Tails From Provence

What a difference a week makes!

I was pleased with Aero’s lesson last week, but I knew we have a long way to go, even before we can do a Prelim test – the biggest issue with him is tension, and he will get marked down for it exactly the same whether he’s doing Elementary or Preliminary.  Keeping “variety” in mind, I’ve been mixing up his work all week.

On Monday evening, the LSH and I hacked out, on Flurry and Aero respectively.  This time I tried using equine insoles on Aero’s front boots to try to make them fit a bit better. Unfortunately, though, the insoles are designed for use with the Cavallo Sport Boot, which is a fully enclosed unit, unlike the Renegade Boots, which are more like sandals.  The net result was that one of the insoles slipped out the back of the boot, so that half an inch of it was sticking out at the back.  This meant Aero had a little “shelf” under his foot the whole time, and he seemed a little footsore afterwards.  Otherwise, it was an uneventful hack.  Flurry was barefoot and seemed to be minding himself, although I can’t say that was the case when I hacked him alone on Wednesday!

The following day, I did some schooling with Aero.  He felt like he was stepping short, which I put down to the insole incident the previous day, so we did a lot of walk, doing serpentines, circles, free walk to medium walk and back again.  Once he loosened out, he seemed really good and was staying in an outline much better, but I wasn’t 100% sure – maybe I was just accepting less from him?

To keep variety in his life, I just lunged him on Wednesday.  It took 20 mins for him to loosen out and really swing – or maybe it took 20 mins for me to really ask him to work.  We finished up after a nice swinging trot on each rein.

On Thursday, I had a second lesson booked with Frank in Skevanish.
I ended up very pleased indeed!  Aero softened and worked in an outline much quicker than last week.  I’ve figured out that I have to push him forward and at the same time offer him “space” in front – do teeny gives alternately on each rein, and he softens and rounds the neck.  If I just “hold” the reins, he stays tense and resistant.  He’s also finding it easier to bend to the inside – this is what I was feeling on Tuesday, but without eyes on the ground (or a video, sniff!) I wasn’t sure if it was right.

His canter feels so tight after Flurry’s unbalanced sprawl!  At the start, it was too short, but again I asked him to move forward and offered him the rein and he lengthened his stride and worked over his back much better, despite me tipping forward too much – sigh.  We then worked on canter leg yields.  Frank calls the movement a Plié (which is a new one on me), or, jokingly, “controlled falling out through the shoulder, ” which is a great way of describing it!  You turn down the centre line at C or A, ask the horse to move sideways like a leg yield and aim to hit the track somewhere between E/B and the next corner.

Even turning down the centre line in canter is new to me, it’s basically half a 10 metre circle in canter, followed immediately by pushing sideways for the leg yield – lots of engaging of the inside hind!

After doing this a few times, Frank asked me to ride a 15 metre circle in canter, which went well, then he said “Next time you cross the centre line, ask for walk.”  Ok, I thought, I’ve never done this before, but sit deep, think tall, shoulders back and WALK and leg on to maintain it… and it worked!  Easy Peasy!  Oh the joys of a horse that knows his job!

We did the same drill on the other rein, and once again finished with the 15 metre circles and canter/walk.    He fell out of canter while doing the Plié thing on this rein, but I was pleased with how I coped, I just asked for canter again straight away and carried on doing what we were doing.

We finished the lesson working on shoulder-in in walk and trot.  It felt ok to me, shoulder-in is something Flurry and I have figured out together, but apparently Aero needs more angle.  Perhaps he is not yet supple enough to give it?  Whatever about the shoulder-in, the trot he gave me afterwards was amazing – soft, round and bouncy!  It felt so nice I was tempted to try sitting to it, but decided not to push my luck – normally his trot is way too bouncy for me to sit, although I can do sitting trot all day on Flurry.

Frank wrapped up the lesson by saying he can’t believe the improvement we’ve made in a week – it looks more like there’s a month’s worth of work done between this lesson and the one last week!  He’s already teasing me about downgrading Aero, he thinks we’d be ready for more than Prelim in no time.  If only I had his confidence!

I was so pleased with Aero on Saturday that I booked a lesson with Frank O’Sullivan in Skevanish for Tuesday.  Sunday’s ride turned out to be pretty lacklustre, though, and I ended up wondering if I was going to make a complete fool of myself in my lesson!   It had rained heavily on Satruday night, and when I thought about it afterwards, I came to the conclusion that he had been cold and stiff as a result.  In addition to that, Sunday was the first time I schooled hime without lunging him beforehand, so he hadn’t had a chance to loosen out without me on board.  I never felt the same connection that I’d felt the previous day, but when he had softened a small bit in trot, I finished up.  I’ve still got “arena sour” on the brain.

Monday morning, I played with boots.  Flurry’s size 2W hind boots are ok-ish on Aero’s front feet, once I adjusted the cables a bit, so with his own size 2 boots on behind, we set off for a little hack on the road.  The sun was shining, the road was quiet and Aero strode along happily, enjoying every minute of it – exactly what he needed, I think.

Tuesday I went for that lesson!  It started off just awful, he was going around inverted, not particularly excited and not misbehaving, but very tense.  I love Frank’s approach though, never rushed, never stressed, no shortcuts.  First off all we worked on getting longitudinal softness by asking for lateral bend.  Once I insisted on inside bend on circles and kept on doing little give/retakes with the inside rein, Aero started to snort, relax and work over his back in both trot and canter.  We followed this with leg yielding to engage the hind leg and help keep that suppleness over the back, and finished up with Frank saying he reckons I’ll have great fun with him!

We went from this :

to this :

and finished with this :

What’s most exciting for me, though, is that I’m actually feeling like I will one day be able to ride this horse.  In the past, I couldn’t do more than twenty minutes schooling on Aero without my back starting to complain.  Whether it’s the riser pad (ahem) or the fact that I’m so much fitter than I’ve been for years, I don’t know, but it was a good 45 minute lesson, working pretty much the whole time, and I felt 100% afterwards.

When we got home from the lesson, poor Aero had to cope with some disruption to his life!  We took Pepper away to keep Gigi company so that I could bring Flurry home.  Lilly was quite upset without Pepper, she’s been with him for over a year now, and she was calling frantically after him as we drove out of the yard.  By the time we got back with Flurry, she had settled but she was clinging to Aero like a leech!

I wasn’t too worried about turning Flurry out with them, as they were all out together before we went to France.  However, that was when Aero was depressed!  This time, there was quite a showdown, but Aero quickly realised that he was outgunned by Flurry and they settled down.

It’s interesting to note that the most dangerous kick came from Lilly.  Although the two boys were “making shapes” initially and Flurry ended up throwing a few kicks in Aero’s direction, they both gave plenty of warning signals and neither of them ever connected – I’m sure if either of them wanted to harm the other, he could have.  Lilly, on the other hand, acted like the immature little lady that she is, and blasted out both hind legs in a moment of excitement, catching her friend Aero in the process.  Thankfully he wasn’t hurt, but it’s a great demonstration of how a horse can unintentionally injure someone, human or equine, just by being a horse.

Watching all this, and watching them interact over the next few days, it seemed to me that Flurry just might be the new King.  Even though Aero and Lilly are a pair and are excluding him, he’s first in line for food or for my attention.  One flick of his ear, and the other two get out of the way! I’m quite sure that Aero and Flurry will eventually be the best of friends, though, especially when I manage to find a home for Lilly.  After another few days, though, it’s starting to look like Flurry is too lazy to be bossy all the time!  All three are very peaceful now, and Flurry is fully integrated with the other two.

I was absolutely dying to ride Flurry, so I gave Aero a day off on Wednesday (he probably needed it after his lesson, anyway) and rode Flurry instead.

Ah Flurry!  I was using the Micklem bridle with Aero’s bit, a jointed rubber snaffle, instead of his usual bridle with flash noseband and French-link type snaffle.  For the first few minutes I thought he was going to be really heavy and leaning on me the whole time, then it was like a lightbulb moment : “Oh, I’m in the arena! I’m meant to go in an outline now, not like a cowboy horse!”  He rounded up, bent to the inside and listened to my aids.  His transitions were good, even the downward ones which I’d had noticed were particularly rusty while we were trekking.  I even threw in a walk/canter, just to see if he’d do it – he did!  I was so delighted with him that I’m now thinking of bringing him to a show on the 17th!  The complicating factor is that my best friend’s 50th birthday party is on the night before – there’s a fair chance I might be a wee bit hungover after that!

Unfortunately the cold I’d been fighting took hold, and that, coupled with the torrential rain, was enough to put me off riding the next day, so lucky Aero got two days off.  The following day was pretty windy – the sort of wind where you can’t breathe properly if it’s blowing in your face.  I’ve got enough confidence in Flurry to ride him in any weather, so he got ridden, but I definitely don’t have the same relationship with Aero, so he was just lunged.  They got their flu shots, too, and Lilly got  micro-chipped – she was a little angel, she really has a lovely temperament, it’s such a shame about the sweet itch.

I finished off the week schooling both horses briefly on Sunday morning.  I videoed Flurry’s ride (with the LSH’s camera!) and then I spent a lot of time later on that day looking at videos taken during the week of both horses.  I can see quite clearly that I need to shorten up my reins – Frank doesn’t say this directly, but he takes a stealth approach to it by getting me to do things for which I will need shorter reins and which will help the horse to engage.  Every other instructor I’ve had in the past year has said I need to shorten my reins, and I truly believe them!

There was a lot of this…

and some of this…

I’ve a different problem on each horse.
On Flurry, if I shorten my reins, he leans like crazy.  Both of my wrists are weak – my left one developed a ganglion when it had to take over extra duties while the right one was in a cast, and the right one is still not back up to full strength.  So I really can’t cope with him leaning on me, and I end up slipping the reins to ease the pressure, he pokes his nose and we’re back to strung out on the forehand.

On Aero, if I take up a contact and try to “make” him accept it, he resists – the only approach with him is stealth, as practiced by Frank!  But I never know how much to shorten my reins when he does accept the bit, and if I go too heavy-handed, I’ll just end up with him resisting again!

So I’ve some questions for my lesson tomorrow, but I think the best thing I’ve taken from the videos is a mental image of where my reins (and hands) are and where they actually should be.

Where they should be! It’s nice when it’s right!