FestiveFuzz
Well-Known Member
(and my trainer of course!)
I don't know how it happened exactly, but after months of canter woes we've finally blooming cracked it and it's magical. I can't begin to tell you what the lightbulb moment was as we spent the whole of December plugging away at it but there were a few pivotal moments that I think helped us along the way.
The first was a yard away day at the end of last month. Exciting because it was a great excuse to spend the day with our lovely yard buddies, but also because it was mine and M's first time schooling away from home together. The weeks leading up to this were a heady mix of excitement and sheer terror as I'd heard all manner of stories of M away from home, but our yard is fab as everyone is so super supportive of each other so I felt relatively confident that once I was on-board it'd all be fine. M travelled like a pro (no surprise really) and was relatively calm to tack up leaving me just enough time to walk him around the car park for a few minutes before our lesson. I won't give you blow by blow details of the lesson as I could harp on about it all day, but suffice to say he was an absolute superstar! I'd gone into the day with the same expectations I have for any trip out, get on, stay on and hope for the best and he surpassed all expectations! I know he can be a little bit of a stress head at times, and knowing how nervous I would be I'd spent the days leading up to the outing mentally reciting "don't grip with your thighs, loosen your knees and give with your hands" to surprisingly good effect as after a few moments walking around the school he was totally chilled. We ended up doing a fair bit of work on our canter (something I hadn't dared think about in advance) and had a bit of a breakthrough when I suggested taking my FC back to basics. A combination of having learnt flying changes many moons ago, coupled with the fear of accidentally getting a change/changing back when on the wrong lead had left me rusty and a bit rushed in our changes. So my logic was, if we could get my intentional changes spot on I would be able to notice when I was about to accidentally ask for one. We had an absolute ball (M loves his changes) and were so relaxed that when M threw in a spook when I accidentally asked for the change late I laughed so hard I could barely ride the canter
We had the best day, especially when my trainer mentioned she never thought in a million years she'd see M looking so chilled away from home and that we'd surpassed her expectations for the day
Knowing that M didn't turn into a monster from hell away from home gave me even more motivation to crack the canter as this was now the only thing stopping us from getting out to compete (although our walk and trot work has definitely benefited from all the focus!). Whilst at Olympia I'd had a moment of inspiration whilst watching the MET mounted display. Don't worry, I'm not about to start jumping M through hoops of fire or trying to whip my saddle off mid-ride, but I did find myself thinking what an awesome track Katy Perry's 'Chained to the Rhythm' was and how great it would be for canter work. We gave it a go in our next schooling session and it made such a difference. I think the rhythm really helped me stay in time with the canter and I'm pleased to report we had no unplanned changes, although our planned FCs were a little more enthusiastic!
From there our canter work has gone from strength to strength, it's as if a switch has been flipped and suddenly it's all just clicked We've had some super positive lessons since and are now starting to play around within the canter as I'm no longer just sitting like a lemon praying we won't do a FC lol. The final piece of the puzzle came when we were doing some polework in a lesson. My trainer had set the poles on a 20m circle like a clock (so at 12, 3, 6 and 9) usually I always focus on the next pole, but she had me looking two poles ahead and wow what a difference! We came off the circle to go large and kept looking further ahead at which point I realised I was no longer having to guard against an accidental change. I'm still surprised what a huge difference such a small tweak has had. At some point I'm going to have to train myself out of looking so far ahead, but for now it's really helped with the canter.
Which leads me to the biggest news of all...we've only gone and actually entered a competition! It's not until March and will be unaffiliated as I'm not quite brave enough to risk something going on M's BD record yet, but we'll be attempting N34 and E42. I'm a little bit nervous about how quickly everything will come up in a small arena, but am hopeful that this will at least help keep M's brain engaged assuming my nerves don't render me a sack of spuds! I'll be aiming just to get on, stay on and not completely forget where I'm going, but if we could not completely show ourselves up in the process that would be fab!
For those that got this far, here's one of my favourite pics from our day out...
I don't know how it happened exactly, but after months of canter woes we've finally blooming cracked it and it's magical. I can't begin to tell you what the lightbulb moment was as we spent the whole of December plugging away at it but there were a few pivotal moments that I think helped us along the way.
The first was a yard away day at the end of last month. Exciting because it was a great excuse to spend the day with our lovely yard buddies, but also because it was mine and M's first time schooling away from home together. The weeks leading up to this were a heady mix of excitement and sheer terror as I'd heard all manner of stories of M away from home, but our yard is fab as everyone is so super supportive of each other so I felt relatively confident that once I was on-board it'd all be fine. M travelled like a pro (no surprise really) and was relatively calm to tack up leaving me just enough time to walk him around the car park for a few minutes before our lesson. I won't give you blow by blow details of the lesson as I could harp on about it all day, but suffice to say he was an absolute superstar! I'd gone into the day with the same expectations I have for any trip out, get on, stay on and hope for the best and he surpassed all expectations! I know he can be a little bit of a stress head at times, and knowing how nervous I would be I'd spent the days leading up to the outing mentally reciting "don't grip with your thighs, loosen your knees and give with your hands" to surprisingly good effect as after a few moments walking around the school he was totally chilled. We ended up doing a fair bit of work on our canter (something I hadn't dared think about in advance) and had a bit of a breakthrough when I suggested taking my FC back to basics. A combination of having learnt flying changes many moons ago, coupled with the fear of accidentally getting a change/changing back when on the wrong lead had left me rusty and a bit rushed in our changes. So my logic was, if we could get my intentional changes spot on I would be able to notice when I was about to accidentally ask for one. We had an absolute ball (M loves his changes) and were so relaxed that when M threw in a spook when I accidentally asked for the change late I laughed so hard I could barely ride the canter
We had the best day, especially when my trainer mentioned she never thought in a million years she'd see M looking so chilled away from home and that we'd surpassed her expectations for the day Knowing that M didn't turn into a monster from hell away from home gave me even more motivation to crack the canter as this was now the only thing stopping us from getting out to compete (although our walk and trot work has definitely benefited from all the focus!). Whilst at Olympia I'd had a moment of inspiration whilst watching the MET mounted display. Don't worry, I'm not about to start jumping M through hoops of fire or trying to whip my saddle off mid-ride, but I did find myself thinking what an awesome track Katy Perry's 'Chained to the Rhythm' was and how great it would be for canter work. We gave it a go in our next schooling session and it made such a difference. I think the rhythm really helped me stay in time with the canter and I'm pleased to report we had no unplanned changes, although our planned FCs were a little more enthusiastic!
From there our canter work has gone from strength to strength, it's as if a switch has been flipped and suddenly it's all just clicked
We've had some super positive lessons since and are now starting to play around within the canter as I'm no longer just sitting like a lemon praying we won't do a FC lol. The final piece of the puzzle came when we were doing some polework in a lesson. My trainer had set the poles on a 20m circle like a clock (so at 12, 3, 6 and 9) usually I always focus on the next pole, but she had me looking two poles ahead and wow what a difference! We came off the circle to go large and kept looking further ahead at which point I realised I was no longer having to guard against an accidental change. I'm still surprised what a huge difference such a small tweak has had. At some point I'm going to have to train myself out of looking so far ahead, but for now it's really helped with the canter. Which leads me to the biggest news of all...we've only gone and actually entered a competition! It's not until March and will be unaffiliated as I'm not quite brave enough to risk something going on M's BD record yet, but we'll be attempting N34 and E42. I'm a little bit nervous about how quickly everything will come up in a small arena, but am hopeful that this will at least help keep M's brain engaged assuming my nerves don't render me a sack of spuds! I'll be aiming just to get on, stay on and not completely forget where I'm going, but if we could not completely show ourselves up in the process that would be fab!
For those that got this far, here's one of my favourite pics from our day out...
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