Yesterday I took D-Bobs off for a lesson, due to work commitments he hadn’t been ridden all week, gales were blowing, and it was generally shaping up to be quite an exciting experience! When we arrived to add to the situation the horses in the paddocks surrounding the arena were leaping about, and one of the owners was driving about with a mini tractor and trailer collecting droppings, I had a feeling the neck-strap might be required 😉 Because it was so windy we used the ear mic again, I’m getting quite used to this, and think it really is a nifty bit of kit.
Dustry was pretty lit up when I first got on, but he’s so good because after a while of bending and suppling him up, gaining control of the neck, and asking him to listen he settled pretty quickly. A few times now in the high winds we have used the tactic of walking for a while but fairly quickly going into trot and setting the rhythm to get him to calm down and listen. TBs love to go forwards, and having come from racing insisting that he walk in the early days is counter productive as it just makes a tense excited horse even more pent up, and explosive! Now he is a little older and wiser I also want to counter act him getting the idea that he can be tense and fling his head up, and that he will be allowed to go into trot, so today we worked on bisecting a 20m circle, changing the rein and doing lots of bending within the circle, he quickly got the idea of this, and settled nicely so we then went into trot.
We worked on getting his trot work soft, forwards, and settled in the neck. He has a bit of a habit when tense or excited of flinging his head up occasionally, so I need to work on pre-empting that, on calm days he doesn’t do it, but when stressed he also has to learn it’s not acceptable. We tried some leg yielding which he got the hang of quickly, next stage to that is to work on getting him to remain straight for a more correct leg yield. He did some absolutely lovely canter work, especially on the right rein, but sod’s law meant just as my mother went to record it ‘memory card full’ argh! darn technology!!! I think the videos are really interesting because you can clearly see the change in his pace, and way of going as he gets the idea of what’s being asked of him, and if you want an eaves drop the audio of my instructor is really clear.
So, very pleased with how well he coped in the conditions and lots of work on at home before next week’s lesson 🙂