Worked on the canter to start with - had the schooling whip and had him going nice and forwards but when forwards he does get more argumentative about the contact and outline. Had to work to keep him in an energetic canter but keep him round and keep the canter contained.
Started with a little grid - pole to x pole to pole then made x-pole to upright and then 2 uprights on a bounce. He wanted me to concentrate on getting a distance to the first pole and let the rest happen from there - I find it really hard to see a distance to a pole though! It makes me look down for a start. Did fluff it a few times but just kept leg on and he sorted himself out after falling over the first pole. He's never been the best at poles for some reason.
Then moved onto a wide low oxer which is absolutely fab for getting him to round over the jump - you can really feel him looking for the back rail. Then nicely forwards to an upright. Then onto a short course including a one stride double and a tight turn back to a big oxer and then right turn to a big oxer over the water tray. Determined not to hook and pull like in my last lesson so went the other way and just fired him at them all. He listened to me and he flew but it does then take me a year to get him back under control after the fence and after telling Chris we'd mastered our flying changes I couldn't get him to change to the right. He said it was taking me far too long to regain control after a fence - needs to be within 2-3 strides, not halfway round the school. He wanted him rounder and more connected. Need to sit down in the saddle sooner after the fence and get him to listen to me. Needs to come from seat and legs, not hands. Also need to remember not to nag him with my legs, sit quietly and use the schooling whip in the couple of strides before the fence if needed to really wake him up.
Chris jumped on at the end and had him better connected and waiting for the fences rather than firing, but without hooking. One day I'll work out how to do that! Monty still wasn't making it easy for Chris to get him soft and round though so not surprising I struggle. It's amazing how much he fights it considering how soft he is with his flatwork now.
I was initially pleased with how he was forwards and attacking his fences and listening to me saying go rather than chipping in but came away feeling frustrated as didn't get the usual praise from Chris. I guess because he is really trying to work on our technique now rather than just getting us over fences. I see his point about having him more connected and that would make him easier to adjust. Need to do some work at home on small fences and regaining softness between them I think. The problem is that to get him really taking me to the fences I have to razz him up and then he loses the softness and then just charges around with me - this works to an extent but is rubbish if I need to adjust him at all. If I keep him in a quiet, soft dressagey canter he's fine but as soon as I open it up I lose the connection. Determined to sort this! Thinking I might organise a bit of a bootcamp with Chris once he's back from Australia. Go for a few days and ask Chris to go back to basics with our canter and really try and crack this. Was also thinking I might try and go there for the week before we go to Badminton so we can really tune him up. Last year I had weekly lessons in the lead up which really helped as he did a fab dressage/SJ. Want to do similar this year but make sure we get out XC schooling and SJ on grass as well so a whole week would work well. It's close enough I can leave him there and travel in daily for lessons.
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