What a day
Jazz and I have had the most marvellous afternoon hunting. It still frustrates me that he refuses the early fences the first time of asking, but today he finished by jumping from a looser rein instead of having to be held together, and he was taking me to the fences. We have jumped some very big stuff today. All timber, and a great deal of it full fence height instead of smaller hunt fences. Best of all, we were going across great open fields and having a rolling gallop. My, my, is he fit or what? Other horses were flagging and slowing up, and he was just rolling past them in a wonderful rhythm. And the weather was superb too. We have one more meet, possibly (depending on the weather) and then that's it for the season. I don't know whether he will hunt next year or whether Radar will do it all. We'll have to see how things turn out.
Talking of Radar, I rode him outdoors this morning for the first time. He was fine, but he did spook at the mounting block. Which I thought was a bit silly since I had just used it to mount from. But it's better than him being brain-dead, I don't want a complete donkey! He trotted quite reasonably on the left rein, but to the right he can hardly stay upright!! It's an incredible difference, he is the most one sided horse I have ever trained. But there is a super horse waiting in that ungainly frame and with some more training he is going to be possibly the most impressive looking creature I've ever ridden. No wonder the police were interested in buying him, he has such military bearing.
Tomorrow everyone gets the day off while I go to work. Friday I will try and get some photos of me on Radar. Saturday we will go for a short hack, if not before.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 4:34 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I'm so pleased you had a lovely day out with Jazz, hopefully it has left him feeling less threatened by Radar too. Never mind Radar's military bearing, it also sounds as though he has had military schooling as well (!)
Louise
Good for Jazz, but how strange that he still has those first fence refusals in him. I have to admit that is a curious habit. I wonder if you were able to do a few warmup fences before you started a "course" if he would still refuse? It doesn't exactly work hunting, I know, but is it the concept of jumping or the jumps that first put him off? Sounds like a fabulous finish, though.
Considering that, like us, most horses are born one sided, I'm not surprised at Radar's "Left hoofedness." Think about it. For six years, he has had no schooling and has probably favored that side all on his own. This is essentially the first time in his life he is being expected to use the right side for any purpose.
If you watch him in the field, I'd wager he favors his left lead. He might even, as my PJ did (although he had an injury on the right before I got him) even prefer counter cantering to using his right lead.
What I would do when schooling is just do every exercise two times on the bad side and once on the good side. It will take a while, depending on how long it takes for his muscles to "re-educate" but sooner or later, he's likely to switch sides. The right side will become the better schooled side and the left, the more natural, will not be quite as balanced. Then, you just school him normally.
Then again, you probably know all this already. *VBWG*
So Radar it is then! ;-)
Do they only go round one way then Louise???
Jean, Jazz refuses because he's a gutless wretch. He looks too hard for the danger in things. Even later in a hunt, if the horse in front of him swings away, he swings away too and won't jump it until he has seen someone else jump it. I love him, but heaven knows why. If you warm him up for a cross country, he still won't jump without looking at them all for at least ten fences. He has to have his blood really up with the first whizz under his belt before he will jump without looking. I must admit I am dying to hunt a horse that just jumps for fun. I hope Radar will be that horse, we'll see.
C
For the moment, Mandeigh, for the moment! Though I am very swayed by the fact that SH loves it.
C
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