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Tuesday 6 December 2011

hunting and more schooling

Not much to say about hunting other than flipping amazing!  First couple of lines pretty boring but I knew there were some hedges to come.  3rd and 4th lines were the hedges.  Monty jumped every single one spot on.  We didn't get an awkward stride to one of them.  Had to get him sitting back on his hocks each time as we had to wait our turn and then just let him power on down to them and he made them all feel so easy.  It's a pleasure to hunt him.  I hate hacking him as so scared he's gonna ditch me with one of his spook and spins but hunting is just wonderful on him.  Just want to be a bit careful we dont overdo things as these are pretty big jumps and I dont want him jumping them every week.  2wks now till our next meet at Kingsclere.  Would rather go every few wks and jump fab hedges than jump little jumps every week though!

Schooling today.  The draw reins made their approximately monthly appearance as I needed to convince him he was quite capable of working in the correct outline on the right rein and shouldn't be such a resistant little git.  I am very aware when I use them to make sure they are only coming into action when he tries to come out of his box.  Did some nice basic work - just did some transitions, nothing fancy today.  Had 4 trotting poles at 5.5feet apart which got him extending but only over the poles.  I wonder what tomorrow's medium trot attempts will be like - awful probably!  I hate feeling like I'm not making progress with something.  Feel like we've been trying to get medium all year and still it's no better.  Grrrr.

Things to remember to work on:
Give with my hands more over jumps.  Was fine when jumping little things but now jumping bigger need to really make sure I give him enough freedom in his head.
Really need to activate his inside hind, mostly the right hind - lots of lateral work, leg yield on a circle etc.  Really get it engaged before I can expect him to stay soft and round.  Loads and loads of transitions really helps connect him.

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