When will winter end...
After spending the month of January at a barn with an indoor, Leo is back at Flying Horse Farm...where unfortunately there is no indoor and snow on the ground. Becca went to Aiken for 2 weeks this month and I didn't ride at all the entire time she was gone. The temperatures have consistently been in the single digits and there didn't seem to be any point to walking the neighborhood roads in the frigid temperatures. Now that Becca is back, I started my road work with Leo again. It's super boring but it's the only way to stay riding right now. At least its now back into the 20s!
So far the off-season has still managed to be quite interesting...I'm still learning new things and it's always humbling to see how training a horse is a never ending process.
Deep(er) footing has its benefits
I discovered that working Leo in deeper sand footing strengthened his left stifle and eliminated his left hind toe-drag. This was really surprising because I was actually quite concerned about the footing in the indoor and after a week of working in it, Leo felt sore. So I was shocked when I did some road work one day and discovered he was cleanly left his left hind leg without any toe dragging. Working the deeper sand footing really strengthened him in all the right places. Now I'm really going to miss that sand indoor.
Leo really does learn!
After jumping Leo at mostly novice height for a couple of months, one day Becca put us through a 3'6" course in the indoor. Leo was foot perfect. It really opened my eyes to how far his education has advanced. He is so resistant and tense, most of the time it feels like he isn't listening or learning anything. But then randomly, something happens and I realize that despite all the resistance, he really was listening and processing things all along. It's just not apparent on a day-to-day basis.
I must obtain straightness
Becca has been putting Leo and I through a lot of related bending lines with skinnies, simulating more technical prelim XC questions. It has really shown where the gaps are in Leo's education and it all comes down to straightness. Leo has always been a squirrelly horse. He over reacts to leg pressure. He overreacts to rein pressure. And when he reacts, he throws his haunches and shoulders around, contorting his body into all sorts of shapes and sizes. It's super apparent in our downward transitions. When he's really tense, you can see it in our go-no-where upward transitions. And now, you can see it when we have a short, bending approach to a skinny fence. He falls in or out and then doesn't get his eye on the fence in time for a good, clean jump. What I need to do is keep his head and neck in the middle of his shoulders in the turn. On the flat, I also need to be more disciplined about asking for straightness. At the canter, I need to ride haunches out and by doing so I actually get his haunches straight in line with his shoulders.
So what's next?
It's hard to plan right now with snow on the ground and no ring to train in. I'm hoping to run Training at Morven at the end of March and then go Prelim at Plantation in April, but we'll see!
 |
| Good old fashioned road work... |
So far the off-season has still managed to be quite interesting...I'm still learning new things and it's always humbling to see how training a horse is a never ending process.
Deep(er) footing has its benefits
I discovered that working Leo in deeper sand footing strengthened his left stifle and eliminated his left hind toe-drag. This was really surprising because I was actually quite concerned about the footing in the indoor and after a week of working in it, Leo felt sore. So I was shocked when I did some road work one day and discovered he was cleanly left his left hind leg without any toe dragging. Working the deeper sand footing really strengthened him in all the right places. Now I'm really going to miss that sand indoor.
Leo really does learn!
After jumping Leo at mostly novice height for a couple of months, one day Becca put us through a 3'6" course in the indoor. Leo was foot perfect. It really opened my eyes to how far his education has advanced. He is so resistant and tense, most of the time it feels like he isn't listening or learning anything. But then randomly, something happens and I realize that despite all the resistance, he really was listening and processing things all along. It's just not apparent on a day-to-day basis.
I must obtain straightness
Becca has been putting Leo and I through a lot of related bending lines with skinnies, simulating more technical prelim XC questions. It has really shown where the gaps are in Leo's education and it all comes down to straightness. Leo has always been a squirrelly horse. He over reacts to leg pressure. He overreacts to rein pressure. And when he reacts, he throws his haunches and shoulders around, contorting his body into all sorts of shapes and sizes. It's super apparent in our downward transitions. When he's really tense, you can see it in our go-no-where upward transitions. And now, you can see it when we have a short, bending approach to a skinny fence. He falls in or out and then doesn't get his eye on the fence in time for a good, clean jump. What I need to do is keep his head and neck in the middle of his shoulders in the turn. On the flat, I also need to be more disciplined about asking for straightness. At the canter, I need to ride haunches out and by doing so I actually get his haunches straight in line with his shoulders.
So what's next?
It's hard to plan right now with snow on the ground and no ring to train in. I'm hoping to run Training at Morven at the end of March and then go Prelim at Plantation in April, but we'll see!
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