4whitesocks
Well-Known Member
Oh dear God I am mortified.
......my YO offered to work with me today (bank holiday over here) on Sid - we discussed feed etc and both agreed he's getting a bit porky and sluggish so reducing haylage, giving him some oil & increasing his hard feed to see if that helps...if no change by next weekend we'll look into his bloods...
Then we took him into the menage because I've been all stressed about him going backwards in his schooling....well b*gger me if within 10 minutes she didn't have him working amazingly - completely rounding, working on the bit, great extension....I almost fell over - I have NEVER seen him work like that - now fair enough there was a few battles and one one occasion on his 'bad' rein he was a little brat and let a fly buck but she did nothing more than a few tickles with the schooling whip and he said 'oh ok then, if I really have to do it I will'...I got on then for 10 minutes and he really listened, we left canter alone as he had already worked pretty hard on it but she just wanted to prove to me that I can do it too....and I could...he felt amazing under me...different bloody horse! And you could tell he was all chuffed with himself when he got it right...when he was objecting head would go up, pace shorten, slow down completely - ask again with conviction and down head would come, hind end engaged and on he'd go like a dressage diva!
The best bit was at the end I picked my jaw up off the floor and she said 'you see Dawn what you do is vaguely suggest that if he feels like it maybe he might like to do a bit of work for you.....what you need to do is insist!!!'
Well I guess now at least I know he can bloody do it when he's told...
Then we took him into the menage because I've been all stressed about him going backwards in his schooling....well b*gger me if within 10 minutes she didn't have him working amazingly - completely rounding, working on the bit, great extension....I almost fell over - I have NEVER seen him work like that - now fair enough there was a few battles and one one occasion on his 'bad' rein he was a little brat and let a fly buck but she did nothing more than a few tickles with the schooling whip and he said 'oh ok then, if I really have to do it I will'...I got on then for 10 minutes and he really listened, we left canter alone as he had already worked pretty hard on it but she just wanted to prove to me that I can do it too....and I could...he felt amazing under me...different bloody horse! And you could tell he was all chuffed with himself when he got it right...when he was objecting head would go up, pace shorten, slow down completely - ask again with conviction and down head would come, hind end engaged and on he'd go like a dressage diva!
The best bit was at the end I picked my jaw up off the floor and she said 'you see Dawn what you do is vaguely suggest that if he feels like it maybe he might like to do a bit of work for you.....what you need to do is insist!!!'
Well I guess now at least I know he can bloody do it when he's told...