Rambo
Well-Known Member
I've decided Trike needs a change of name........i'm thinking 'Andy' as in the wheelchair bound character from Little Britain
Last night I just lunged the horses. A very straightforward procedure for Bo as he's like a clockwork horse...just set him going and tell him when to stop. Trikey however is always much harder work and I often feel like I do as much as he does I have to chase him round. He really is terrible and 'pretends' to be crippled...looking about 10/10ths lame to start with (he isn't as confirmed by a vet btw !). Anyway, last night he was being extra obstinate and after about 10 minutes I could take no more
Someone had left a grid up in the school so I decided to have some fun loose jumping...I know he feels scopey when I jump him but i've never really tested him out as he's so extravagant behind it can get bit hairy coming down from anything much more than about 1.25m. Well, we started by popping down the line with a smal x-pole on one stride to a small'ish oxer of about 1m and after a super display of prancing around the school in full extension...tail raised and snorting (i honestly thought they'd missed something when he was 'cut'
)...basically doing everything EXCEPT jump the jumps, he finally lined himself up and pinged down the line. I could immediately see where my discomfort was coming from too as his backed was somewhere up around the top of the wings despite the size of the fence being jumped. So I popped the fence up a bit (well quite a lot actually !) to make the oxer about 1.20m and sent him down the line again...again this amazing athleticism was shown and he was starting to enjoy himself ! Onwards and upwards I thought so put the fence up another few holes to about 1.35m on the back rail and again he flew it. I ummed and arghed about whether to leave it there or not but eventually curiosity got the better of me and I made the final oxer 1.50m behind and 1.45m in front...with a pretty decent spread too
He trotted nonchalantly up to the x-pole....popped over it...and then simply lengthened his stride and just exploded over the oxer ! O...M...G ! He cleared the back rail by at least another 2 feet and looked quite simply awesome
We left it at that (we had to really, we'd run out of jump wing lol!) and he got lots of fuss made of him...he knew he'd done well !
Soooo...all we need to do now is persuade him that he actually 'wants' to do these amazing things and we'll be sorted
I'll repeat the exercise again sometime...but this time with a camera to hand...but for now i'm just wondering how the hell i'll be able to sit to him on sunday around a 1m track
Last night I just lunged the horses. A very straightforward procedure for Bo as he's like a clockwork horse...just set him going and tell him when to stop. Trikey however is always much harder work and I often feel like I do as much as he does I have to chase him round. He really is terrible and 'pretends' to be crippled...looking about 10/10ths lame to start with (he isn't as confirmed by a vet btw !). Anyway, last night he was being extra obstinate and after about 10 minutes I could take no more
Soooo...all we need to do now is persuade him that he actually 'wants' to do these amazing things and we'll be sorted
I'll repeat the exercise again sometime...but this time with a camera to hand...but for now i'm just wondering how the hell i'll be able to sit to him on sunday around a 1m track
