I rode Izzy yesterday and today and she has been great. I'm finally able to get her up off her right shoulder a little, which makes left lead canter circles dramatically easier. (YAY! We can turn.) I meant to work on taking her out on straight, long lines at the canter to improve her balance today, but we started by doing some walk/trot transitions. Her first one was lovely. No resistance, no pushing up into my hands. We did another. Same. I let the reins out a bit and we walked. Without picking up the reins, I softened her mouth just the tiniest bit and asked for another transition.
She did it. Same, soft, lovely motion she'd done before, only this time she stretched all the way through it. We walked and lengthened the reins and did one more transition. She was lovely.
Then the stupid neighbor kid started zooming around on his battery powered car behind a wood fence so all Izzy knew was that she could see shadows behind the fence and hear weird noises. I could have made her work through it, but after the lovely relaxation she'd been demonstrating, I just let her be done.
And did I mention that I didn't lunge her today or yesterday? Yep, she's fiinally developing her adult brain. Today she seemed to have a little sauce, so I did warm her up with a few big trot circle on a long rein, but she didn't even offer to do anything silly.
Have I mentioned that I love my horse today? What a wonderful girl.
As an aside, I've been worrying about Izzy a little bit. I really want to jump again, but I don't know if she does. I keep wondering what I'll do if she's not a jumper... dressage is great, but I really want to have a go at those fences again. Then again, even if she doesn't jump, if she stays this amazing, it might not matter. We'll see.
How nice for you that she's doing so well!
ReplyDeleteSometimes the horse does decide the discipline we will ride. Give Izzy some time to learn how to use her body well. Add some trotting poles to your routine. Then add some little cross rails with trotting poles spaced so she will always meet the fence at the right spot.
ReplyDeleteTake your time! My wonderful hunter/jumper did hundreds of little jumps, in all kinds of configurations, distances, etc. to teach him how to athletically use his body and adjust his stride. Then, when we needed to jump something bigger, all that initial gymnastic schooling paid off and nothing was really difficult for him.
The key was taking the time to let him learn the basics in a safe way so that if either of us made a mistake, it wasn't scary.
And remember, good flat work is the true key to good jumping. Train the athlete, not the jump. You are well on your way with those soft transitions. *S*
Glad she is doing well. Sometimes our horses have other ideas for their careers. But maybe she'll change? Keep mixing her work up so work feels more like "play"?
ReplyDeleteMine likes jumping more than I expected he would. But he's only 15hh. I cannot explain to him that he's too short to make a serious career of it. We're doing some small jumper shows between the dressage just to keep him enjoying work.
Glad she's relaxing. I had my old guy Toby getting all bug-eyed over my friends chasing and calling for their dog in the woods. I decided he needed to work through it. But that's because we JUST started working and I felt he was looking for excuses to spice things up a bit. It's not like he hasn't heard or seen people and their dogs before...
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I am keeping my eye out for a saddle for you.
ReplyDeleteEvery once in a while there are bargains from Ansur, but I don't recall any last year.
Are you on the Ansur saddle board at Yahoo, yet?
You can put in a query there to see if anyone has anything to sell. I am moderator, so I will approve your membership.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ansursaddles/
Ok, demo saddles. As a distributor, I can borrow saddles from Ansur for demo rides. That's what I did this time as I did not have the jumping saddles.
ReplyDeleteThey are not on loan to clients, however. Sorry.