Thursday, February 12, 2009
Keepin' on Truckin'
Evidently the pretty weather has Pro wanting to ride as well as me and Kate. Tuesday night he was a rushing machine. The extra impulsion was nice, but Pro wasn't really interested in doing dressage. We spent some extra time at the walk getting my seat bones plugged in. I probably didn't help his rushing by deciding to go full-arena with him, but it was nice to work on straight lines. I did some leg yielding zig-zags to try and get him to focus (which he handled like a champ) and then we spent most of the rest of the night working on going straight on straight lines. He wanted to go down the long sides like a dog with his hindquarters shifted to the inside. I countered by leg yielding his shoulders over in front of his butt, which worked great for about 4 strides until he got annoyed that I was constantly asking him to leg yield and go straight. Luckily his annoyance came out as more rushing, which gave us 2 things to work on. Straightness and not rushing. After almost an hour I was starting to get sore from all the half-halts so I called it quits. Stupid super-fit Arab was still eager to keep going. His butt was super foamy, though, so I got to try the water up the butt for a butt tuck stretch on him. ;) Even with warm water his butt scoots under very impressively. I'm not sure I can get MY butt muscles that tight!
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6 comments:
Skate has been a speed demon lately, too. It's this weird spring weather!
I find myself doing half halts nearly every other stride - some of which can get pretty strong until he gives the control back to me. He's learning, slowly but surely, that he should follow MY plan, not his : )
As for the bending down the long side, I have to do that, too. There's no way I can let Skate keep trucking in his crooked state - we'd probably be in a full gallop by the time we got to the end of the arena!
It sounds like you did some nice work to counter both his rushing and his crookedness! Good for you!
Hahahahah he hates having hose water up his butt. But the butt-tucks are good for him.
Like I've said before, I think the two of us could tag-team him for four hours and he'd STILL have energy left over. I feel like we're dealing with the Energizer Bunny on steroids. :P
But good job on not letting him be lazy with his HQs down the long side!
Leg yields are another great way to work on straightness. It really just comes down to making him WORK in both directions, and finding out how he is trying to evade on his weak side (like sticking out his HQs, lol) and then plugging the leak, so to speak. I think you're doing a great job working on straightness, keep it up!
haha, I leased one horse that always did the water butt tuck when the water came NEAR her butt. Pro is so funny!
Haha at the butt tucks. I think you and Kate should alternate riding him oneday. Its part of being an arab owner, they can outlast just about anyone.
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