Friday afternoon had a flatwork lesson at the yard from Laura and for the first time in nearly a year got to see my horse ridden! Literally no-one but me has sat on him since I got him. It was quite enlightening - he looked like a proper dressage horse! He is really resistant to the contact but when we got him to give he suddenly lightened in front and the whole picture was much more pleasing to the eye. She didn't think the Verbindend was the right bit for him as he needs something that puts more pressure on his tongue but we kept it in the for the session.
Things to remember - he must give to the contact, I mustn't give it to him until he softens. As soon as he softens then that's his reward. If he goes backwards then fine but I mustn't give away the contact. In general, need to be firmer with the contact, ride him forwards from the leg and into a more containing hand. Warming up work him deeper but with the firmer contact then can pick him up. Get the relaxation in the halt and when asked to walk on he mustn't chuck his head and resist. Insist every upwards transition is done in the correct manner and dont allow the head chucking. Downwards transitions think about breathing out and riding forwards into the transition. Always think about tummy button out and dont collapse in the transitions. After doing some work in the trot we then moved onto canter and it felt so much lighter in front! Worked on giving away the inside then the outside rein and it was much improved. Tactic for next week is to give away the inside then the outside then take them both back. Have some new longer spurs which really helped me ride him up from leg into hand better. They're still blunt ended so dont piss him off too much but definitely help.
Today took him over for combined training lesson. Started with dressage with Tracey. Set off determined to work on confirming yesterday's work - he warmed up great, deeper with more of a contact. Changed his bit today back to the NS Tranz angle lozenge bit. He was still resistant in the halt but better once we moved off. Tracey said just from the little warmup he looked like a different horse from when she saw him in April. We started with cantering on the 3/4 line to try and see quite how crooked the canter was - he is more so on the right rein which I knew he would be but still said it wasn't that bad at all. Then we moved onto working on shoulder in down the long side, into half pass and back into shoulder in. Starting on the left rein he did the shoulder in/HP very nicely but then when we went back into shoulder in on the 3/4 line i had to really remember to use outside leg to keep control of his quarters as they tended to go swinging off to the outside. This exercise was all about activating each hindleg in turn and keeping them under control. On the right rein found it hard to stop him leading with the quarters in the HP and more difficult to keep his back end straight in the SI. We started this exercise in walk, then moved onto trot and finally working down the 3/4 line in canter shoulder in which I found quite easy on the left rein and really hard on the right rein - harder to keep my position and harder to get the inside positioning from him but to be expected as quite a hard exercise for him. Really concentrate on sitting on bum, tummy button out and riding him up from the leg so he supports himself into the correct outline. If they engage the abdominal muscles it will pull the hindleg under and contract the ventral neck muscles encouraging the head into self carriage. It really worked - we managed to do a whole 3/4 line giving away the inside rein. We could swap from inside to outside rein and he just stayed there. Not so great still when we gave away both but cant expect miracles overnight. It was a drastic improvement. Just those few things about my position and suddenly a much improved horse. I feel like some lightbulbs have been switched on - forwards, forwards, forwards, ride up into the contact, sit up and engage core muscles - magic!
Quick break then onto the jumping - had 3 fences set out on a straight line down the centre of the field and had to jump them coming across the field. Ground pretty hard so didn't do much. Tried to change direction after each fence and think about what leg landing on. He was tired and not jumping very forward due to the ground and we nearly had a miss at the vertical when I came on a silly angle and didn't put my leg on enough so he didn't know what I wanted but was honest and jumped. Then later on we had a total miss and he just slid into the base of the jump - he's never stopped before so that took me by surprise - I didn't think I'd done anything wrong but apparently was asking him to jump off a strange angle and he just got confused. Went back to jumping nicely again afterwards. So, when jumping on an angle, must put leg on and channel through into the contact - dont want speed, but need to give him direction. Think about what leg want to land on after the fence to help get the correct lead. Dont panic about the wrong lead/going disunited as over 90cm he can sort himself out and still jump - something to work on over the winter - getting the correct flying changes.
Poor tired pony has got to go to the gallops tomorrow afternoon for final blowout! He will be a tired pony by Monday but we need to make sure we can get 500mpm ok and give him a final pipe opener - no chance to do that round here so we need to go to the gallops. Rest of next week will be quietly working on hacking with a final lesson from Laura on thur evening before going up on Friday. Clare said not to do too much flatwork this week as it will just make his hindlegs tired and he needs those to power over the jumps so take it easier on him this week - not the time to make him any fitter or make any huge changes to the flatwork.
So pleased with how he is coming on at the moment - hope it continues like this!
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