Rambo
Well-Known Member
Well, i haven't posted in here for a while as we haven't had much to talk about really...what with Bo's various injuries etc...
Soooo.....i thought i'd bore you all with a report on my lesson last night instead
As some of you may be aware, we enlisted the services of a local eventer a couple of months ago after a very enjoyable clinic one weekend, and have been quietly studying away every monday evening since
Obviously Bo has missed a few of these sessions and so Trike has been standing in admirably in the circumstances and has even won himself a big fan in the shape of said trainer
Anyway, last night was Bo's turn to come back into the class. He's only been back in work for a week or so following his kick / run into a tree fiasco of 3 weeks ago. To say he's been on his toes would be an understatement...a combination of spring air, no turnout due to the revolting weather, and a couple of weeks off ! I had sneaked a peak of the previous lesson and so knew that we were going to be doing gridwork mainly, but decided that it would do Bo good to listen for a change lol! He's not the greatest fan of grids, and isn't great jumping from a trot either, so the temptation to swap to the 'grid machine' (Trike) at the last minute was strong....but i resisted
Bo warmed up nicely. Very light in front and clearly determined to remind Penny exactly who is number one in the string
Next we started trotting over a line of poles, on both reins, and just encouraging the horses to reach for the poles a little. Despite his size (16.3hh+) he is actually a fairly short-striding horse and can struggle to make distances. Next a x-pole was introduced and then two and then three, all on bounces. Bo was starting to enjoy himself by now and was really snapping up nicely. He's usually a very careful horse anyway, but does have a tendency to get lazy in grids (he can't see the point lol!). We then moved onto a couple of spread x-poles with two strides in between...still jumping from trot....to encourage the horses to use their backends more. Bo was starting to get a bit bolshy and thought he knew it all and was giving me some real trouble about landing on the right lead while jumping on the right rein. We tried a few exercises revolving around introducing some left bend down the line, but he wasn't having any of it to start with and was starting to take-off a little on landing in anticipation of the change that was coming
Penny persevered though, and slowly he started to oblige. At every successful landing (corrrect lead !) he had praise heaped on him...until eventually he managed to get what we were asking
We finished off jumping a doule of spreads on two strides followed by an upright across the diagonal...this exercise being repeated on both reins. The fences were popped up a bit for Bo....not massive, but enough to make him jump...around 1.10m/1.15m perhaps. He went through it a couple of times quite sweetly and so we called it a day (or rather a night as it was nearly 9pm !).
So, there we go. Bo seems to be happy again. He needs to fitten up a little more as he was quite warm by the end of the lesson, but he's up for it, and he's full of confidence again
Should be off to a show on sunday so fingers-crossed things continue in this vein.
Thanks for reading...
Soooo.....i thought i'd bore you all with a report on my lesson last night instead
As some of you may be aware, we enlisted the services of a local eventer a couple of months ago after a very enjoyable clinic one weekend, and have been quietly studying away every monday evening since
Anyway, last night was Bo's turn to come back into the class. He's only been back in work for a week or so following his kick / run into a tree fiasco of 3 weeks ago. To say he's been on his toes would be an understatement...a combination of spring air, no turnout due to the revolting weather, and a couple of weeks off ! I had sneaked a peak of the previous lesson and so knew that we were going to be doing gridwork mainly, but decided that it would do Bo good to listen for a change lol! He's not the greatest fan of grids, and isn't great jumping from a trot either, so the temptation to swap to the 'grid machine' (Trike) at the last minute was strong....but i resisted
Bo warmed up nicely. Very light in front and clearly determined to remind Penny exactly who is number one in the string
Next we started trotting over a line of poles, on both reins, and just encouraging the horses to reach for the poles a little. Despite his size (16.3hh+) he is actually a fairly short-striding horse and can struggle to make distances. Next a x-pole was introduced and then two and then three, all on bounces. Bo was starting to enjoy himself by now and was really snapping up nicely. He's usually a very careful horse anyway, but does have a tendency to get lazy in grids (he can't see the point lol!). We then moved onto a couple of spread x-poles with two strides in between...still jumping from trot....to encourage the horses to use their backends more. Bo was starting to get a bit bolshy and thought he knew it all and was giving me some real trouble about landing on the right lead while jumping on the right rein. We tried a few exercises revolving around introducing some left bend down the line, but he wasn't having any of it to start with and was starting to take-off a little on landing in anticipation of the change that was coming
We finished off jumping a doule of spreads on two strides followed by an upright across the diagonal...this exercise being repeated on both reins. The fences were popped up a bit for Bo....not massive, but enough to make him jump...around 1.10m/1.15m perhaps. He went through it a couple of times quite sweetly and so we called it a day (or rather a night as it was nearly 9pm !).
So, there we go. Bo seems to be happy again. He needs to fitten up a little more as he was quite warm by the end of the lesson, but he's up for it, and he's full of confidence again
Thanks for reading...
