lucky7
Well-Known Member
Took the boy to do a bit of dressage yesterday. Have been trying to go once a month to see how we are progressing. He is green, hes 6 and has had a fair bit of time out during his 2 years of being in work. (not his fault, me having a small family!)
We always do a w&t test, his canter work is very green and he used to run into it, lose balance, go on the forehand, strike off on the wrong leg - also he is stiff and he can be difficult to bend! normally out tests have comments such as more consistency, more bend, loss of balance in canter etc, w&t we normally score between 65% - 70% and prelim we have been steadily improving form 60% - 65%. So at home i have been having lessons and i have been doing a bit more with him. Lots of leg yielding i find really gets him bending and softens him up lovely. I have very recently been doing walk to canter transitions which have massively helped with his balance and he seems to nearly always strike off on the correct leg and it gets him listening. Had a great schooling session on saturday - when he does it right hes an absolute dream to ride, hes so light and lifted, carries himself and feels amazing. However he can be horrid to ride! stiff, leaning on the left rein, behind the leg and just awful crabbing!!
So we tried a new venue - the warm up to the w&t was average, did a bit of leg yield etc but he was very distracted!! went into the test and he was awful - looking everywhere , behind the leg, tense and stiff. Felt a bit deflated as i know he can go soooo much better! we then had 30 mins till the prelim 7 - i got off him and hopped back on with 15 mins to spare. I spent it really getting him to listen, doing lots o spirals, leg yields, shoulder in etc, went straight into the arena - was a different judge this time. He was soooo much better! lovely and light, correct canter lead both times, it was a little unbalanced but that didnt matter too much, was really chuffed with him after the test. I collected my sheets - we got 64% in the intro - 11 out of 18 and 63% in the prelim, we had good comments in the prelim too with some nice consistent work shown - the scores where very close and apart from the winner on 71% everyone else was around the 65% - 61% mark so i was pleased with that - we managed a 7 for our canter! we normally get a 5.5!
So no frillies but after a disappointing 1st test we saved some grace with what felt like a much improved prelim test!
The next move is our physio appointment in a few weeks just to see if there are any physical things going on with his struggle to bend on the right - i think its just greeness though. Then i am planning a week in jan with my instructor to ride him for 7 days for a bit of schooling. Next dressage will be Feb now.
We always do a w&t test, his canter work is very green and he used to run into it, lose balance, go on the forehand, strike off on the wrong leg - also he is stiff and he can be difficult to bend! normally out tests have comments such as more consistency, more bend, loss of balance in canter etc, w&t we normally score between 65% - 70% and prelim we have been steadily improving form 60% - 65%. So at home i have been having lessons and i have been doing a bit more with him. Lots of leg yielding i find really gets him bending and softens him up lovely. I have very recently been doing walk to canter transitions which have massively helped with his balance and he seems to nearly always strike off on the correct leg and it gets him listening. Had a great schooling session on saturday - when he does it right hes an absolute dream to ride, hes so light and lifted, carries himself and feels amazing. However he can be horrid to ride! stiff, leaning on the left rein, behind the leg and just awful crabbing!!
So we tried a new venue - the warm up to the w&t was average, did a bit of leg yield etc but he was very distracted!! went into the test and he was awful - looking everywhere , behind the leg, tense and stiff. Felt a bit deflated as i know he can go soooo much better! we then had 30 mins till the prelim 7 - i got off him and hopped back on with 15 mins to spare. I spent it really getting him to listen, doing lots o spirals, leg yields, shoulder in etc, went straight into the arena - was a different judge this time. He was soooo much better! lovely and light, correct canter lead both times, it was a little unbalanced but that didnt matter too much, was really chuffed with him after the test. I collected my sheets - we got 64% in the intro - 11 out of 18 and 63% in the prelim, we had good comments in the prelim too with some nice consistent work shown - the scores where very close and apart from the winner on 71% everyone else was around the 65% - 61% mark so i was pleased with that - we managed a 7 for our canter! we normally get a 5.5!
So no frillies but after a disappointing 1st test we saved some grace with what felt like a much improved prelim test!
The next move is our physio appointment in a few weeks just to see if there are any physical things going on with his struggle to bend on the right - i think its just greeness though. Then i am planning a week in jan with my instructor to ride him for 7 days for a bit of schooling. Next dressage will be Feb now.
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