Annagain
Well-Known Member
Some of you might have read my post last Friday about being nervous of taking my friend's "Mr perfect" horse to a lesson.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/sh...rue#Post4653436
Well I went and, thank god there was only me and another friend from the yard at the lesson. Thank the lord for school holidays! We're both at very different levels (she's an intermediate eventer and only goes for fun!) so rather than go up and down all the time we had 20 minutes each so I basically had a private lesson. We started off very small - about 2'. He (being used to bigger fences) was standing off a mile and I (being used to a horse who gets in way too close and takes of vertically - I said it was quirky!) was getting left behind - by a long way. He had every right to tell me to F off but bless him he just kep going. Instructor decided it was fruitless doing that so whacked them up a fair bit! I still found it quite difficult to judge the take-off for the first few fences but after cantering round for what seemed like an eternity just popping fence after fence in a nice rhythm I ended up getting it back. By the end I was doing the same height it's taken me four years to get to with my boy - after just 20 minutes! I did have fun even though my legs are still killing me today - he is much wider and much lazier than my boy and I've only done 20 minutes around the block in walk twice a week for the last 10 weeks!
It's given me another dilemma now though. It's made me realise how difficult my boy is - through no fault of his own he's just not a natural bless him. Although the vet says his injury was an accident (just found him lame in the field one day) and hasn't been caused by wear and tear or conformation problems, I can't help thinking that when (if) he becomes sound he might be better off in a home where he's under less pressure to do this sort of thing? I watched a video of when I first had him last night. We were doing a 2'3" course but he looked so much happier and was actually jumping properly. I had forgotten he had once done that and that it's only as it gets bigger he jumps weirdly.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/sh...rue#Post4653436
Well I went and, thank god there was only me and another friend from the yard at the lesson. Thank the lord for school holidays! We're both at very different levels (she's an intermediate eventer and only goes for fun!) so rather than go up and down all the time we had 20 minutes each so I basically had a private lesson. We started off very small - about 2'. He (being used to bigger fences) was standing off a mile and I (being used to a horse who gets in way too close and takes of vertically - I said it was quirky!) was getting left behind - by a long way. He had every right to tell me to F off but bless him he just kep going. Instructor decided it was fruitless doing that so whacked them up a fair bit! I still found it quite difficult to judge the take-off for the first few fences but after cantering round for what seemed like an eternity just popping fence after fence in a nice rhythm I ended up getting it back. By the end I was doing the same height it's taken me four years to get to with my boy - after just 20 minutes! I did have fun even though my legs are still killing me today - he is much wider and much lazier than my boy and I've only done 20 minutes around the block in walk twice a week for the last 10 weeks!
It's given me another dilemma now though. It's made me realise how difficult my boy is - through no fault of his own he's just not a natural bless him. Although the vet says his injury was an accident (just found him lame in the field one day) and hasn't been caused by wear and tear or conformation problems, I can't help thinking that when (if) he becomes sound he might be better off in a home where he's under less pressure to do this sort of thing? I watched a video of when I first had him last night. We were doing a 2'3" course but he looked so much happier and was actually jumping properly. I had forgotten he had once done that and that it's only as it gets bigger he jumps weirdly.
