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Lesson Neep: Follow the Bouncing Ball
Oct. 24th, 2004 02:41 pmBreakthrough day today. Yay!
Joni was able to ride keed--her knee is very bruised but the doctor thinks she'll be OK, so while she wasn't up for a lot, she did manage a nice getting-reacquainted ride. He even offered her his best collected canter by way of apology for going splat last week. It was good for both of them.
Capria was Lesson Pony of the Week. She insisted on it. Strongly. Pushed the others out of the way and pushed her nose into the halter. We did basics again--have been schooling volte into shoulder-in, walk-canter transitions, and legyield zigzags, but the lesson was about quality of gaits and transitions again. ( Read more... )
Capria loves it. It's hard for her with her long back, but she really wants it and she really likes the way it feels. She's very comfortable doing second-level work in spite of her age, her medical history, and all the mistakes I've made. Collection, she says, feels good. She likes it.
Or, Why I stick with this even though it's difficult, slow, and gets sneered at by riders who get bored, dump the lessons, and go off to ride in shows. I want to show--I really want to get Pook out there and show him off--but I'm willing to wait a bit longer until I've got all my ducks in a row and playing their Sousa marches.
Soon. If his trot work keeps up at this rate, he'll be ready for Intro in a few more weeks. Training level has to wait until we have a solid canter, which could be be a while--baroque horses don't like to canter until they can collect the other gaits, which means you get a horse with second-level walk and trot but very rudimentary canter. Though Pook has so much talent on the hoof, he may overcome that. Joni was commenting today that he has it all. He can do the collected work he's bred for, but he thinks extensions are a gas and he loves to play with them. He's an all-purpose dressage machine.
I should note, apropos of show ambitions, that I got the Dehners out for the first time in months. They were kind of a nuisance before, but today they really helped give me a solid leg. Now if they'll just drop another quarter-inch so I can bend over in them, we'll be in business. They're almost there--they were amazingly comfortable considering how long it had been since I wore them.
After lessons, since the arena was free, I saddled up Pook. He was having a major attack of hormones, indicated by little nips at the rail while I saddled him--he'd never nip at me, but he was full of himself. I tried to ride without a free longe, but he swelled up and started thinking bad words, so I let him loose and he took off shaking his head and bucking, followed by some exuberant gallops. Then he was ready to think about work. ( Read more... )
Cool stuff. I like it that I was able to reproduce the lesson on another horse. That means it's nicely internalized.
Now back to Song of Unmaking. I will be so glad to be done with ongoing novel blitzes aka The Books That Turned My Brain to Prune Whip.
Joni was able to ride keed--her knee is very bruised but the doctor thinks she'll be OK, so while she wasn't up for a lot, she did manage a nice getting-reacquainted ride. He even offered her his best collected canter by way of apology for going splat last week. It was good for both of them.
Capria was Lesson Pony of the Week. She insisted on it. Strongly. Pushed the others out of the way and pushed her nose into the halter. We did basics again--have been schooling volte into shoulder-in, walk-canter transitions, and legyield zigzags, but the lesson was about quality of gaits and transitions again. ( Read more... )
Capria loves it. It's hard for her with her long back, but she really wants it and she really likes the way it feels. She's very comfortable doing second-level work in spite of her age, her medical history, and all the mistakes I've made. Collection, she says, feels good. She likes it.
Or, Why I stick with this even though it's difficult, slow, and gets sneered at by riders who get bored, dump the lessons, and go off to ride in shows. I want to show--I really want to get Pook out there and show him off--but I'm willing to wait a bit longer until I've got all my ducks in a row and playing their Sousa marches.
Soon. If his trot work keeps up at this rate, he'll be ready for Intro in a few more weeks. Training level has to wait until we have a solid canter, which could be be a while--baroque horses don't like to canter until they can collect the other gaits, which means you get a horse with second-level walk and trot but very rudimentary canter. Though Pook has so much talent on the hoof, he may overcome that. Joni was commenting today that he has it all. He can do the collected work he's bred for, but he thinks extensions are a gas and he loves to play with them. He's an all-purpose dressage machine.
I should note, apropos of show ambitions, that I got the Dehners out for the first time in months. They were kind of a nuisance before, but today they really helped give me a solid leg. Now if they'll just drop another quarter-inch so I can bend over in them, we'll be in business. They're almost there--they were amazingly comfortable considering how long it had been since I wore them.
After lessons, since the arena was free, I saddled up Pook. He was having a major attack of hormones, indicated by little nips at the rail while I saddled him--he'd never nip at me, but he was full of himself. I tried to ride without a free longe, but he swelled up and started thinking bad words, so I let him loose and he took off shaking his head and bucking, followed by some exuberant gallops. Then he was ready to think about work. ( Read more... )
Cool stuff. I like it that I was able to reproduce the lesson on another horse. That means it's nicely internalized.
Now back to Song of Unmaking. I will be so glad to be done with ongoing novel blitzes aka The Books That Turned My Brain to Prune Whip.
