milliepops
Wears headscarf aggressively
Armas has had a busy few weeks since the last post. In the week following our super trip to Allens Hill we had 2 very different lessons - the first was a bit of a last minute thing with Robert Pring who was at a friend's yard that day. Robert had a different approach to our usual lessons with Adam Kemp. It was really interesting and so helpful to get a bit of quiet help with keeping him soft and *long* while not trying to work on test-type movements. Sometimes I find it really confusing to have different approaches with different trainers (especially for the same discipline) but I think because they were coming from different directions, the 2 trainers complement each other really. It's a long video as Robert spent ages with us, but if you are interested it's all here:
[video=youtube_share;4CekXJCCRGw]http://youtu.be/4CekXJCCRGw[/video]
The following day (!) we went off to a long pre-arranged lesson with Adam. Poor Armas felt a bit tired towards the end but I think we found a brilliant exercise to help him with his medium trot - turn across the diagonal asking for a few steps leg yield to the right to engage the hind leg and get him soft to the left, and THEN press for more power. He's getting there, sometimes he needs reminding to try
but it's coming along.
[video=youtube_share;Hd_ftVUwpNw]http://youtu.be/Hd_ftVUwpNw[/video]
On the following Saturday the weather was lovely so James took him on a local fun ride... shame we already had entries in for dressage at Abbey on the Sunday Let's just say that Armas rather enjoyed the fun ride and wasn't at his best at the dressage! We steered round the classes for a bit more ring experience and did manage to see off the spook monsters that he had encountered in the outdoor arena last time we were there. He did score 67% and 63% which I think was a touch generous - he FELT pretty terrible but I think he's allowed an off day after a fun ride!
No pics or vids of that outing
Spent most of last week trying to work on what we'd been doing with Robert, to keep him long and over the back in the vague hope that he might begin to carry that forward into his tests at Hartpury this weekend. He came off the box feeling really good and I was able to stop him scuttling off in his walk, kept the fluid feeling into the trot and then the warm up suddenly filled with young horses, some of which were feeling a bit jolly and Armas got somewhat worried. After bolting round the warm up arena in extended canter for what felt like the whole afternoon, it was time for out first test Not a great feel and 60% scraped! ...... cont
[video=youtube_share;4CekXJCCRGw]http://youtu.be/4CekXJCCRGw[/video]
The following day (!) we went off to a long pre-arranged lesson with Adam. Poor Armas felt a bit tired towards the end but I think we found a brilliant exercise to help him with his medium trot - turn across the diagonal asking for a few steps leg yield to the right to engage the hind leg and get him soft to the left, and THEN press for more power. He's getting there, sometimes he needs reminding to try
but it's coming along.[video=youtube_share;Hd_ftVUwpNw]http://youtu.be/Hd_ftVUwpNw[/video]
On the following Saturday the weather was lovely so James took him on a local fun ride... shame we already had entries in for dressage at Abbey on the Sunday
Let's just say that Armas rather enjoyed the fun ride and wasn't at his best at the dressage! We steered round the classes for a bit more ring experience and did manage to see off the spook monsters that he had encountered in the outdoor arena last time we were there. He did score 67% and 63% which I think was a touch generous - he FELT pretty terrible but I think he's allowed an off day after a fun ride!No pics or vids of that outing
Spent most of last week trying to work on what we'd been doing with Robert, to keep him long and over the back in the vague hope that he might begin to carry that forward into his tests at Hartpury this weekend. He came off the box feeling really good and I was able to stop him scuttling off in his walk, kept the fluid feeling into the trot and then the warm up suddenly filled with young horses, some of which were feeling a bit jolly and Armas got somewhat worried. After bolting round the warm up arena in extended canter for what felt like the whole afternoon, it was time for out first test
Not a great feel and 60% scraped! ...... cont
