and I realized it really wasn't a life defining moment any more.
Now, Ace's anticipation is helping in those tricky spots. He'll do his own half halts/rebalancing and you can just kind of sit there...well sort of...*G*
I just need those first few points,Jean and then I'll be OK.
ReplyDeleteC