9/7/05 Hunted Larkin at South River. We led the Turtle Group. As I had hoped, there was ample opportunity to lark over many different jumps. He was quite snarky to the first three, popping his shoulder out and refusing, a few times threatening to crash us into the fence next to the object. He rec'd some negative feedback about exercising that option. By the end of the day, he was calmly and straightly jumping coops by himself, going away from the group. That was very encouraging and he rec'd much praise. He will pull the former behaviour again, though I am sure, so I have recommended that I hunt him two more time before Michael starts to jump in the field with him. Larkin went home, as the training required is complete. We will coordinate schedules to get him hauled to, and through a few more hunts with me this month.

9/6/05: Yesterday was a pretty easy hunt, so I rode him. We warmed up in the pasture with some trot and canter work which went well. Then on to some jumping. I just did the low jumps for a warm up and then did the larger coop from each direction, which went swimmingly.

9/5 Hunted at Grand River. He was very polite and a credit to himself when hunting Grand River. We led the Turtle Group and he dealt with the other fields leaving at a canter with little difficulty. This will be a good help to getting him free from the herd mentality for whipping with Michael someday.

8/29 We warmed up in the pasture at a walk and trot. He is starting to come into himself and has really been a star student. He has come a long way in a few weeks and I let him know what a genius he is. His canter work was very good. It was a little strung out at first, but with a few requests he came right around. We did the 2 smaller jumps and today I asked him to do the larger coop and he did it confidently, straight and in balance. Wonderful. We did it two more times and done for the day. As an aside, his brilliance may be his downfall if he isn't thoughtfully ridden. We must remember that he is just 4 years old. A draft cross will grow until he is 7. Just because Larkin in kind and will jump, does not imply that it is in his or our best interest to ask him to do it often. I suggest we limit this horse's jumping work to twice a week 5 jumps a workout max until he is 5 at least.

8/25 Worked in the pasture focusing on canter work, coming through from
behind and being a little more responsible for his own balance. He is so young
and big that it is hard for him to keep it all together. He did very well. We did
some jumping at a canter over the small jumps which went well.

8/23 Michael out for a lesson. Went very well.

8/21 I rode Larkin as the leader of the Turtle Group for the Mock Hunt. He was very mannerly.

8/18 Michael out for lesson. Went very well.

8/17 Michael out for lesson. Went very well.

8/16 Larkin warmed up fine at a walk and a trot, but forgot how to be polite at a canter. Wanted to be completely unbalanced, escape out his shoulder and twice tried to run very close to the fence, perhaps to scare me, which he most certainly did. We spent a lot of time on getting a balanced canter and once we did, the jumping was fine. This just supports my theory tha the jumping is the easy part if the groundwork is laid.

8/15 Walk and trot warm up in the pasture went well. In the canter he is a bit too clever with his shoulders which we are working on. We trotted the two logs several times and they went well. At one point he ran out left over a skinny small coop, which was predictable, given his shoulder cleverness elsewhere. Got him straight and then re-presensted and it went well. Then we did the coops at a canter. It is most important to get him balanced in his canter before presenting to the jump. He did fine.

8/9 We worked in the pasture and he was a bit difficult. We were doing walk and trot circles which were going well, but when I asked him to do canter circles, he would try to escape over his left shoulder every time we got to the barn side of the circle. It is important to get control of a horse's shoulders for jumping because if you have it, you can set them up to jump well. If you don't, they may jump and they may not, entirely up to them... We worked a lot on getting control of that left shoulder and will likely need to address it repeatedly as it is quite an ingrained habit.

8/8 Worked in the arena for warmup and he had one huge stumble. I attribute it to being out of shape, but we should keep an eye on it. Then we went outside and did some figures in the pasture and had some discussions regarding whether it was appropriate to drop his outside shoulder and go in the other direction than requested. Then we trotted a log a few times and he over-reacted to it by really jumping up and around. I let him, but repeated the exercise and he got quieter and more rhythmic. Yay.

8/5  Worked in the arena on rein and leg aids which went well.  He is quite lazy behind in his canter, which I would like to resolve before jumping too much.  I hope by mid-week next week to have him together enough to start jumping.

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