Ben: Back to JOMPIES! I am not sure if he is delighted, but I am. Monday we worked through S turns with a grid JT built just for him in the middle of it. The grid was three x-rail bounces. He did fully put a single stride into a 9 foot space the first time through. He had sucked back and was staring at what was to come, and my reflexes weren't quick enough to tell him GO! But he still did it. The only jump he opted out of was the liverpool. To be fair to him, it was on the last part of our S turn and I hadn't put my eye on it or gotten his eye on it soon enough. He lurched to a halt and then thought about doing a silly launch/flail to be a GOOD BOY, but I stopped him and then JT broke it down and he walked over it, like he has done a million times before. The big take away from this lesson was the thing I'm always relearning - he needs to feel like he is GOING more so than I really want to feel, and I need to push my hands towards the jump, not pull back. He was a bit... much sometimes, so JT had me bouncing my hands up and down a little bit as we approached rather than pulling back. It felt super silly, but she assured me I didn't look that ridiculous. It kept him nicely uphill and didn't give him a solid hand to drag down.
Friday was amazing, he is really getting it back together fairly quickly. The course was changed and the grid had evolved into 3 one strides. There was also a three stride to a one stride line. The first time through that line he thought about exiting at the one stride and put two strides into it, but I had a dressage whip and tapped him behind the leg and he went. Then he tried to screw around afterwards, so we had to halt coming out of that line a couple of times. That really kind of reset his brain to take personal responsibility though. We did the grid to the liverpool, to a funny kind of U-turn near a panel that he detests and LOVES to spook at. I kept my focus on the next jump pretty well, but still kind of botched the turn and got him to a funny spot to the first jump, a skinny. It was a five to a six (or a six to a five, I forget). He took the longer spot coming in rather than doing his fave chippy chip and then got us down to the next one in handy fashion. I actually had to woah him before the last in order to not leave out. It was the unicorns, which he also LOVES to spook at. He did acknowledge them in his body, but didn't tense and drop a rail or anything and he WENT. We quit on that because it was roughly five million degrees out there.
Ben is back at the GY's since Goggles has gotten himself kicked out by alternating between beating up or being beat up by Ms. GY's horses. She offered solitary confinement for him, but then he paces the fenceline. I briefly thought both my horses would get to be in the same space when he and Ben seemed to be getting along quite well at JT's, meaning they could both go live together at the GY's, but then in one night Goggles kicked Ben multiple times. Nothing terrible, and fortunately he still isn't wearing hind shoes, but enough to make Ben sore. And with his history of kicking Ms. GY's horse in the same fashion, it just wasn't going to fly.
I was a bit worried about hauling Ben in the heat. I gave him the whole box stall, since that is the least stress for him and opened up the tack room windows in the nose to give max flow of air through the front window into the horse compartment, and cranked up the Ryobi fan. He actually got off the trailer at JT's NOT sweaty when he had started sweaty coming in from the pasture at 10 AM. He was blowing a tiny bit coming off the trailer from the trip home, but overall not too bad at all. I do think closing TWO horses in there would make it pretty toasty though. I really need to get on insulating my roof.
Goggles: Our Monday lesson was about placing his shoulders where they should be. Non-subtle type booting him with leg forward of the girth to help move the shoulders. Then laying the dressage whip along his shoulder to reinforce if the boot hadn't accomplished it. Then lots of praise. If he fusses and drags down on the rein, jiggle with the outside hand to shake him off of it, that is the kind of "half-halt" for right now. It felt really awful to the right, mostly because he felt pretty darn great to the left. He was offering to come on the bit to the left and generally bending through his body. To the right he is much more stiff and I want to PULL on that damn inside rein. Once I started watching his head and neck and looking at exactly what did and did not happen when I pulled (nothing good happens...) I managed to quit for a bit and ask for bend and then give forward with that hand. Then he felt MUCH better.
JT's crew was setting up the dressage arena in the ring while we rode. He was so civilized about it and didn't much care.
Friday was kept short and sweet. We did CANTER in both directions and did some sitting and moving his canter around. He got the right lead on the second try both times. We also did this whole lesson INSIDE A DRESSAGE ARENA. Which is ONLY 20 meters wide (no duh)!!!! Baby horse was soooooo good. He did not feel like a giant, unsteerable monster within a 20m circle. He did once half hop the arena wall with his hind end on our right lead canter circle. That led to a swap to the left lead, but he then did a lovely clean change back to the right lead. I had zero idea what happened, it just felt like a lot of legs going places, but in a fairly balanced fashion, but JT told me it was derpy but clever.
lol my last mare and i went through a phase of "non-subtle shoulder placement aids" lol.... but hey, whatever helps them understand, right? excited to see Ben out again, good luck at the show with both critters and their respective goals! charlie's understudy isn't quite ready for show existence yet, but she *did* trot under saddle quite nicely, so you could say things are getting pretty serious ;)
ReplyDeleteSuper serious with a first trot, very cool! Thanks, I am hoping there will be media from the show since I've been pretty lacking in that department lately!
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