007Equestrian
Well-Known Member
Hi all! I have an ISH (3/4 draught) gelding who is currently very established at medium level and has started competing this summer at advanced medium. I aspire to get to PSG however am starting to hit a road block with his paces. He can do grand prix angle half pass fairly easily, working pirouettes, all other lateral work is very established. However at a recent championship, despite him making zero mistakes in his medium test, we couldn't get higher than 6.5/7 for his movements. The judges comments were essentially that he lacks 'flair' in his paces. Think nice show hunter rather than Valegro!
We struggle with extensions in trot and canter as while he can canter on the spot and is working on piaffe half steps, he struggles to sit and push forwards. This translates to his paces, they lack that moment of suspension and lift that even very novice well bred warmbloods have naturally.
Are we stuck with what we've got? I thought working on collection would translate to more cadence however I'm feeling quite down about our recent results. Flashy movers who made multiple mistakes were 4%+ higher than our very correct but probably 'boring' test. I'm beginning to feel a bit 'stuck', and selling and buying a warmblood is not an option haha.
If anyone has any exercises to develop extensions and flashier paces in the more advanced horse (any posts I've found have been tailored more to the novice horse learning medium trots for example trotting out hacking) please share!
We struggle with extensions in trot and canter as while he can canter on the spot and is working on piaffe half steps, he struggles to sit and push forwards. This translates to his paces, they lack that moment of suspension and lift that even very novice well bred warmbloods have naturally.
Are we stuck with what we've got? I thought working on collection would translate to more cadence however I'm feeling quite down about our recent results. Flashy movers who made multiple mistakes were 4%+ higher than our very correct but probably 'boring' test. I'm beginning to feel a bit 'stuck', and selling and buying a warmblood is not an option haha.
If anyone has any exercises to develop extensions and flashier paces in the more advanced horse (any posts I've found have been tailored more to the novice horse learning medium trots for example trotting out hacking) please share!