so tonight i got that lovely canter again and so decided to have a sneaky play with some changes......well i got 2 perfect ones right-left and then two perfect ones left-right so called it a day.
that horse is far too clever!
Monday, 29 March 2010
training our butts off...
well, he feels spot on and i cant wait for the premier league now!
had a super harry lesson on say, really working on getting him straight and uphill to the outside rein and making sure i keep my inside hand still and not curling him up and over bend him to the inside.
worked on the walk a lot, picking him up and then stretching him down and doing transitions to trot only when he felt relaxed and in front of the leg. this semi worked, as he demonstrated some lovely piaffe a couple of times lol!!!
played with leg yields from the corners to centre line and the shoulder in, and finally HP,making sure we kept the engagement and suspension through the lateral work.
up in to canter and was going medium-collected-medium large and on a circle, and had a super uphill canter when harry said " ja ja now lets see the canter half pass"............."um harry.......do we HAVE a canter HP???!!!"
well apparently we do! i need to think of it more as a leg yield and then change the flexion at the minutes as he just isnt strong enough to start off with so much bend, but he did two really good attempts each way so left it on that, what a trier!
piccies here
had a super harry lesson on say, really working on getting him straight and uphill to the outside rein and making sure i keep my inside hand still and not curling him up and over bend him to the inside.
worked on the walk a lot, picking him up and then stretching him down and doing transitions to trot only when he felt relaxed and in front of the leg. this semi worked, as he demonstrated some lovely piaffe a couple of times lol!!!
played with leg yields from the corners to centre line and the shoulder in, and finally HP,making sure we kept the engagement and suspension through the lateral work.
up in to canter and was going medium-collected-medium large and on a circle, and had a super uphill canter when harry said " ja ja now lets see the canter half pass"............."um harry.......do we HAVE a canter HP???!!!"
well apparently we do! i need to think of it more as a leg yield and then change the flexion at the minutes as he just isnt strong enough to start off with so much bend, but he did two really good attempts each way so left it on that, what a trier!
piccies here
Sunday, 21 March 2010
biggest grin ever:
i am so thrilled with the boy today, yes we had a few leaps and launches when i first went in to the warm up, but he settled beautifully in the ring and held his breath as he scuttled past the scary judges hut, instead of spooking and was just so grown up bless him.
some complete twat came thundering across the car park in a jack hammer trot, cantered down the track to the warm up and shot in to the midst, scattering people left right and centre which really didnt help get the canter soft over the back and swinging. fortunately we beat said twat by a metric mile, despite him passaging and extended cantering his poor horse for an hour.......
second warm up for N38 was much more relaxed and i got the trot iv been getting at home, and we even took it in to the ring in parts :)
kitty, my 13yo livery, and i made a pact on sat that we would both ride our canters, instead of freezing rabbit in headlight style and im pleased to report that she set a flying standard on sat with 67.5 in novice trailblazers and 64 in her first elem trailblazers, so a lot for me to live up to...
...really tried to keep the canter rocking on and up and not too delicate show pony-ish, and was pleased to see from pics that we managed 2 perfect square halts (this has been something iv worked on all damn week so at last, hurrah!).
im gobsmacked and proud to report 73.8% in N22 and 69.6% in N38 and TWO red ones, so thats 2/3 of a regional qual in the bag,yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
3 weeks off now for ken, then general plan is to do keysoe and addington premier league 5yo classes and get our final novice regional win, before end of june. fingers crossed!
pics here
some complete twat came thundering across the car park in a jack hammer trot, cantered down the track to the warm up and shot in to the midst, scattering people left right and centre which really didnt help get the canter soft over the back and swinging. fortunately we beat said twat by a metric mile, despite him passaging and extended cantering his poor horse for an hour.......
second warm up for N38 was much more relaxed and i got the trot iv been getting at home, and we even took it in to the ring in parts :)
kitty, my 13yo livery, and i made a pact on sat that we would both ride our canters, instead of freezing rabbit in headlight style and im pleased to report that she set a flying standard on sat with 67.5 in novice trailblazers and 64 in her first elem trailblazers, so a lot for me to live up to...
...really tried to keep the canter rocking on and up and not too delicate show pony-ish, and was pleased to see from pics that we managed 2 perfect square halts (this has been something iv worked on all damn week so at last, hurrah!).
im gobsmacked and proud to report 73.8% in N22 and 69.6% in N38 and TWO red ones, so thats 2/3 of a regional qual in the bag,yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
3 weeks off now for ken, then general plan is to do keysoe and addington premier league 5yo classes and get our final novice regional win, before end of june. fingers crossed!
pics here
Monday, 8 March 2010
lovely start to the 2010 season...
3rd with 62.5% in N27 and 2nd with 65.7% in N37 woo hoo go star!!!
i thought the 62 was possibly a bit mean as aside from a jog in the medium walk there wasnt much to dislike and he is very balanced and supple etc, yes it needs more power and oomph but this is only a novice mrs judge..........oh well...we were chuffed to bits and he beat loads of flash warmbloods!
also a well respected GP rider sought me out to tell me i had a class mover and that he would be a GP horse so that made me smile too, that even a pro was fooled (he was gobsmacked when he found out star is a TB!!!).
was nto as wild in teh warm up as i anticipated, 3 good frog leaps and one fantastic 360 rear to show everyone his new girth guard (!) but then settled fabulously.
love my pony!
piccies here
i thought the 62 was possibly a bit mean as aside from a jog in the medium walk there wasnt much to dislike and he is very balanced and supple etc, yes it needs more power and oomph but this is only a novice mrs judge..........oh well...we were chuffed to bits and he beat loads of flash warmbloods!
also a well respected GP rider sought me out to tell me i had a class mover and that he would be a GP horse so that made me smile too, that even a pro was fooled (he was gobsmacked when he found out star is a TB!!!).
was nto as wild in teh warm up as i anticipated, 3 good frog leaps and one fantastic 360 rear to show everyone his new girth guard (!) but then settled fabulously.
love my pony!
piccies here
Thursday, 11 February 2010
growing up...
Long time.....no blog.......
Toddlerpone (cant call him babypone anymore!!!) is now 5 and is starting to feel really grown up.
Had a super Harry lesson last weekend, the trot work swings and carries me (even in sitting trot) and the shoulder in was effortless.
Best of all we got a fabulously straight, through and uphill change on his worst side, first time!!! so any demons about left-right flying changes have been firmly laid to rest.
I am considering if it would be very awful of me to buy some pink sheep snuggy jams for Star in the sale......hmmmmmm......
Am ordering a new quarter sheet for shows from my lovely Lili at furfeathermeds.com-navy edged grey with my initials in the corner, cant wait :)
My whiter than white dead sheep arrived yesterday and perfectly matches the white dead sheep girth sleeve I got for xmas so im even more excited about getting out to a show now-roll on 7th March!!!
Toddlerpone (cant call him babypone anymore!!!) is now 5 and is starting to feel really grown up.
Had a super Harry lesson last weekend, the trot work swings and carries me (even in sitting trot) and the shoulder in was effortless.
Best of all we got a fabulously straight, through and uphill change on his worst side, first time!!! so any demons about left-right flying changes have been firmly laid to rest.
I am considering if it would be very awful of me to buy some pink sheep snuggy jams for Star in the sale......hmmmmmm......
Am ordering a new quarter sheet for shows from my lovely Lili at furfeathermeds.com-navy edged grey with my initials in the corner, cant wait :)
My whiter than white dead sheep arrived yesterday and perfectly matches the white dead sheep girth sleeve I got for xmas so im even more excited about getting out to a show now-roll on 7th March!!!
Sunday, 10 January 2010
if horses could swear...
Star would be cursing my father right now, virtually every horse we know has had at least 3 weeks off due to snow but my *poor pony* has worked as normal!
Really feel that he is starting to come uphill AND take the contact forward and not brace on it or suck back from it. Doing a lot of working giving and re-taking, and offering the inside hand to keep him loose on the neck, and again not bracing.
Surface is not great, but workable with so just not asking for huge super forward trot/canter as dont think it fair.
Had a pop yesterday, just a placing pole to an upright to a ground pole, to get him to drop his head over the fence and literally *pop* not launch over it. He got the hang of it straight away and was very careful too, clever pony. Ordered him a nathe straight bar for jumping as feel like he is backing off even just the happy mouth mid air and if i dont drop the contact totally he will stop next time, so hoping the nathe being bendy and squishy will encourage him to let me keep a light contact over the fence as throwing the reins at him is not going to be viable round a course.if not, might try a little hackamore.
Really feel that he is starting to come uphill AND take the contact forward and not brace on it or suck back from it. Doing a lot of working giving and re-taking, and offering the inside hand to keep him loose on the neck, and again not bracing.
Surface is not great, but workable with so just not asking for huge super forward trot/canter as dont think it fair.
Had a pop yesterday, just a placing pole to an upright to a ground pole, to get him to drop his head over the fence and literally *pop* not launch over it. He got the hang of it straight away and was very careful too, clever pony. Ordered him a nathe straight bar for jumping as feel like he is backing off even just the happy mouth mid air and if i dont drop the contact totally he will stop next time, so hoping the nathe being bendy and squishy will encourage him to let me keep a light contact over the fence as throwing the reins at him is not going to be viable round a course.if not, might try a little hackamore.
Friday, 25 December 2009
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