Winter continues...
Following our last horse trial on November 7 - I had the two most difficult weeks ever with Leo. We had moved up to novice at our last event and Leo was a rock star on cross country - didn't blink an eye at anything on course. But he was impossibly tense in the dressage warm-up. He didn't settle until he was cantering in the jumping warm-up area. When we got back home and went back to work on the flat, he was nearly impossible to ride.
It didn't help that I was dragging him out of the barn at 6:30 in the morning to ride. What horse likes to get ridden before they even have their breakfast! But I had no choice, the outdoor lights didn't go in until the end of November and it was the only way I could keep the horses in work.
Well, Leo was the pits following that last horse trial. Even in our lessons we made no progress. He locked his jaw, inverted his back, put his head in the air and resisted everything I asked. I couldn't bend him, I couldn't half halt, I couldn't even send him forward. I couldn't do anything of these things because he wouldn't accept any contact with the bit. He had his teeth done this fall, so I knew that wasn't a problem. His back did appear somewhat sore, but whose back wouldn't be sore the way he was contorting himself all the time. It was a frustrating 2 weeks.
Finally, Becca had an idea based on a similar situation she faced with a young horse back at Pleasant Hollow. She told me to ride with my arms out to the side, hands down and out, elbows straight. In this position, I could maintain a more consistent contact which he was unable to evade. No amount of twisting his head and neck worked to evade the contact. While we all know it's not a proper way to ride, it worked. Over a weeks time, I finally got Leo to a point where he was once again stretching across his topline and not fighting the bit every second.
This led into a clinic with Jane Cory, which Trevelda Farm in Bucks County hosted. It consisted of a private dressage lesson in the morning and a group jumping lesson in the afternoon. Warming Leo up, I couldn't believe how relaxed he felt. At home he is constantly spoking and shying - in the same ring we ride in every day. (As I type this, I realize that he has not been spooking as much lately.)
Jane was watching a little bit and then came over to talk to me at the start of the lesson. She said he looked tense and quick. I had to laugh. It was too funny to think that I thought he felt more relaxed! The jest of the lesson was this: she said his personality was never going to change. He's a sensitive and excitable horse who was very aware of his surroundings. The main problem she saw at the moment was that his tempo was too fast - his legs were moving too fast and because of that he wasn't relaxing and he wasn't using his topline properly. Now that I had a better connection with him, I needed to slow him down to gain the relaxation.
We started at a walk and Jane had me move Leo's haunches out on a circle. He wasn't allowed to speed up in response to my leg. Jane pointed out that I needed a consistent warm-up routine that I could always fall back on both at home and at competitions. Something that could become familiar to Leo. The haunches out was a good place to start. It made me use my outside rein properly (to half-halt) and my inside rein to simply bend (I have a bad habit of using my inside rein for aides that my outside rein should be executing). Leo had to think about what my leg was asking - move the haunches, not speed up. It was a basic concept I had yet to introduce or even think about with Leo. Thank god for trainer insights!
We eventually moved into the trot; same exercise of moving the haunches out on a circle. I had to maintain a very slow, pokey trot. Again, it forced me to really think about the combination of my aides. Jane emphasized that I needed to half halt with my body too. I should control his speed with the speed of my posting - holding with my core in each beat. Leo definitely started to relax and more importantly BREATHE, thanks to the slow pace of everything and the persistent approach to the exercise.
Jane also said that I had to bend more with my leg than with my hand. I need the inside bend in order to keep Leo's attention or get his attention back. Jane pointed out that I use my hand too much without supporting with my inside leg. She said eventually I should be able to apply my inside leg to get the bend without doing anything with my hands. This continued on the training theme that the leg means more than forward. Two months later I see a drastic improvement with Leo. Even Becca noticed when she rode him that he was starting to bend simply by applying pressure with the inside leg.
We practiced going down the long side, always circling to get the bend and attention back. The canter was still a little out of control but Jane thought it was a strength issue that would get better over time. Also, it was too soon to apply the concepts we were working on at the trot and walk to the canter.
I've continued to practice everything from that clinic for the past 2 months and things have gotten exponentially better with Leo. His canter is steadily improving as well, and I know I need to start adding concepts that help with his adjustability at the canter. Overall, Jane said to keep the trot slow; someday he will be able to go forward but that can't happen until he's relaxed. Becca and I just started introducing short amounts of forward into his flatwork. Once he's relaxed, we'll go forward for one circuit of a circle and then back to slow again.
The jumping was a little bit crazy at the clinic. We were in a large, spacious outdoor jumping ring and Leo got strong and bolder. At the time, I had just switched from a rubber mouth snaffle for jumping to a plain steel snaffle. I could still barely control him, but Jane laughed out loud when he jumped. He is so joyful and enthusiastic about jumping that you can't help but smile! We jumped a gymnastic: cross rail, one stride, vertical, one stride oxer, one stride skinny and a bunch of single fences to make a course. There was one occasion where we ran past the skinny. That was hard for us! Leo has a right drift that the skinny really highlighted. At the end of the lesson, someone let me borrow a slow twist snaffle to try. That seemed to help, but at the point Leo was tired.
I rode him in the slow twist snaffle in the Boyd clinic and I'm not sure he was all that effective. Boyd says he's just green and I need to address the issue with training not bitting. He personally jumps all his horses in loose ring snaffles. But I think I agree with Jane on this one, I just need to play it by ear. As we move up the levels I need to be sure I have control and if the flatwork training isn't quite doing the trick, I'm going to have to upgrade the bit.
It didn't help that I was dragging him out of the barn at 6:30 in the morning to ride. What horse likes to get ridden before they even have their breakfast! But I had no choice, the outdoor lights didn't go in until the end of November and it was the only way I could keep the horses in work.
Well, Leo was the pits following that last horse trial. Even in our lessons we made no progress. He locked his jaw, inverted his back, put his head in the air and resisted everything I asked. I couldn't bend him, I couldn't half halt, I couldn't even send him forward. I couldn't do anything of these things because he wouldn't accept any contact with the bit. He had his teeth done this fall, so I knew that wasn't a problem. His back did appear somewhat sore, but whose back wouldn't be sore the way he was contorting himself all the time. It was a frustrating 2 weeks.
Finally, Becca had an idea based on a similar situation she faced with a young horse back at Pleasant Hollow. She told me to ride with my arms out to the side, hands down and out, elbows straight. In this position, I could maintain a more consistent contact which he was unable to evade. No amount of twisting his head and neck worked to evade the contact. While we all know it's not a proper way to ride, it worked. Over a weeks time, I finally got Leo to a point where he was once again stretching across his topline and not fighting the bit every second.
This led into a clinic with Jane Cory, which Trevelda Farm in Bucks County hosted. It consisted of a private dressage lesson in the morning and a group jumping lesson in the afternoon. Warming Leo up, I couldn't believe how relaxed he felt. At home he is constantly spoking and shying - in the same ring we ride in every day. (As I type this, I realize that he has not been spooking as much lately.)
Jane was watching a little bit and then came over to talk to me at the start of the lesson. She said he looked tense and quick. I had to laugh. It was too funny to think that I thought he felt more relaxed! The jest of the lesson was this: she said his personality was never going to change. He's a sensitive and excitable horse who was very aware of his surroundings. The main problem she saw at the moment was that his tempo was too fast - his legs were moving too fast and because of that he wasn't relaxing and he wasn't using his topline properly. Now that I had a better connection with him, I needed to slow him down to gain the relaxation.
We started at a walk and Jane had me move Leo's haunches out on a circle. He wasn't allowed to speed up in response to my leg. Jane pointed out that I needed a consistent warm-up routine that I could always fall back on both at home and at competitions. Something that could become familiar to Leo. The haunches out was a good place to start. It made me use my outside rein properly (to half-halt) and my inside rein to simply bend (I have a bad habit of using my inside rein for aides that my outside rein should be executing). Leo had to think about what my leg was asking - move the haunches, not speed up. It was a basic concept I had yet to introduce or even think about with Leo. Thank god for trainer insights!
We eventually moved into the trot; same exercise of moving the haunches out on a circle. I had to maintain a very slow, pokey trot. Again, it forced me to really think about the combination of my aides. Jane emphasized that I needed to half halt with my body too. I should control his speed with the speed of my posting - holding with my core in each beat. Leo definitely started to relax and more importantly BREATHE, thanks to the slow pace of everything and the persistent approach to the exercise.
Jane also said that I had to bend more with my leg than with my hand. I need the inside bend in order to keep Leo's attention or get his attention back. Jane pointed out that I use my hand too much without supporting with my inside leg. She said eventually I should be able to apply my inside leg to get the bend without doing anything with my hands. This continued on the training theme that the leg means more than forward. Two months later I see a drastic improvement with Leo. Even Becca noticed when she rode him that he was starting to bend simply by applying pressure with the inside leg.
We practiced going down the long side, always circling to get the bend and attention back. The canter was still a little out of control but Jane thought it was a strength issue that would get better over time. Also, it was too soon to apply the concepts we were working on at the trot and walk to the canter.
I've continued to practice everything from that clinic for the past 2 months and things have gotten exponentially better with Leo. His canter is steadily improving as well, and I know I need to start adding concepts that help with his adjustability at the canter. Overall, Jane said to keep the trot slow; someday he will be able to go forward but that can't happen until he's relaxed. Becca and I just started introducing short amounts of forward into his flatwork. Once he's relaxed, we'll go forward for one circuit of a circle and then back to slow again.
The jumping was a little bit crazy at the clinic. We were in a large, spacious outdoor jumping ring and Leo got strong and bolder. At the time, I had just switched from a rubber mouth snaffle for jumping to a plain steel snaffle. I could still barely control him, but Jane laughed out loud when he jumped. He is so joyful and enthusiastic about jumping that you can't help but smile! We jumped a gymnastic: cross rail, one stride, vertical, one stride oxer, one stride skinny and a bunch of single fences to make a course. There was one occasion where we ran past the skinny. That was hard for us! Leo has a right drift that the skinny really highlighted. At the end of the lesson, someone let me borrow a slow twist snaffle to try. That seemed to help, but at the point Leo was tired.
I rode him in the slow twist snaffle in the Boyd clinic and I'm not sure he was all that effective. Boyd says he's just green and I need to address the issue with training not bitting. He personally jumps all his horses in loose ring snaffles. But I think I agree with Jane on this one, I just need to play it by ear. As we move up the levels I need to be sure I have control and if the flatwork training isn't quite doing the trick, I'm going to have to upgrade the bit.
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