Sitting trot ?

Cob Life

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PS. I strongly suspect that despite his otherwise kind and generous nature,Bob has been playing me for a mug on this issue. He was not best pleased to be called out on it tonight. Teddybears were not just thrown , they were ritualy sacraficed dismembered and mutilated.
Blue is definitely playing mug with the same issue. On days I’ve already won an argument I get a gorgeous canter, on days he’s just generally being an ar*e I’ve had him tank off, bucking, point blank refusing to canter. It’s definitely a schooling issue because he has got away with it with other riders for years
 

Bob notacob

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Blue is definitely playing mug with the same issue. On days I’ve already won an argument I get a gorgeous canter, on days he’s just generally being an ar*e I’ve had him tank off, bucking, point blank refusing to canter. It’s definitely a schooling issue because he has got away with it with other riders for years
Know how you feel. Though nobody has got the better of bob on this one .Miss ponyclub A test AKA A , tried and he took her half halt as a signal to turn on his haunches and jump out of the school. This didnt go to plan as spotting her now prostrate on the ground ,he panicked and reversed through the school fence he had so cleanly jumped. This resulted in undue strain on the lighting cables affixed to the top rail ,which brought two floodlights crashing to the ground .Our hero ,now realising that there would be questions to answer and some very angry folk ,tried to make his getaway by rushing over to me and trying to bury his head under my hi viz jacket. Horses ,youve just gota love them!
 

Bob notacob

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Sorry if I am hijacking the op,s thread but I took Bob back in the school today after our "Full and frank discussion "about him not being a team player . What amazed me was that after a few circuits of walk I went into his BD novice test and he went into canter like a pro .I was totaly totilassed . The trouble is that due to bobs previous antics , he has never realised that there are a succession of movements in canter . It has always been fight, him/Me (I am also to blame) crashing and burning back to a lunaticly fast Irish draught trot,it has never been on either of our event horizons ,what the hell do we do after this entry into canter. So by defaullt even though he has done an upward transition that would earn him a grudging 8 he hasnt a scoobie what to do next so he tries to go back to trot. Well today ,despite my aches and pains ,we worked on this , Shock amazement, He got the canter lead right every time , I even managed to persuade him to do the full series of movements in the test (but my arthritic knees gave out at the last moment, Bugger)We called the session a day ,very earl because he had clearly learned and remembered what was required ,and his reward was a quiet stroll on a loose rein. I have now discovered that my Novice test is actually 10 days away rather than three ,so Bob will now do an intro followed by a prelim this sunday (just a lovely little local thing organised by the equally lovely Gaston family) I do need to recuperate however. I ache all over . Bob got plenty of praise and the rock hard currency of respect, EXTRA STRONG MINTS
 

Reacher

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Know how you feel. Though nobody has got the better of bob on this one .Miss ponyclub A test AKA A , tried and he took her half halt as a signal to turn on his haunches and jump out of the school. This didnt go to plan as spotting her now prostrate on the ground ,he panicked and reversed through the school fence he had so cleanly jumped. This resulted in undue strain on the lighting cables affixed to the top rail ,which brought two floodlights crashing to the ground .Our hero ,now realising that there would be questions to answer and some very angry folk ,tried to make his getaway by rushing over to me and trying to bury his head under my hi viz jacket. Horses ,youve just gota love them!
I know it’s not funny, but ...???
 

oldie48

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Some of the above posts remind me of my friend turning up with her "kind, generous, easy connie" (her words) for a first lesson at AMD. My suggestion as she was getting double clears at low level BE but not being placed because of her dressage score. It was quite scary, when said kind generous and easy connie was asked to get in front of the leg and stay there, show a bit of suppleness and make an attempt to take some weight behind he turned into a maniac pony, throwing himself at the walls and walking on two legs. I watched with dismay as friend was booked in for a three day stay but she stuck with it and on the last day, he was in front of the leg, showing some suppleness and starting to take some weight behind and behaved beautifully with a look of resignation on his pretty grey face!
 

Bob notacob

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Some of the above posts remind me of my friend turning up with her "kind, generous, easy connie" (her words) for a first lesson at AMD. My suggestion as she was getting double clears at low level BE but not being placed because of her dressage score. It was quite scary, when said kind generous and easy connie was asked to get in front of the leg and stay there, show a bit of suppleness and make an attempt to take some weight behind he turned into a maniac pony, throwing himself at the walls and walking on two legs. I watched with dismay as friend was booked in for a three day stay but she stuck with it and on the last day, he was in front of the leg, showing some suppleness and starting to take some weight behind and behaved beautifully with a look of resignation on his pretty grey face!
Well Bob has had a couple of days off and clearly gone a bit ferral. We did get some good stuff till his brain boiled over. Its so hard , I can only tolerate the pain from his canter for so many metres ,before I have to admit defeat. It bloody hurts. Not his fault . he didnt volunteer to have a 65 year old rider bless him. We went back to trying to get the good trot ,rather than the head up charge. Its 4 days and counting .I told A that its novice 13 ,she said oh thats good , the lower numbers are easier. Er ,I got it wrong , its something like 28 .Oh well Crashng an burning is just a matter of altitude. You hit the ground exactly the same.
 

Regandal

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Well Bob has had a couple of days off and clearly gone a bit ferral. We did get some good stuff till his brain boiled over. Its so hard , I can only tolerate the pain from his canter for so many metres ,before I have to admit defeat. It bloody hurts. Not his fault . he didnt volunteer to have a 65 year old rider bless him. We went back to trying to get the good trot ,rather than the head up charge. Its 4 days and counting .I told A that its novice 13 ,she said oh thats good , the lower numbers are easier. Er ,I got it wrong , its something like 28 .Oh well Crashng an burning is just a matter of altitude. You hit the ground exactly the same.
I think you’re pushing yourself too hard too quickly. It may be a case of working on his canter for a few months before competing again. What does your instructor think?
 

Bob notacob

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Instructors all say go for it.It is hard to say whether the difficulty (apart from Bobs incredibly powerful paces) is with Bob ,or merely with me. I have been slowly recovering over the last 10 years from a rather nasty rotational but I am also getting older . Today "feral Bob " was replaced by happy to please ,Bob (another one of his multiple personalities) We absolutely nailed our canter. Not sure if it was the dentist or his snazzy clip he got yesterday . And possibly because I suddenly realised the startlingly obvious. I need to breathe. Yes a lot of riders dont breathe at times . Unfortunately I have a Blood oxygen level of about 94-96 % at rest so while I am losing control I am going hypoxic ,or maybe its the other way round. So I consciously forced my breathing and suddenly it was so easy . We only practiced prelim 13 which is our warmup test but he got it,so we left it at that.
 

Regandal

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Instructors all say go for it.It is hard to say whether the difficulty (apart from Bobs incredibly powerful paces) is with Bob ,or merely with me. I have been slowly recovering over the last 10 years from a rather nasty rotational but I am also getting older . Today "feral Bob " was replaced by happy to please ,Bob (another one of his multiple personalities) We absolutely nailed our canter. Not sure if it was the dentist or his snazzy clip he got yesterday . And possibly because I suddenly realised the startlingly obvious. I need to breathe. Yes a lot of riders dont breathe at times . Unfortunately I have a Blood oxygen level of about 94-96 % at rest so while I am losing control I am going hypoxic ,or maybe its the other way round. So I consciously forced my breathing and suddenly it was so easy . We only practiced prelim 13 which is our warmup test but he got it,so we left it at that.
This is interesting, it’s the Ride With Your Mind approach to canter.
https://dressagetraining.tv/sitting-to-canter/
Not saying that this is your problem, but I found it extremely helpful.
 

Bob notacob

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This is interesting, it’s the Ride With Your Mind approach to canter.
https://dressagetraining.tv/sitting-to-canter/
Not saying that this is your problem, but I found it extremely helpful.
It really looks helpful,thank you so much . But right now ,Sunday evening, I am so tired but full of pride for Bob ,that I dont have the energy to watch. The weather today was a gale and sheet rain , only fools and good horses were out today!And Bob was one of those few good horses that turned up. I liked our dressage judge , a lady called susie watson, She marked hard but fair, I recognised all our failings and our few sucesses. Our prelim warm up was our best test TBH. We got a 60% .OK not much to many but it is all relevant , you have to consider the distance you have come from. We wernt last,not thatI would have cared .Bob nailed the canter .He appeared to outsiders to be fighting thecanter but he wasnt ,I could have ridden it with one hand ,but he naturaly throws his head up. We can work on this. An hours wait before our Novice test .I did my best to keep Bob warm but seriously,the weather was appalling. Come the novice test ,Despite my worries ,we didnt run out of oxygen in the canters ,sadly poor Bob seemed to run out of energy. I screwed up despite my efforts to learn both tests fluently and went into FWLR instead of medium trot across the diagonal. MY Bad. But bOB WAS BRILLIANT , we went back to the canter and I was never for a moment in any doubt that he wouldnt just pick it up again and do his medium trot . Wer wernt last in good company and I am so proud of him.I would also like to thank all of you who have helped Bob nd I ,turn this corner.
 

QueenT

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would now not be a helpful time then to remind OP of para riders with one or no legs :p
I actually took some inspiration from the para riders (check out Stinna Tange) I tried to mentally ‘detach’ my legs (hope it doesn’t sound disrespectful) so as not to cramp up and get tight all over but focus on my seat, balance etc. Hands became a little bouncy, but that was practice as well
 

Cob Life

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I actually took some inspiration from the para riders (check out Stinna Tange) I tried to mentally ‘detach’ my legs (hope it doesn’t sound disrespectful) so as not to cramp up and get tight all over but focus on my seat, balance etc. Hands became a little bouncy, but that was practice as well
Have you seen vides? Are you actually bouncing or does it feel like you are?

I know I feel like I’m bouncing all over the place but when I watch back on videos I’m actually really still and the bouncy feeling is where my body is absorb the movement of the horse
 
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