Had a body balance session to start with - found my seatbones on a gym ball then a hard seat - I think I have quite a good basic position these days and have got rid of my tendency to perch - seatbones found easily. Did some gym ball exercises which I mostly found ok, balance not great but core strength ok. Could do with doing more of this if I had more hours in the day!
Then a massage session where she showed us some interesting stretches I could add to my routine with Monty - her favourite one is to carrot stretch the nose down to the outside of each front foot. Also stretching each leg forwards and stretching each hindleg to the opposite side which I had started doing with Monty's right hind since last physio visit. Little areas for us to check whether horse comfy or not - the back, the girth area, behind the poll and the dip on their hindquarters between the gluts/biceps femoris. If you give them a bit of a scratch there it makes them really round their backs.
First lesson with SJL - worked on slowing down the trot a bit, remember to look up and around the circle, not too much inside bend on the left rein. Did some simple changes. Try and think of riding shoulder fore round the first half circle, maintain it into the walk, then change bend then canter. Mustn't let him dive into the walk, collect the canter before asking for the walk transition. SJL said she really liked him - said it was a shame not to be able to manage the tension in the competition atmosphere as he had a lot of potential despite being quite weak behind at the moment.
Test in the afternoon with Pat Watts judging - did N38 and managed 64.2% despite his tension at being within the white boards again. Got all 6's and 7's apart from a 5 when he threw in a lovely non-required flying change in the first counter canter. Nice test - not one I think I've ridden on Monty yet. Should be a good one for him though.
Demo with Matt Hicks in the evening - 3 different horses. Ad Med horse, older GP schoolmaster ridden by his WP and another AM level horse. All with their various issues. Last one was noticeably short on its left hind in the walk, yet completely level as soon as he dropped the reins and let it free walk - quite interesting. He said it had got that way since teaching half steps. He uses lots of suppling exercises for all of them - lots and lots of travers and SI in trot and canter.
Went to a waste of time psychology session on Sunday morning - should have stayed in bed! It could have been useful but she was talking bollox about plants responding to being talking to nicely!!!
Lesson with Matt Hicks on Sunday morning - warmup did lots of transitions making sure not to let him drop back behind the vertical. Dont lift hands higher to get his poll up as will make him duck down more, use legs to get him more forwards. He likes to use lots of circles, gradually working on smaller ones as they warmup and halts making sure they always step forwards into the halt. Did a lot of counter canter which he can do really well and was told I positioned it well. Did some leg yield in trot - must make sure the forehand always leads without escaping through the shoulder - easier said than done.
Session with 2 guinea pig horses and a judge I didn't know on Sunday afternoon. Waste of time. She couldn't really tell me what she was looking for at all. I think the session on Sat afternoon with Pat Watts was really useful - wish I'd gone to that one but was riding at the time! I asked this judge what was so bad about the horse seeking the rein in the trot G&R and she said I should be holding him up with my legs. If I use my legs he'll just go faster. I cant stop him seeking the contact I've taught him to look for - stupid movement. I think I've done so much writing for judges I know what they're looking for in general.
Last lesson with SJL - was debating not to go as thought Llewi would be tired and fed up by that point and I was a bit too! It was cold and late but I'm glad I did go as it was the most useful session. Started with walk piris and she got me to feel how much he threw my weight to the outside and how difficult it was to keep my weight to the inside whilst keeping the correct bend and keeping him stepping round. Suggested we do walk HP into it and pointed out how I keep my weight correctly to the inside in the HP but as soon as we move into the piri he chucks it to the outside. He started to get really stroppy as think he found that quite hard so moved on to some canter HP as he seems to find this quite easy! Was told to think of being able to make a turn out of the HP at any point, make sure weight to the inside and open the rein in the direction of travel to keep the shoulders flowing across. The hindleg needs to step across and forwards. I tried to think of slight shoulder-in positioning before asking for the HP and she said I was positioning it well and sitting correctly so that was nice as I'm not sure I've ever really been taught how to ride HP. Did some in trot as well and then a bit more in canter as it was so much fun. Was doing HP from corner to centre line then canter to walk and he wasn't diving as the HP was collecting and engaging him. Also did some SI and travers in trot which he did very well. Working with mirrors was amazing as could see everything he was doing without someone on the ground to tell you and when you are an amateur without amazing feel mirrors are just such a massive help.
I was so chuffed with Llewi. I trained that horse from a wild 5yr old who couldn't do a trot-canter transition and couldn't work in any kind of outline to one who despite 18mths off school work could pull off a HP better than a lot of horses there (and better than Monty can for that matter!) Such a shame he's got such a screwy brain as he's really very talented. Still, I'm sure he will be quite happy to go back to a life of hacking, fun rides and hunting.
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