Showing off now.
Zippy is showing off now :-) To give ourselves something to do in the barn while it was pounding with rain on the roof, I asked him to try something approaching a shoulder in. He nonchalantly offered a proper shoulder in without even moving forward off the track :-0 Show-off :-) !! He will now routinely stand at the block for me to get on, though sometimes it takes a little while to get him to do it. He'll also let me feel the girth now when I am sat in the saddle - that only took one lesson.
He's often very fidgetty to tack up, particularly about the first piece of tack, clipping his breastplate around his neck. And with the bridle I always have to touch his ears with the reins because if you put them over trying not to touch his ears he gets extremely suspicious and can try to turn away from you. But his fidgettyness, which is always worse when it is raining, so far never translates into any flightiness when he is ridden. It's most odd, but being on his back actually seems to make him calmer. He's an odd boy, but very sweet.
Jazz did some really nice work today too. All his lateral work in walk is completely established, including half pass. He finds it very easy, but does not always find it so easy to come back straight again :-) He was doing some credible trot/halt/trot today too. He got sticky with the canter but quickly worked out that if he did what I wanted he was going to be allowed to stop. He is getting much faster at giving in and getting the rewards for behaving.
Tomorrow I hope that the forecast is correct and we will be able to go cross country schooling. I have decided on a different approach. Now that the showjumping seems to be fixed for 2ft 11, I am going to ask him to showjump the cross country fences. I'll slow him up in front on each one instead of sending him on, set him up to jump it like a showjump and let him rebalance on the far side before cantering forwards to the next fence. I remembered that for two seasons Scooby showjumped cross country fences. Although he never refused, right from the start being impossibly brave (or stupid, I never really knew which :-) And Scooby ended up jumping cross country fences like a rocket, though I never could steer if I ever let him go at his full pace!
Fingers crossed for dry weather.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 6:06 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Fingers crossed with you though it makes it hard to type. *G* Maybe your new approach will work. He just might need to be "set up" for the fence.
Zip is trying to charm you no end, isn't he? Tucker fidget foots too when I am tacking up. Sometimes I think he just has no patience with routine stuff. It's like, "Well, we have more important things to do here, let's get going."
The fidgeting is marginally tolerable except that he is so tall it would be a heck of a lot easier to get the job done if I didn't have to stand on tiptoes to get things over his head. (He was taught to lower his head for the bridle...)...sort of....most of the time.
As long as Zip is a good ride, that kind of stuff is not such a big deal. He'll get better over time. Already, the standing for your mounting has improved. *yea!!*
Mmmmm mixed results Jean, just about to write them up. A charmer - yes that describes Zip well :-)
C
Caroline. Just thought you might want to tell Jazz....a pony won the gold medal at the Pan American Games event. Here's a link to the article: http://www.usef.org/panams/viewprSL.aspx?id=2289
14.1 h. Wow!
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