a very cold lesson report and snowy pics..

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Prince33Sp4rkle

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well, after having to use a hairdryer to open the doors and tack lockers, and hammer the ramp open from the inside(!) we finally set off......Northampton may only be a few miles south down the M1 but they've got looooooads more snow than in Leics.

(thanks to Tarrsteps for the WD40 tip....i did the entire lorry earlier and its still all dead easy to open now, so hopefully if i keep that topped up it wont happen again!)

walked in to the arena fine, he ignored the other youngster working there, and it ignored us, until a dog burst out the hedge, youngster leapt....so obviously CS had to have a leap too, so youngster had another leap, and so did we...and so on, as we did a pas de deux of leaping and plunging down the school, with trainer yelling "KICK....KICK" at us both!

i MUST leap:
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brain back between ears, on to some stetching work...
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initial canter was a bit humpy headshakey and *imightmightmightbuck*
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but then settled nicely....
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picked him up and did some basic trot work, transitions etc, and first thing trainer said was "well, the connection is much better" which is great news because iv tried soooooooooooooooo hard to keep hands stiller, lower and more thumbs on top all week and CS has got more settled day by day. im not always managing it, but teh fact it makes such an obvious difference is a massive encouragment.
was suprised in some pics how high they creep as soon as i stop thinking about it, but its all repetition i guess.
has also worked really hard on having him straight on the left rein, and have worked out its not so much he doesnt want to bend left, but that he wants to drop his weight on his left shoulder, avoid the right rein and not step his left hind all the way through. so have really worked hard on getting him to step under and connect to the outside rein, and thus not have to draw my left hand back all the time......again a work in progress and did lose it a bit in the half pass, but in the basic work he is 200% more connected to my right rein, hurrah!
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losing it a bit here, medium on a circle, and found it much harder to keep the old habits at bay!
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shoulder in:
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starting a shallow HP, left hand starting to wander, also scowling with the effort!!!
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canter HP:
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canter:
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clever boy :)
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and this was me cantering across diag, prepping for a change, had taken sheet off for the changes as the fillet string makes him go croup high! we did get a pic of the actual change but we are both screwing our faces up horrifically and thus i refuse to post it!
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so, still need to keep hand down, and forward (so i can then shorten reins) but overall it feels a heck of a lot better, even if i still look like a spaz, and the horse looks nice!!!!

(NO comments about hat, yes i am wearing one as required by this yards rules, but i do not want millions of comments about how much better it looks, how you wish id wear one all the time yadda yadda. i promise you it wont make any difference to me, and the hat/lack of, situation.thanks)
 
Your horse is lovely, wish my little ex-racer would be as soft as yours:). How do you manage to get him to keep his neck out and long? My little mare has a habit of tucking in and then getting quite strong! She is getting better, slowly.

Extremely jealous that your still managing to ride despite all the snow. I haven't ridden in weeks as arena is frozen solid.
 
Did you forget to include the snowy pics? :p. What was in your photos was seived icing sugar ;)

CS looking lovely as always. I do have a hat question though, of a different kind? I know you wear earmuff things normally, but don't you find your head gets too cold at this time of year without a hat (any hat, a fleecy one even!) I am never without some kind of enormous fleecy pompom thing on my head all the time! Even inside at the moment :rolleyes:
 
As gorgeous as ever! He looks like he's come on so much lately, the work you've put in is really fantastic! :) And for the record I'm not bothered either way about the hat, sorry to mention it :p
 
"Looks so much better with a hat, if only you'd wear one all the time. "

please let this be tongue in cheek......


TBH as long as i keep my ears covered im fine, i get horrid ear infections if the wind gets in them, yuk! might ask granny to knit a selection of matchy hats though!!!

thank you TBC-nice to have my gut feeling reinforced. it is such hard work, makes my shoulders ache so so much, and iv only managed to budge my hands down and inch or so, but im hoping can gradually loosen shoulders and get the hand issue even more sorted.

shell2-lots of long and low work to warm up, but truly long and low and OUT not curling nose to knees. if she rushes, bring her back (and you will have to use the hand initially, only a very schooled horse will react well enough to the seat), and then as soon as she steadies, praise and let the nose out again, repeat until she holds a steady rhythm and keeps her neck/nose out. remember to have the trot steady enough that she is confident enough to take her neck down and nose out.
when you pick her up, think of the reins as iron rods, that you use to push her neck away from you (to make room for the hind leg to step under) and not to being the nose and neck back in at you.
lots of shallow leg yields to connect her to your outside rein, and making sure you allow the neck forward in upward transitions.
 
looks lovely and relaxed( once over the initial excitment), he/she must have felt soo lovely and to feel your hard work paying off and really coming together! Have to say not able to ride and so decided to let horse have 2 weeks off, just being able to use the arena and ride(its under 2ft of snow)!! seems a far off dream!!
 
He really does look so soft, transforming opinions of humble little TBs allover the land :D

I hate wearing hats (of the fluffy variety, Mummy Hen would kill me if she saw me on board hatless, and she is far scarier than the threat of brain damage :D) my head gets hot and itchy!
I LOVE my ear muff headbands, keep my ears toasty, keep the wind out of my brain and keep my hair back, without cooking my head! :D
 
He looks great! Even his eye us softer, if that makes sense (maybe not so much in pic 1...) he just looks ultra stretchy and "positionable". You got your winter regionals qualifier? Love the bucky canter pic. (Maggie has damaged a ligament in my back with her ridiculous airs above ground so haven't ridden for a week - great to see that some horses are at least behaving in part... X)
 
LF- i dont tend to bother with winter quals, or the winter regionals, its too cold, always a faff etc and when they are only young i like to give them the winter off competing, to keep them fresh and enthusiastic about it all. so CS hasnt been out since Oct, aiming to be back out at elem and medium end of Feb, which is not too far away and im hoping i can sneak my elem summer qual and area festival med qual in the bag before the 6yo classes start in earnest.thats the plan anyway!

i do know what you mean about his eye :)

having a rideable school would make feel too guilty not to use it! bet my horses are cursing my father for building it!
 
He's lovely!!

He's very elastic looking- my TB doesn't have that natural fluidity; although he's a nice mover, it had to be a bit created.

Do you just do dressage? What level are you working on? (Sorry, new here :) )
 
always use bandages :) i accept they offer no support at all, but they protect all way round the leg and look pretty, and if you do them every day you do get pretty quick at them. so i totally know what you mean, but its just DQ habit!

Hat is a KEP Cromo, and i LOVE it, its sooooooo light.

Paladine-yep just dresage.(do jump at home but only little bits and bobs, to keep the interest, and may one day do some indoor SJ over winter but thats a long way in the future i think!). he competed in the 5yo classes and elem last year, will do elem, medium and 6yo classes in 2011, maybe an adv med at the end of the year if all is going well.
schooling adv med at home, bit of piaffe and passage here and there,just baby steps etc.finds the actual technical work easy, and is very balance, but gets tense at shows, so can be too sharp to show off his paces in the ring, esp in the first test. he was a lot better as a 5yo than a 4yo. so hoping as a 6yo he will be even better.

what about you? :nosy: welcome to HHO BTW :)
 
Glad the WD-40 trick seemed to work. It's not failsafe (they make specific lock de-icer but I haven't seen it here. . . maybe I should get someone to mail me a box and I can make a bit of money ;) ) but worth a try. It also helps with shod hooves and snowballs. (I've also seen people use it to take burrs out of manes and tails.)
 
What a lovely horse. :D

Think I must of missed other posts about him so please could I have a quick history as I think someone else posted he was an ex racer & it always interests me for other peoples schooling techniques :)
 
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