My goal was to get in 4 rides last week, I made 3 because the ring was soup when I went out so I just helped with chores and worming horses. Yesterday Pro got a very long ride, though, so I think that's ok. He'd been asking for a long ride all week, he just never really settled into a groove, so I went out yesterday determined to ride for awhile.
Everything went really well, he got a little bit rounder through his back as we rode. After I asked him to trot we had to re-establish the nice, round back. I ended up getting annoyed with his half-effort and gave him a little tap with the whip on the inside and he actually accepted his correction and snapped his back up under me. That was very satisfying since the past couple rides when I'd correct him with the whip he'd turn into a drama llama. I decided that since things were going so well there was no reason to not push it and did quite a bit of canter work as well. We got some chewing even during the canter and the transitions up and down were pretty smooth. I asked for more transitions than I normally do in a ride just to keep him on his toes. Unfortunately he still just assumes that canter figure-8's are a prelude to flying changes. It was actually MORE work to do correct simple changes than the flying ones, he'd do a half-beat of trot and then swap leads at the mid-point. I started asking him to canter the outside halves of the figure-8 circles and trot the inside halves, then working towards just trotting the middle point. He probably could have done decent flying changes, he was pretty collected, but I figured that'd be bad to do on principle.
Kate should be back out to the barn tomorrow, so there will be a second opinion on post-holiday Pro soon. :)
5 comments:
Yay, less drama llama means he's accepted the fact that his holiday break is done! :) I'm actually really encouraged that he's responding to the whip so well. It doesn't mean freak out, it doesn't mean run, it just means step up and under. What a good boy!
It is SOOOOO difficult to make that jump from 3 days to 4 - I seem to be unable to do it, even though my instructor swears we will improve by leaps and bounds with just one more day.
I'm glad to hear Pro is back in action and responding well. I hope he goes so well for Kate!
Simple changes are harder for me to b/c my horse thinks we are going to do flying changes. Yay for him doing so well.
sounds like you both are making good progress to start off the new year!
Sounds like a pretty good ride! Yay for the appropriate response to the whip!
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