schooling 14-02-12

Another good one  :)

Not quite sure what has changed since before the Simon lesson 10days ago and this week but something obviously has clicked in either my mind or his!  For me it feels like I'm riding with more connection and that he's accepting it.  Feels like a more consistent contact and that he's working into it much better.  He feels softer and more flexible.

Basically worked on the same stuff today as on Sunday.  10mins in walk starting on a long rein then a long stretch then picked him up and did a bit of shoulder in on the circle, straightening the neck but keeping the inside hind moving so no head nodding.  Am alert to the head nodding being a sign of disconnection so ready to flex and engage inside hind at the first sign.  Then into trot working nicely forwards but rounder than he would usually, encouraging softness to inside flexion and reaction to the leg.  Did some trot-walk-trot transitions to get the hindend working then some canter work.  Canter transitions not wonderful today, not as off the leg as he could be so need to work on that.

After that warmup we then did some work in canter on a 20m circle at B/E working slightly forward seat and good forward going canter and then as we came towards the long side bringing shoulders back, sitting down in the saddle and coming canter to walk to halt, sometimes staying in halt and sometimes rein back before back into canter again.  He really got the hang of the shoulders back meaning we're about to downwards trans and did some nice canter to walk.  Should be able to transfer that anticipation into more dressage styled canter to walk and also into him coming back to me on the XC course when I bring my shoulders back and the other thing I read recently was bringing the lower leg and the knee back so you can look down and see the stirrup leather when you want them to steady up.

Then we did a bit of canter over raised canter poles raised alternate ends.  Not so great on the left rein as school not really big enough to get straight before coming over them but did them spot on twice on the right rein.  Then we just popped over a 2ft6 upright a few times on the left rein.  Trying really hard to remember to create the good powerful canter, leg on round the corner then not to interfere in the last 3 strides.  He did rather dive at it on a long stride the 2nd time even though he has plenty of scope to jump it nicely off a longer stride - it's like he panics if he's on a long one.  3rd time jumped it nicely though.  Keeping it all quite small at the moment to make sure we get his confidence back and also as the school at home is rubbish!

Have got plenty of SJ/XC training booked in between now and the start of the event season so as long as the rubbish weather stays away we should be on track still.  Completely lost my nerve SJing - just thinking about it brings out the butterflies - but hoping it will come back as soon as I get out and jump a course as the couple of times I have taken him out this winter he has jumped really well - it's only at home it all goes wrong!  We are doing lots of work on strengthening his canter and creating a more powerful jumping canter so hopefully that will pay off.

Plan to introduce some interval training work in the arena over the next 4wks before Tweseldown.  Can do 10mins walk then a good trot on each rein then 3 canter sets starting at 2-3mins with 1min walk in between each set and changing the rein between each set.  Forward seat, dont worry about outline, treat them completely differently to a schooling session.  Will try and bring this in as an extra arena session from next week to up his fitness in time to start eventing.