A man on a van
Zippy was SUCH a good boy today. I wonder how many horses of any age would walk past a man sitting on the ROOF of his camper van :-0 ? Why was he there? Who knows! But all Zip did was take a little look and walk on by. He was very jumpy today, but I suppose no more that you would expect of any horse in a strong wind, and certainly perfectly fine for a three year old. He's not keen on puddles and wet bits of road, but he went over all of them for me after some seconds of hesitation. I'm still having some issues getting him to stand still to be got on, but it gets better gradually.
He is up to a full half hour hack now, with a biiiiiiig hill to come back up at the end. He seems to be coping perfectly well, but I am a little concerned about how he coughs when he's tired. It's like the thing where he snorts his food down his nose. I suspect that he has a very floppy soft palate, or something like that. I'll see how he goes as he gets fitter and probably have him scoped in the autumn just to find out what it is that causes it.
Jazz did a super session in the barn. I set my hands by touching my little fingers against the D-rings on the saddle and he worked to the steady contact. My hands are normally wandering all over the place and it does Jazz no good at all. Other horses I would move my hands wherever their head wants to go, but Jazz just tosses his head if you allow that. I was surprised at how little contact he took when I did it. I thought that he would be pulling at the bit, but he would test it, realise that it wasn't going to be released and then flex nicely. In fact he seemed comforted and settled by the consistent position of my hands.
Anyway, it translated into superb lateral work in walk, including a fantastic half pass on each rein. Then a short rest and into some walk/trot transitions, with only a few strides of each. Grand. Another short rest and our first ever attempt at trot/halt/trot. I had expected a battle to get trot/halt but he was only taking a couple of strides to get it pretty nicely - that was a surprise. Likewise, on the third or fourth time of asking, we got a halt/trot with no walk. I was chuffed to bits but we'd only been going 15 or 20 minutes in total so I just finished on a walk to canter on either rein. He was much improved on the right rein from how he has been recently.
He has improved tremendously from the head-tossing tearaway that I used to have to stop by running him into the wall! He's in my good books today :-)
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 5:25 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Zip is one brave fellow passing a man on top of a van! One time PJ spooked at a man in a van and carted me sideways across a paved road into a stand of evergreens! A man on a van is much scarier than that! *G*
The cough is a bit worrying. Does he do it all the time? Could it be a seasonal allergy to something?
As for the Jazzman..what kind of snaffle are you using? I find my Boys prefer an eggbutt because a loosering moves too much in their mouths. Sometimes a more stable bit can make a horse accept it better. Either way, the steadier hands are great. You can also help yourself by holding your elbows against your body and keeping them there. My hands "float" a lot too, and that elbows in helps quite a bit.
We will have to nominate Jazz as a riddlemaster with his ever-changing approach to being schooled.
or some sort of strap at the front of the saddle fixed to the d's...have a spare brown one if you want...
it's something i had to really work on is still hands with moving fingers...
Zipps is really coming on...how are you feeling about getting on him now?
The cough is just when he's tired out at the end of the hill Jean, but it's not good.
Jazz is in a long cheek snaffle to help with the steering. So is Zip, but Jazz's is a French and Zip's a single joint, though I might change it.
Thanks Claire I've got a stock of about ten flash straps that would do the job.
Mandeigh I still feel scared by the possibility of what he could do, but I'm increasingly aware that it is daft to feel scared at all after two months without a hitch. Does that make sense?
C.
I've just done some Googling and I think that Zip has dorsal displacement of the soft palate (DDSP). The research I have done suggests that there are a number of solutions, surgical and otherwise, but none of them are successful more than 60% of the time. However, the good news is that he is almost certain to grow out of it, and that it is related to young horses with incomplete immune systems picking up respiratory tract viruses as part of growing up. If that's the case, the more he mixes with Jazz when he's been out, and the sooner he gets out and about himself and meets carrier horses, the quicker he will grow out of it.
C.
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