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"Only way that horses will win is to sit there and spend time with them. Show 'em that you're trying to help 'em. Love 'em. Talk to 'em. Get to know 'em. Now that's what you gotta do. You love 'em and they'll love you, too. People might call me crazy, but that's the way it is." -Eddie Sweat, groom for Riva Ridge and Secretariat
Training Log for Elliott Brigham
Subsequent log entries here. 12/19/09 Quite the cheeky monkey to warm up, much snorting and carrying on. Worked on half halt, which had its moments of absolute feigned ignorance on his part, but came around very nicely. He was coming over his back and chewing the bit by the time we were done. Good man. 12/17/09 Worked out in the pasture were he was quite, ahem, fresh. A fair bit of skittering about and generally defying gravity. After he warmed into it, he produced some very good work in trot and canter. Good man. 12/13/09 Delightfully, bouyantly sound today. Yay! 12/12/09 Tacked up and took him out for a hack. Sound in walk. Unsound on right front in trot. Brought him in for evaulation and didn't find anything. Bute. Re-check tomorrow. They were all playing in the snow quite a bit today, probably a muscle pull. 12/1/09 Nice walk warm up and then dressage work in the pasture. He was quite the pill, blowing through half halts and wiggling out of straightness, with occasional bolting. Nice. He came around very well with some patient work and did some very nice trot and canter work. 11/19/09 Dressage lesson with Marina. He was excellent. Learned some new exercises, had some very nice work. 11/13/09 Chiropractic appointment and got his teeth done by a dentist. It is all aimed at making him more comfortable in his mouth. 11/11/09 Conditioning hack. Tool around the soybean fields. Lots of fun. 11/10/09 Fooled around with dressage in the pasture. He was quite wild at first, playing all sorts of games, but he came around nicely, including some seriously fun lengthened trot. Woohoo. 11/7/09 We missed some conditioning rides in there. Jay hunted Elliott at WDH in Chicago, while I rode Charlie. They were both quite stellar and still quite proud of themselves when we arrived home on Sunday. 11/1/09 Jay rode Elliott with me and Charlie on a trail ride. Lots of fun. Nice day. 10/26/09 Dressage school with lots of stretching over the topline and work on half halt and carrying himself. Very good. 10/19/09 Out for a soybean field hack. He was quite cheeky, but powerful and mostly compliant. A few moments of pure sassiness and all in good fun. 10/10/09 Jay hunted Elliott at Tipton. They led first flight and had a blast. 10/3,4/09 Jay and Elliott completed Heritage Park HT, finishing fourth. Jay rode well and Elliott was sweet and kind. 9/29/09 Schooled xc at Margaret's with Jay up and me and Speck playing too. It was a very successful day with big grins on all our faces to end the day. 9/28/09 Dressage school with Jay. 9/26/09 Opening Hunt with Jay. Great fun. 9/25/09 Hack. He was quite full of himself and only barely managed to keep his exuberance in check. Fun. 9/22/09 Jay had a brief dressage lesson on him with me and did quite well. Worked on trot/canter departs, eyes up, thumbs on top. Made some really nice work. 9/21/09 Hack with Jay and me on Sammy. Pretty good fun was had by all. 9/17/09 Trail ride with me on Eddie and Jay on Elliott. It was pretty fun. 9/7/09 Hunted with Jay, first cub of the season. Led the field. They were grinnin' stars. 9/6/09 Jump school which Jay. Buckmonster, kinda naughty. Got it worked out. 9/5/09 Schooled at Margaret's. Fun. 9/2/09 Dressage school. Over the back, over the neck, down to the bit. Repeat. He did well. 9/1/09 Conditioning hack around the corn plot and hillwork. He did very well. 8/27/09 Dressage school. Mostly quiet in his mouth. A little dead to the aids, but half halt coming through. Good man. 8/25/09 Missed a few entries in here, but out for a hack today, around the corn plot in the middle of the soybean field which has the nice truck path around it. Great footing so lots of big trot and canter. Then some hill work and some real discussion about staying in trot when asked and he figured it out. Very good. This was the first ride after his chiropractic adjustment wherein it was determined that his jaw was out (TMJ), which could very well have been the reason for the tongue issue. He was much improved today in that regard. 8/17/09 Several mile road hack. I still stand by my comment that he is overfed. He is having way too much fun for one horse. Fun to ride, though. 8/5/09 Pasture work on the bitless bridle and he was a big hairy stinker. Overfed. 7/7/09 Hill work while being ponied from Ed. They both thought it was quite fun. So did I! 6/24/09 Missed some log entries in here. Tonight went for a two mile hack in the evening humidity. Lots of trot and canter work. He did better than I expected. Wonderful! 6/17/09 Very muggy when I rode around 6. I wanted to have a conditioning run in the heat to stress him a little and to see how he would do. He did quite well with much trotting and a better gallop than I expected. His recovery time was a little slower than the tbs, but that is expected. I got cold water on him quickly and he was recovered very well and looked great a few hours later. 6/13/09 Dressage school with much focus on lengthening (and me staying with it, not behind it) and canter departs. Very good work. 6/10/09 Dressage in the arena, focused on really going forward in extension and coming over his back, down to the bit. He thinks raised cavaletti are easy. Very good work. 6/8/09 Jumping demo at the Purina HOW workshop. He was quite good, though I note that his dressage is a little loose. He jumped like a star and people loved him. He loved the attention. 6/5/09 Missed a lot of log entries here, including his first and second Prelims in which he finished 3rd and 5th. Today we did a conditioning hack around the block. Late in the ride he was focused on the sheep when he suddenly notice the cows on the left and it was all too much. He spun and cantered off and I nearly came off, but he moved under me and helped and I stayed in the tack. I swear he did. It was really funny. He did great . 4 miles is no sweat. 5/2 and 3. Showjumping and xc school at home. He did excellently and was even a little cheeky about the whole thing. Gave me a "Woohoo!" buck after the trakehner today, the nut. I had to laugh. Good man. 4/27/09 Today he had his rabies shot, coggins and teeth floated. 4/25/09 XC school at Longview. We schooled all the prelim questions, including the coffin, two stride drop into water, tables, triple, skinnes, oxer, elephant trap. We were disapointed that the Prelim trakehner was closed to schooling. He galloped well and was rateable and enjoyed himself and at the end got a good rinse and a long munch on the lovely grass they have there. 4/22/09 About 4.5 mile hack with a lot of trotting. Some walk and some canter. It didn't even seem to phase him. He had a blast. 4/17/09 Dressage lesson with Robin Groves. We both got better in and better. When I stretch through my hip, lift my ribs and put my tail down, he is appreciative. His lateral work was really through in the end and his canter came really round. Very little mouth difficulty. Yay! 4/16/09 School at Margaret's. He was excellent. Jumped beautifully and seemed to enjoy himself. We did have a problem with the very skinny jump after the water, but he clearly did not understand the question. With some education and getting his mojo going over other jumps (and his rider keeping him better connected back to front), he jumped it beautifully in the end. We did the weldon's wall, the trakehner, a wacky looking table and dropped off the bank into water. It was a blast! 4/15/09 Hack around the block with some strong canter on the Heart of Iowa trail. He enjoyed himself immensely. 4/13/09 Missed another few log updates in there, but cliniced with Jim Urban in Omaha and ended up jumping a 3'9" course. The only issues we had are that he doesn't do well with waiting and then going and jumping, event with what seems like a reasonable amount of wake up time (a circle or two in canter). He needs more than that. Also, I need to keep him connected so that he jumps straight, and keep my leg on at the base of the fence to help him get up. 4/5/09 I missed a few rides in the log. Rode Elliott in Common Sense Jumping Demo at the Iowa Horse Fair. He was a star in every way. 3/21/09 Hunted with Jay and did very well. Manged to pull a shoe and spring another in the deep going. But he did excellently. 3/19/09 Out for a hack around the block. He was a little doggy at first, but woke up after a while, especially due to the chickens which mightily surprised him across from Gordy's place. The shy at the chickens woke up Gordy's horses, who merrily joined in the silliness that is horses in spring. Later we had a lovely gallop on the Heart of Iowa trail and then trotted the rest of the way home. He enjoyed a lovely roll in the warm sand after that. 3/13-15/09 NE Horse Expo where we did Common Sense Jumping. He was a star as he always is and people just followed him around to be near him. Luckily he does not have a big head and can be bribed with cookies or he'd be hard to live with. He jumped like a rock star and did an extended trot that caused people to spontaneously clap, which chuffed him up more so he stepped bigger. I gave up trying to sit and just posted. The whole experience was great fun for all of us. 3/3/09 Hack, ridden by Jay. We went about 4 miles and used all the gears. He was great. 2/28/09 Hunted with Jay at Grand River. Five inches of snow and still snowing when we arrived, windy, but a great hunting day and he was stellar. 2/24/09 Missed lots of entries in there, but time to get on it for eventing season. Took him for a 2 mile hack in the County saddle I have on trial. Wow I love that saddle. Elliot was goofy and happy to go. He did very well. 5/26/08 He got a day off yesterday to recover and back at it today. Trimmed the long hair on his legs and Jay worked on his tail a bit. Then out to the arena for some work. He seemed delighted. Much tongue, but much stretching too. He was very good and next chance we get we are going out on a hack.
5/24/08 Happy Birthday to me! Jay and I took the jump he built over to Susan's park, Catalpa Corner, and she suprised us with offering to send Elliott home to play with us again. We are delighted! After he got home and had some down time, I lunged him and got on and it was better than old times. Great fun! 10/9/05 Elliott went for some time off at his home. He is on the mission to grow some new and lovely hooves and have some R and R. New video and pictures of the Championships is posted. 10-7-9 Area IV Eventing Championships. He settled in beautifully and we blanketed him because it was cold! We had a school in the afternoon when we arrived, which went well. Saturday morning's dressage went well, too. We earned a 33.5, and got some useful feedback. However, because the championships was full of ringers, we were 10th after dressage, even with that nice score. Top score 27. I know we can get there, but not yet. Showjuming was in the afternoon on Saturday and it was a tough course. Elliott was a living star through the triple that ate half the open training division, though he did rattle the natural fence. Yikes! Double clear. We moved up to 7th. Yay! XC on Sunday was a tough course, with some max fences and some real terrain issues. Hills! I was confident he was fit enough and I knew he was bold enough. The question was whether we could put it all together. Optimum time was 5:07 and the first several horses, who were placed highly, didn't make the time according to their riders. I was stoked. Elliott came roaring out of the start box and ate up the course. Up the hills, down the hills, over some whoppers, through the water. He felt great and we had a blast. He came in 10 seconds under optimum time, the fastest of the Championship division and one of only 3 double clears on XC! On the strength of that we moved up to 5th for a final. Great weekend! I will edit and post some video clips coming soon. :-) 10/6/05 Dressage school. Did a lot of lateral work and stretching focusing on him working with his back up and being over his neck. Went very well. We rode the test for Saturday and it went well. We are ready to leave tomorrow for the Championships. 10/4/05 Light jump school. After a flatwork warm up, with some very nice flying lead changes and transitions work, we schooled the stadium fences (vertical and triple and bounce) then took a walk break and did a XC school over the bounce roll tops, the skinny log and log pile, the hanging log and the new trakehner. He was stellar so we hunt it up for the day. Save his jumping legs for another day. Cooled down with a hosing with attention to his legs and let him roll and gave him candy. Yum! 10/3/05 Dressage school. We worked on transitions within the trot and then doing trot and canter transitions mixed with transitions within the gait. It went very well. Hot though! 10/2/05 Jump school. He was exuberant but coachable. After some walk work, we did a lot of canter work, focusing on lead changes, which I like a lot better lately. Starting to click. Then we did a jump school. Did the triple combination well twice, the single vertical spot on, the bounce stadium rails well, the skinny log to the log pile well, the bounce rolltops well, the oxer, the hanging log and the coop well and done for the day. It was just a little sharpening exercise and I didn't see any reason to jump a lot. He was great. Hose, focusing on his legs, roll, candy and out to pasture. We built a trakehner in the afternoon. It is 3' tall but the supports are in the ditch so the thing looks huge. I look forward to riding it Monday or Tuesday, depending on weather. I know there is one on course this weekend. 10/1/05 Dressage school in the evening. We did a lot of trot work, focusing on transitions within the trot and coming forward in his neck. It went very well. 9/30/05 XC school at Walnut creek. We schooled in the cool morning, so he was feeling quite full of himself. He jumped really great and even was a little too bold occasionally. I was flashing back to video I have seen of Murphy Himself. He was very happy with himself and we had a lovely time. I will keep up with the fitness work just to maintain. I think he is in very good shape and ready for what is supposed to be a challenging course in the Championships next weekend. 9/27/05 Hooves trimmed and shoes re-set. Finally can do some conditioning work. Went around the block (4 miles). After a walk warm up we did a nice mile and a half trot, then some walk to recover. Then a mile canter at about 500 mpm on the nice grass of the Heart of Iowa Trail. I rode him on a little more contact than I have in the past at speed and he seemed to like that feeling a lot better. Walk to catch our breath, trot another half mile, have a minor coronary about the sheep that live just about 500 m from him 24/7 and walk home. Rinse, roll in the sand and about 5 apples for everybody. A colleague from work brought us 5 buckets of really nice windfalls! 9/26/05 Dressage work. More canter work with some trot lateral work involved. He really wants to tighten his neck and stop coming trough when asked to work laterally, but he came around very nicely when really reminded to come through this back. Great! 9/25/05 He has a loose shoe so I am confined to ring riding until the farrier gets here on Tuesday (9/27/05). We worked on dressage and had a nice time of it. I am very pleased with how canter departs have developed and the canter itself is much more through too. Very exciting. 9/22/05 He has a loose right front shoe so I rode him in the arena (if I didn't ride him every time he had a loose shoe he would be a fat horse!) After a walk warm up we did some trot leg yielding, focusing on sending him forward through his neck. That went well so we moved on to walk/canter transitions. He did some very lovely transitions up and some quite good downward transitions. Then we moved on to trot/canter transitions which are the real thing that we need for the test. We had some very good ones. Did some work on transitions within the trot gait which went very well. Cookies, rinse, roll and pasture. 9/21/05 Trailride with Jay and Betty. We started out with a nice relaxed walk for a while. Then we did canter transitions in a field, every 10 strides. Canter ten strides, walk, canter ten strides, walk. Elliott and I are getting the canter transitions together about 80% of the time. The downward transition is correct and through about 30% of the time. He really wants to just raise his neck, and drop his back and fall on his forehand. I keep my leg on and keep sending him through and some of the transitions are miraculous--up and through and balanced-- for which he gets a lot of praise. He just needs to develop the miraculousness as a habit. He is cheerful about it and it is coming so I am looking forward to fabulous things to come. 9/19/05 After a walk and trot warm up, we focused on the canter. He still tightens in the transition, but I can now send him "over and through" his back and neck in canter now and he does very well. We also did transitions in the canter and he came underneath himself with his feet under my seat in a LOVELY collected canter, up and through his back and neck!!! It was most excellent! Woohoo! He got a lot of praise and cookies. 9/18/05 I rode in the pasture. We had a nice walk warm up around the perimeter and then we did some trot work, but focused on the canter. I was asking him to step underneath himself when I half halted on the rein, rather than to lift his neck or tighten his back. Trying to get the half halt to go back through his body to his hock. Had success and when I praised him for it he seemed quite pleased with himself. 9/16/05 Trail ride with Peppa, Bernice and Denise on Ed. Lovely day. As we went I reminded him that staying relaxed and through in his neck was ideal, and he did very well with it. Jump school at the end. Did the bounce rolltops a few times. Ugly but effective. Ended on a good note through the triple. Nice day. 9/15/05 Trail ride with Peppa. Covered some territory and focused a lot on getting him to stretch forward in his back and neck rather than up and tight. Had some real breakthroughs and had some nice canter work in the arena when we got home. It was a lovely ride on a fall day. 9/11/05 Hunted the Tipton country. I thought it would be wise to keep him in the more conservative gate group, but they were walking and trotting and even on his best day, that isn't Elliott's favorite game, so we moved up to the field, which was Jay, Jim McNutt and Brenden Appel. Nice small, very competent field. The hounds got on several nice runs and we ran over hill and dale and through woods and over coops and through streams. Elliott LOVED everything about it. The hounds, the other horses, the galloping the big trotting. He likes to extended trot through the woods, wending through them, while all the other horses are cantering. He keeps up no problem. It is incredible fun to ride. At one point, the hounds led us over a path with a downed tree on it. It made a very nice oxer that Elliott just ate up. He did have a funny moment when we were coming near but parallel to a coop and a hound came bounding over it from the other side. Just appeared out of nowhere to us and especially to Elliott. Made him shy mightily and no one could blame him and we all had a good chuckle and Elliott got a reassuring pat. He was a perfect gentleman to the hounds and other horses. Stood politely at checks. At the end he was still bright, where other horses were quite spent, despite the heat and the miles of country covered. What a big fat bunch of fun! 9/10/05 We were over in eastern Iowa at Susan and Jim's house and of course he pulled a shoe so that I couldn't ride with Bill Coester. That will have to happen another time. Got the shoe replaced, though and ready to hunt on Sunday. 9/8/05 I don't know how many times I have read that "the walk is related to the canter. Improve the walk, improve the canter". I spent a lot of time in walk today talking with him about being relaxed in his poll and coming through his neck. He is coming right along in it, but loses it in the first step of any new movement, for example the first step of shoulder in or travers or the canter depart. The time it takes him to come through again after the change is diminishing, so that is encouraging. After we did all that work in walk, we did some canter work and it was by far the best we have ever done together. That is when I remembered the Zettl comment that I wrote above. It was so clear. Interesting and fun! 9/6/05 Really fun dressage school with Elliott this morning. I rode him on a rubber mullen mouth snaffle. Tongue still active, but he had some real moments of "through" which was fabulous. I channelled Brad Cutshall and just kept sending him up to the bit with leg or a tap of the dressage whip to a quiet, steady hand, regardless of his whining, poll twisting or tongue lolling. When he went up and came through, he came up through his back, softened in his poll and jaw and did some excellent canter work and light, lovely trot lengthening with a soft transition back to a working trot. It was near magical. He probably shouldn't have shown me that because now I have seen the light on how we can do things beautifully... ;-) Lots of praise and cookies for attempting and succeeding with the paradigm shift. Good boy, Elliott, ya big goofball. I'll try to get a hold of Bill tonight for Saturday. 9/2-4 Trott Brook Horse Trial. He settled in fine on Friday night. We got there about 2 p.m., took a short hack around the dressage areas and had a short dressage school which went well. Evening hand grazing and braiding. We were up bright and early the next morning to prepare for 8 a.m. dressage. He warmed up a little tense and tight in the neck, but came around nicely. When we went in the ring he was a little tight at first, but got better and better and did what I thought was a quite good test. His canter and trot lengthenings were by far the best we've ever had in competition, his walk and trot stretches were stellar. The judge did not agree for the most part. While I am paying for a judge's opinion when I compete, I really have a problem with judges who do not vary their scoring. We got entirely 6s and 7s. There were some ick moments that should have perhaps been 5s and some really wow moments that should have been 8s. We ended up with a 36.5, 7th of 14. He warmed up a little groggy for XC as he had been lying down and sleeping. He trotted the first cross rail like a sleepwalker, but came out of it for the second presentation and over the vertical and oxer. On course, he came out of the start box well and then had a pretty good shy at the first jump, which was not a scary jump at all, sort of a log rolltop. I thought we might get away without a refusal because we never stopped going forward, but did have a few sideways steps. Long story short, the jump judges thought it was a stop and it really was close enough that I didn't want to argue it. It wasn't a pretty moment and if it is that close I think you take the penalty and fix the problem, rather than ruin some volunteer jump judge's day for the sake of a piece of satin at the end of the day. Of course he got a pop on the butt when he stopped, and proceeded quite well over fence 2. Next time I come out of a start box, he will get a tap of encouragement rather than a swat of discipline. Earlier is better. Fences 3 a and b were a vertical one stride combination and he was just foot perfect. Wow. 4 was the jump with the drop and he was stellar. 5 was a drop and he jumped up over it, so it made a long drop, but it went fine. 6 was a brush skinny shaped like 2 Us. You could jump through one or the other. The narrowness of them made me wonder, since he gets a little claustrophobic, so I was really on him coming up to it. He jumped right through, no problem. The half coffin went well and he gave the ditch plenty of room as is his wont. The helsinki rode well, right in front of the crowd, which he didn't look at all. Yay! Down the hill over the bridge, just fine. We angled the pheasant feeder to make a nice line to the table. He looked a little at the pheasant feeder and got an encouraging swat on the hindquarters. Hopped the feeder, sailed the table, came down the hill to the trakehner, propped a stride "Ack!", got a strong leg, reacted well to it and avoided the swat. Sailed the trakehner, sailed the one stride bank, sailed the table before the water, went into the water fine, but really wanted to trot. Popped up out the bank and over the coop after it just fine, down over the other bridge, over the skinny very well, over the stone/log oxer very well, over the red coop and hanging log and through the finish flags. The first refusal was very disappointing as he would have been in second had he not had it. The stadium course was fairly difficult. 4 of the 12 horses in the division went double clear and Elliott was one of them. He was a little looky at fence one and 6, which backed off a lot of horses. I had my game face on and helped him find courage. ;-) The first place horse pulled a rail. Had Elliott not had the XC refusal, he'd have moved up to 1st. Woulda coulda shoulda, that's eventing. He really was very good other than that one refusal. We'll address it, but not dwell on it. There were some useful comments from the dressage judge, the XC was mostly very good and the stadium is clearly pretty solid. Not our best finish by the numbers, but still a lot of fun. He's an amazing horse. A real talent and a good sort. He ate a whole coffee can full of cookies over the weekend. I am a pushover for big doe eyes and horses who try hard, even if they aren't always perfect. 9/1 four mile road hack for conditioning. I've known him long enough to know 8/30 New shoes, hair trim and mane pull then dressage school. He did very well. We had a bit of a come to Jesus about turning which was an item of discussion that Brad brought up in our first lesson. He got a little rusty on it, or more appropriately, I allowed it old habits to resurface in that regard. We got some very good understanding with little difficulty and had some very nice work. We are stoked for Trott Brook HT this weekend! 8/29 School at Walnut Creek XC with a group. He was feeling QUITE well. He warmed up beautifully and jumped almost too roundly, the phrase "like a racquetball" springs to mind. A little buoyant. When he had to wait for the other horse to go, he got a little light in the front a few times. Naughty boy was growled at by his rider. He jumped the ditch and half coffin great and everything else. A little strong on a pair of downhill ramps to a cabin, but he got better. I would like to get him out there to school alone or with Jay so that we can do some of the corners and trakehners. Probably after Trott Brook. 8/26 4 mile mostly trot road hack in the soft rain. The footing was perfect, so we did have a nice long canter along one stretch. We both enjoyed the entire ride immensely and he was straight in his body and very happy to go. Woohoo. 8/25: Had a nice quiet dressage school. He feels great and may be a little more supple to the left. Too early to tell if it is just coincidence, but I am hopeful. 8/24: Hay stacking and various items of life kept me out of the saddle for a while. Today I took him to the chiropractor to see if we could get any insight into the difficult left bend and MAYBE the tongue issue. The chiropractor found a subluxation between c3, 4 and 5 and that his left shoulder leads his right (which we all would have guessed). He did some work on him and I took him home. I will give it 24 hours to settle and see what we have tomorrow. 8/17 Dressage school. The "glue" is starting to break up in his neck. We had a walk warm up and did some travers, renvers, leg yield and shoulder in at a walk to help him with the left bend. Walk work is surprisingly tough for us as if I don't really keep him forward he stops in his neck. He had some very nice canter transitions and some nice renvers work in trot. We did lots of transitions to keep it interesting for both of us and we had a lot of fun. 8/16 Intro to bounces! He warmed up just beautifully. Flying lead changes are coming along great. Right to left is a little less consistent, but left to right is solid even from two point position. Most cool. Set the bounce up at 10' apart and 1'6" high just to get the gist of the thing. Yawn, way to easy. Moved it up to 2'9" at 12' distant and he did it very well off the right lead, passing fair off the left. Everything comes back to that left bend. Ok, though, that is coming. Hose, roll and out to pasture. Fun day! 8/15 Dressage school. After a walk warm up did a lot of work on the left bend, including travers left and renvers right. Did a lot of bending and unbending, changes of direction and pace to keep him focused. I really think that when we are helping horses to develop their weaker side it is important to change it up a lot because the weaker side gets tired faster and if a rider works that side too much, they have to figure out ways to cheat because they simply physically can't do it. We had fun and he did well. 8/10 Had a really lovely dressage school. I have been reading a lot about gymnasticizing the horse with dressage schooling figures, and thinking alot about our difficulties in a jump school last week (turning left) and then today I took Claude to a chiropractor who talked a lot about assymetry. With all this in mind, I did a warm up letting him use his easy side (anything right) and then after he was warmed up we did a lot of things with bend to the left. More than marginal success in getting him to push evenly. It was very cool. 8/9 Trail ride with Jay on Betty. Great fun. He isn't quite a seasoned trail horse yet, finds everything very interesting. We laughed a lot and had fun. 8/8 Took him for a 2 mile road hack with Nicole and Betty. All did well. Even had some conversations about being a little less resistant in his neck, which went well. 8/4 Nice rain earlier in the week so today the footing was perfect for a jump school. We tacked up about 7 a.m. in the cool part of the day and put in small studs in the shoes on hooves looking as good as they ever have on him (yay.) We did a walk out to the end of the pasture and then trot serpentines and large canter figure 8s warmup. He was feeling very well, though I notice that flying lead changes are easier left to right than the other way and the usual camping out on the left rein habit was discussed by suggesting a nice foray to the right rein. What a concept. I was perfecting my automatic release while we jumped the log to the log pile (low and high side), the rolltops (which we will be bouncing by month's end by the grace of the Universe, and then did the triple (set at 3', the oxer 3'3" square and the vertical (3'6") We did the vertical at a shallow angle too and he was spot on. Much praise and celebration. We also jumped, for the first time, the 3'8" hanging log (which he had shied at in warm up just for fun and high spirits...) We also jumped the XC oxer and the skinny coop which is now just a piece of cake for him. Groundwork issues to address: left turn resistance in neck (must go more to the right rein. It is improving, but the faster work today showed the difficulty in a more pronounced manner) and get those flying lead changes spot on. They are 80%. More hind feet under seat. It was a great time. Cool hosing with special attention to his legs, roll and out to pasture. 8/3 Dressage work in the arena. It was quite hot and humid, but I figured that he would have to do a test at a show in that kind of weather sometime so better practice at home. We rode Prelim test D in parts after a warmup. Canter work is coming along and the ?glue ? is starting to loosen. Lots of praise and a nice cool rinse and roll at the end. |
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