Schooling the Elephant today - CC wanted

D

Deefa

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 November 2006
Messages
3,258
Location
Leicestershire
Visit site
I schooled Goli tonight and my mum offered to video bits for me so i could watch back (find it easier to see what i do wrong!)
Other than camp we have not had a lesson for a few months due to weather being off and on.
So, he is now rising 6yrs old and standing at 17.3 without shoes, 18 with them. We have started teaching him shoulder-in and walk to canter transitions recently and also working on collection/gears within a pace, esp canter.

We dont have a school and our normal riding area is not fit to school on so sadly we are just on a peice of avialable grass lol

I know we are far from perfect so be as brutal as you like :)

Starting to teach shoulder in (can be hard as we have no 'sides!')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qTXm_lFoAE

Baby leg yield, starting to increase the angle on this now to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfJJhYUWgRU

Walk to canter, only just starting to teach this (he is qiute lazy so taking a while)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvf7ynKkRkg

Canter, collection and working
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kQYaLdpYAc

Changing canter lead through trot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzvvwP8GdV4
 
What a sweet baby/giant horse you've got! He looks very willing and has a nice rythmn throughout. Whilst the horses' mechanics are good I'm a bit bemused with some of your aids as they seem to be backwards! In the shoulder-in/shoulder-fore your INSIDE leg is behind the girth while your OUTSIDE leg is at the girth - this should be the other way around. And in the canter transitions your inside leg could be longer. Having said that, your horse is understanding your aids and responding pretty well; if you refined your aids as above they could work better still. Lovely combination.
 
Attractive and well balanced horse. So jealous you are riding on grass!! Lots to like - you do give your outside rein away in shoulder in and leg yield & at present there isn't much difference in your canter shortening and lengthening. He stays very consistent in outline in trot canter and canter trot transitions, you do draw your inside leg back to canter but he is very obedient to your aids. He may be a big horse but he looks very together - good stuff!!
 
Thank you
Cortex - the poor horse has learnt to read my mind I am sure as he always seems to do what I want him to, whatever I am doing wrong lol. Will rectify that next time.

Kirsty - shortening is something he has found really difficult and only recently started doing it without falling on my hands and saying 'carry me' rather than him balancing himself. I am hoping this may improve as he gets stronger? Any schooling activities you recommend?
 
I put out two markers and count strides between the two - ie what would be your working canter no of strides, then see how many shortened and lengthened strides you can do. Set yourself a target, it's quite a challenge! I think you've done a great job with him and he sounds very trainable :)
 
Nothing constructive to say . . . not qualified . . . but oh my goodness what a gorgeous big baby you have there and I love how sympathetically you ride him. He's lovely.

P
 
Really really lovely horse and nice quiet riding. A lot to like there.

I do however agree with Cortez about the rider positioning in the shoulder in. Why does it matter we might ask when the shoulder in looks reasonable? Because the whole point of the exercise is to work the horse's inside hind leg, and by you sitting on your inside seat bone and not collapsing to the outside, plus using your inside leg to drive at the girth, the inside hind leg is forced to work harder and cannot just escape. If you watch your video closely you can see that there is no real extra loading on the inside hind so the effect of the exercise is lost.*

Same with the leg yield, weight on inside seat bone ie away from the direction of travel.

Hope that helps a bit :-) All looks great otherwise.
 
He is gorgeous!

I hope I don't come across rude but I noticed throughout some of the videos the rider's hands are unsteady at times. At the end of the last vid it looks like the rider is sawing the horse's mouth.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top