Tuesday 8 January 2013

Lesson #19 Dressage

Thanks to everyone who has been reading my blog and posting their thoughts. Most people are suggesting pain or something that is physically limiting his ability to canter on that lead... I genuinly do not think this is the case at all and i will explain further in this post. Just wanted to say thank you sometimes i dont think of things and its nice to hear the suggestions.

Last night i had a lesson with my dressage coach who is also an Myofacial Release whatevertheyarecalled for people and horses so i knew that if it was a pain issue or anything of the sort my coach would pick it up so before the lesson i advised her exactly what it was that we have been experiencing so she could watch a little closer and we could go from there.

We started the lesson out with circles, one small, one medium and one large and we would start a large circle then sprial down do the smaller circle then do the same down to the even smaller circle at a trot focusing on rythem and keep the trot balance and at an even steady pace which G did great at. He was flexing beautifully clock wise and pretty deccent counter clock wise which is opposite of out canter issues which really helps to push that its a balance thing.

We did some laps around the arena trying to keep that steady pace and tempo down the long wall asking for a nice flex in all of the corners. We would focus on straightness while cutting accross our diagonals and some moving off the leg in our single bending lines.

Then my coach wanted to try to play a game of "leap frog" where the first rider is trotting around the arena and the other rider canters to catch up behind the first rider and so on... Counter clock wise was no problem for G he was a little quick but i still felt like i had control and we were able to do it a few times. Then we changed direction and it was a different story, the first time i asked i got a little buck (which was ok i will take the bucking getting less and less im perfectly ok with that) The second time i asked i got no buck but he more or less grabbed the bit and fought me for it he ignored my leg and left the circle i was able to keep him on the correct end of the arena but he then proceeded to ignore my seat and it took a bit to bring him back into a trot... which he instantly tried to drop to a walk. We tried one more time but he did the same thing... after a short walk break we moved on to leg yeilds at the wall.

G has such a hard time understanding what im asking so i have been trying to ask different ways but its trying to find whats the attitude and him trying to get out of doing it and what is the genuine attempts. We would leg yeild at a walk down the long wall then trot the short wall. The other girl did great... G would ignore my request to half halt and attempt to trot the whole way. So i would bring him back come to a complete halt and try to get him into it... again he would either back away from the wall getting 90 degrees from it or he would try to walk into the wall.... as soon as i got a few steps i would allow him to trot off...

Im happy to be back in lessons because its nice having someone on the ground with more experience than me to work with G. Everyone absolutly loves him and says that he will be amazing once we get him in the proper mind set. Last night i called my old trainer T and talked with her about whats been going on... she has known G as long as i have she has ridden him on multiple occasions, i explained the whole situation to her and we both agreed that its more of a stubborness issue that come from him being so weak on that side... he doesnt want to do it because its hard and because he used to be able to bring me to tears when he pulled stuff like this he is resorting to that again, so im trying to keep my chin up and i will give G a couple days off to mentally process the lesson as well as give his body a break because we have been doing a lot of harder stuff and he doesnt have as much muscle as i would like at this point.

Thursdys lesson is cancelled so i will be out there on Saturday to do lots of lunging on his bad side and to work on some of the stuff from my lesson. Im also going to bring out my dressage saddle and do the next few rides in that saddle just to rule out saddle fit as an issue.

Tuesday-Off
Wednesday-Off
Thursday-Off

Starting Saturday back to my 4 rides a week.

2 comments:

  1. I'm behind on blogs, but my pony has been having a hard time cantering to the right. Because of me. Have someone else ride G and see if they can get him to canter on that side. For me, it was because I anticipated her not picking it up. Then I stared at her head. Then I clamped down with the body and twisted it, making it almost impossible for her to canter. A few sessions with a different rider and she's cantering happily away on the right lead. And I'm now getting it most of the time too.....

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    1. He used to be fine for me as well as other riders to get up into the canter but the issue now is the wrong lead when he does pick it up without bucking its the wrong lead and if i do get the right lead hes bucking to try to get out of it, im going to try to see if i can get my trainer to put some rides on him and maybe give that a shot... thanks for the input :)

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