Pro started off really testing me and I think I scored about an 80%; I passed, but not with any sort of flying colors. He started off trying to rush through my hands to avoid my leg. So I did Gayle's trick of making a funnel out of the reins and booting him forward. He was doing pretty well and then he noticed that the "maze" had grown orange cones and that the dreaded cavelletti blocks had been added. That sent him sideways in a hurry, but I dealt with the looking/spooking the same way: open reins, boot forward, and then ignore it. He looked at the bench once but I think that was because of the lunge whip laying on it. Once he figured out rushing and spooking weren't working, he did his uber-collected walk where each step is about 6". I decided to ignore that other than to push him forward with leg slaps when it got incredibly rediculous. I did some leg yeilding and some haunches-in (gotta keep him evenly responsive!) and even a tiny bit of half-pass, though he didn't have enough impulsion so we went sideways more than I wanted.
So I figure I've got him super collected and responsive, let's try the trot. Well, everything sort of disentigrated. I worked on getting it back and luckily caught onto Pro's trick. He was tricking me into collapsing my upper body. My trunk would pitch forward and my shoulders would release and then suddenly we were totally unconnected. If I sat up, tightened my abs, pulled my shoulders down to hold everything together then the rushing stopped and the neck rounded and everything went great. Of course, 5 min later I had to do it all over again, but at least I think I've solved the rushing problem (same trick worked at the walk, it was just much easier to notice at the walk).
Around then Tara came out and asked if she could give me a trot-pole lesson. The answer was of course "yes" so then we did some work with trot poles and trying to get him to loosen up his shoulder and back and really stretch forward. Tara helped keep an eye on my position and he did really well (again, if I got lazy it went crappy, if I held my position and used my legs, it went great). So then we did two poles about a stride apart at the canter. He did great to the left, less great but still good to the right. The amazing thing about this actually is that Kathleen showed up to move hay into the loft over the barn and Pro never even peeked at the truck moving around and the people over there. He was 100% focused on the job at hand. Tara and I are thinking that maybe his dressage work isn't mentally stimulating enough for him and so if we don't give him something to think about then he finds something to think about. His choice is almost always much less productive. So now the question is... how do you keep semi-basic dressage exercises mentally stimulating enough for an Arab? I'm thinking about buying the 101 Dressage Exercises book to leave at the barn so Kate and I can try never doing the same exercise two rides in a row, but it seems like I should be able to come up with this stuff on my own... Anyone have favorite exercises they want to contribute?
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4 comments:
Ive heard good things about the dressage exercise book.
When I was just walking Mandros, I tried a ton of fun excerises because it got kinda boring. I did legyeild to the 1/4 line, half pass back, half pass to 1/4 line, halfpass back (so changing the bend). halfpass 3 steps, change the bend and half pass back.
Id do a long legyeild(or halfpass) then do a shorter. short and long as in, moving more sideways and less fwd, and then less sideway and more fwd. I cant descibe it well, sorry.
Do large and small figure 8s in different areas of the arena. Surpentines the width of the arena, and then half the width, and intermix them.
Personally, I would USE the things that 'scare' him!
Set up cones and ground poles and walk over, around them, through them. (I LOVE setting up a weaving line with the cones and walking STRAIGHT then halfpassing/sidepassing to get to the other side- walk straight again, then more halfpass/sidepass.) I've found this works INCREDIBLLY well for horses who aren't SO responsive to your leg...ita also helps give you a visual to see WHERE EXACTLY your line should be. And going straight is MUCH easier said than actually done!
I also love taking a bunch of ground poles, putting them together like logs (just sort of scatter them in nor particular order) and then let him walk through them! When he gets better at just walking through them, then start asking for a alt halfway through. He REALLY has to think about where his legs are after the halt and which leg he needs to move where. This is a GREAT excercise for really FEELING which leg the horse is moving at which moment. Plus, since you don't have to walk the same way toward the 'logs' each time, he CONSTANTLY has to think about where his feet are going, and which way your legs are telling him to go.
Also, set up tiny cavelletis and ground poles several feet apart. You can serpentine around/through the ground poles and THEN go over the ground poles/cavelletis. If he balks, just start with two and slowly add more.
Hmmm....can you tell I've had some experience with this? LOL! I'll keep thinking and add more later if I come up with anything lese!
I like the serpentines idea, Dare - good one! I also like the mixed pole idea, Mary...thanks for the suggestions! I'll have to try those.
He can't do lateral work yet because it's still in his "toolbox of evasions" so I have to tackle it in a lesson first so he can't turn it back on me and use it against me/us/. He's getting trimmed on Monday so I'm setting up a lesson then. :)
I started to suggest a while back that he might be mentally bored and therefore looking for trouble!
I like putting out obstacles to weave through/around and otherwise use to create exercises so the horse, and I, don't get bored.
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