Raising the Sticks

In order to give Courage the best shot at becoming an excellent riding horse, I try to make intelligent choices about his education. I can't just ride him 6 or 7 days a week right now, so I work on a new concept, then give him time off to think it over, then pick it up again a few days later. It works for his mind and body--he is progressing faster that I'd hoped for and I haven't had any problems (yet) with physical soreness or mental resistance.

When I took him to grid night last week, I got the same feedback from the instructor that Redheadlins was giving me anyways--I need to get up out of the saddle and let him learn to use his hind end. To this point, I'd been staying in the tack more than is good because I was steering to the jump. Now that he's got that idea down, it's time for me to step it up.

I rode one day last week and trotted over a few wee things to let us both get a feel for it. In keeping with our training plan, he then got a couple of days off.

Getting out of the tack

This week, I set the jumps up a little so I could ask him some new questions and let him figure out how to respond. There was nothing inherently hard about the jumps--a bigger crossrail, a vertical with flowers, the beginnings of a baby grid... hm. I wanted Courage to have a good experience, and the best way to do that was to put someone in the irons who would give him a solid ride.

Redheadlins stepped on and off they went. As they trotted to the bigger crossrail the first time, you could see the wheels start turning in his head. "wait... this is tall... what do I do?" He slowed in front of it, then launched himself over the wee crossrail in the biggest effort he's given yet. Wish I had a picture of that.

They've got this

She stayed on and kicked forward after the jump. They went on to the next obstacle, the little vertical. Again, he slowed down. You could see him looking for the low spot that he was supposed to jump, but there wasn't one.

Hmm. He hopped over it, then cantered away. The lightbulb was coming on. Next they were able to string together the cross rail to the vertical. It wasn't a related distance per se, but it was the closest together that he's had to do two jumps and he looked great.

Check out that back end!

The more jumps he did, the better he looked. Instead of trotting over, he started using his hind end and landing in balance, then cantering off on a loopy rein.

By the time they did the baby grid (of poles on the ground), he had figured out what she wanted and was just perfect. We set up one crossrail in the grid. He trotted in, took a canter stride, and jumped out, then cantered away softly.

My jaw probably hit the floor. We called it a day and gave him lots of neck scratches. 

As much as I begrudge my insane work schedule right now, it seems to be an advantage to Courage. How many days a week do normal people ride anyways?