Half Halt

Butterball and I went back to Naked Horse on Thursday after Majestic. JT had ridden along in the chase cart that day and had some specific things she wanted us to work on. Namely a more efficient approach and set up for the fences. She said my galloping position was much better but now we need to work on the approach. I definitely knew what she meant as soon as she said that. I haven't been clear on exactly when to set up for the fences. I've fallen into a sorta kinda sitting up ten-ish strides out and kinda shifting the balance back and up a little bit and then maybe asking for a bit more balance three or four strides out. You get the point. 

I have no media from the lesson, have some Pico pics instead ❤️

What I should be doing: 8 strides out sit down, shoulders back/up, next stride half-halt with legs ON, balance should now be up and powerful and we should have options on how we cover the next 6 strides in order to get a nice spot to the fence. 

On cold days she had to tuck her nose in

I had been missing the defined moments as well as the next step. If he's not UP and powering forward from his hocks, then HALF HALT AGAIN! It's not enough for me to execute the half halt, he has to too. DO SOMETHING if he hasn't! 

And WOW. Did that make a huge difference. Butterball felt AMAZING. We had a couple where I screwed it up, a skinny brush thing on a mound where I mistook pushing him forward for power and a blue bench where he was spooking so I just shoved forward again rather than creating the power. Both times we came back around and corrected it. Then we did some courses that felt so great! We did a coffin that had a log box two strides to large ditch one stride to moderately skinny round log thing. He thought about the last fence, but because I'd been riding him right he went even with a little wiggle. Then we did a few fences to an up bank two strides to a down bank then to a rolltop and then another coffin with an even larger ditch and skinny fences on either side then back around to an up bank, six strides to a wedge. Other than landing in a bit of a heap from the down bank and not getting the work down before the rolltop, that whole course felt so good!! 

He's so game and fun and when I ride him well he just feels absolutely amazing and like we could go cruise around a training level course no problem. 

We also met Bolytair B who has his own pony and pretty immediately adopted Butterball as his as well. I wish I'd had my phone on me, it was a very cool brush with eventing horse fame.