Street_Skill
Well-Known Member
Not posted in here for a while as horse had some on-off lameness problems last year which were related to a change of farrier. With the help of HHO I took the plunge and took his shoes off so we've just been pottering about at home over the winter, finding our feet so to speak.
It's been surprising (although kind of makes sense when you think about it) how having the shoes off has made a diffence to his way of going, and he feels as though he's been discovering muscles that he didn't know he had. One of the pleasant surprises has been the difference it's made to his jump. He was always a "give it the bare minimum effort" kind of guy, but he's really pinging now and using his hocks and back so much more and freeing up his shoulders. We went for a lesson about three weeks ago where we played with a bit of grid work. We worked on one non-jumping stride between fences, and to be honest he really struggled. He's always been a "thinker" and I just felt that it was too much for him to process. I came away a bit dispondant, and worked on the grid work at home without making any real progress. I'd booked this lesson at the start of the week and thought I would have a play about in the school last night with some simple fences as a confidence boosting exercise. He felt great and carried that on to his lesson today. We worked on bounces (which he'd never done before but really got him using his hocks) which he got the hang of pretty much straight away, then introduced two strides to a large-ish cross pole. We kept everything a manageable, confidence giving size and by the end I felt as though he had really grasped it. We rounded things off with a straight forward oxer which he gave plenty of room! Overall, came away with a massive grin on my face. He's lacking a little competition fitness-although he's worked about 5 or 6 days a week he's not really travelled since November and I think it takes it out of him a bit-but on the whole really chuffed!
Bit of pointless post, but I'm really pleased with him
Just to prove he worked hard:
It's been surprising (although kind of makes sense when you think about it) how having the shoes off has made a diffence to his way of going, and he feels as though he's been discovering muscles that he didn't know he had. One of the pleasant surprises has been the difference it's made to his jump. He was always a "give it the bare minimum effort" kind of guy, but he's really pinging now and using his hocks and back so much more and freeing up his shoulders. We went for a lesson about three weeks ago where we played with a bit of grid work. We worked on one non-jumping stride between fences, and to be honest he really struggled. He's always been a "thinker" and I just felt that it was too much for him to process. I came away a bit dispondant, and worked on the grid work at home without making any real progress. I'd booked this lesson at the start of the week and thought I would have a play about in the school last night with some simple fences as a confidence boosting exercise. He felt great and carried that on to his lesson today. We worked on bounces (which he'd never done before but really got him using his hocks) which he got the hang of pretty much straight away, then introduced two strides to a large-ish cross pole. We kept everything a manageable, confidence giving size and by the end I felt as though he had really grasped it. We rounded things off with a straight forward oxer which he gave plenty of room! Overall, came away with a massive grin on my face. He's lacking a little competition fitness-although he's worked about 5 or 6 days a week he's not really travelled since November and I think it takes it out of him a bit-but on the whole really chuffed!
Bit of pointless post, but I'm really pleased with him
Just to prove he worked hard:
super well done, sounds great! He looks so cute!
