Talk about complex!
Jazz was REALLY interesting tonight. I decided that he was having trouble balancing in the looseness of the surface on my outdoor arena. It is grit as you may remember, (great for barefoot feet!) and still a bit deep where it is laid too thick. So I changed my method completely, and lined him up square on the fence in walk, kept him to the line for the centre of the fence while he wriggled about to avoid it, and asked him to trot when we were already quite close to it.
He was astonishing! After doing this 2 or 3 times, he gave up trying to come off the line to the fence, started to take canter and BEG me to let him jump the fence. And he was doing it with a take off point really close to the fence and a wonderful bascule, like a real showjumper. We may just have made a breakthrough, I don't know. We'll see if it transfers to a bigger arena and a full course of fences tomorrow.
Mentally, he is such a complex horse. I have tried asking him to jump with increasing determination and he was simply getting worse. Now I'm telling him not to rush at it, to take it really slow, and he is desperate to be allowed to get at the fence. It almost seems as if his brain works really slowly, and unless you slow the body down to let it catch up, he simply can't process quick enough to work out what foot to put where before he is on top of the fence. What a strange creature!
The increased energy has persisted, so I think he has an absorption problem with sugar and/or carbohydrates. A high oil diet obviously suits him really well and it is lovely to have lost the laziness and got him bouncing around with energy.
Zippy nearly had a Smartie moment when I threw his rug on just now. He jumped, and for a moment I thought he was going to wheel around and squash me but he "caught himself" just in time. This new grass growth has obviously affected him too. I'm going to have to get you more photos soon - he is changing unbelievably. Looking at him tonight he is developing a huge muscled backside! It doesn't look like a TB bum at all, it's all warmblood. If he keeps this up for few more weeks he will be strong enough to work by the time he turns three in June. I'm going to feel soooooooooooo smug if that happens :-) !
C
posted by cptrayes @ 8:44 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Very good psychology.
OK, another "Jean" story. I remember once when I let a trainer ride Russell to jump him. The guy put up a huge fence, probably close to 5' with a spread. The trainer was a German, and Russell a Thoroughbred. The guy dug in and sent Russell at the jump fast. I thought, "Uh oh, they are not going over that." Sure enough, Russell leapt, but was so flat he crashed into the thing scattering poles all over.
The trainer asked me to set it back up and changed tactics. He brought Russell to the jump in a slow, controlled, balanced canter and up and over as clean as a whistle. Russell had a super quick mind, but his body just could not react to the effort with that kind of speed and "flatness."
Now that you are saying Jazz had a super bascule over the fence, it reminds me of that so much. It also fits in with the concept you had the other day about how you needed to keep the contact when you jumped him, sort of holding him together.
It may well be that he needs the control not only mentally but physically as well. I will be really interested to hear how the jumping goes now that you have a new approach.
Zip is a bit flighty, isn't he? You are going to have to approach training him quite differently from Jazz. Those two are going to keep both your body and your brain busy!
Bloomin' 'eck Jean, what was the trainer thinking of???
Yes, Zip is flighty, with a strong panic reaction. Pleasingly though he is now looking to me when he panics to see if I think he should or not. So most of the time he is managing to "catch" himself before he is really silly. That's really positive, isn't it?
I love the contrast in the two of them, physically and mentally they could not be a lot different.
C
It's a true saying allow the fence to come to you and let the horse take you there, but it's quite off putting when you feel the horse backing off you it only encourages you to push harder and then you get into a cycle, kick and get ignored. Thats wonderful that this could be a break through maybe you have been inadvertently making him panic and he needs more time to collect his thoughts and prepare for his jumps. As you have already said horses are such complex beasties and the more time you spend with them then you realise how little you actually know how they tick. Each is an individual.
That was me by the way I forgot to sign it
Anne x
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