A new horse
Sonia was amazed at the difference in Jazz when he has a curb on. "Like a different horse" she said. He was in probably the most crazy mood he has ever been in at her place, but as soon as he tried to misbehave and then couldn't, he gave up and did some utterly brilliant work in the most consistent outline he has ever achieved. She could hardly believe her eyes, and we have agreed that there is simply no point messing around with a snaffle with him any more, he is so much more confident in a curb. It's so odd, having so much more control makes it so much easier to get him to stretch and relax. What a strange creature he is!
Anyway, we have done some work focussing on straightness in trot, which gained us some fantastic "throughness" once we got "straight". That gave us wonderful elevation in the shoulder in and leg yield. The canter was just sublime and he made some very good attempts at changes, getting one right-to-left (his worse side) absolutely bang on.
Because of his and my straightness issues, Sonia has told me not to bend him so much to the circle when counter cantering to the right. She says if I do that it's not clear enough to him when I want a change of rein, because he is already happily bent the "correct" way in counter canter. On the other rein, though, she had me bend him completely to the circle because he finds that way harder, and the bend puts his hind end in the right place to take the change.
What a great trainer - different aids for different sides of the horse! Her eye for placement of the horse is totally awesome.
Then I asked her to work with me on medium trot, because I simply do not know when Jazz is doing anything approaching it, or how to ask him for any more when he it is such an unnatural pace for him. We did slow trot into longer trot and worked on getting a quicker reaction. She says we are aiming for collected into full length medium in the space of THREE strides. Well there's an objective! Anyway, we aren't there yet but he did some some very definite lengthened strides, and more to the point he was REALLY trying for me. Every time I asked him for lift and length, he tried. It's not nearly enough yet, but he knows I want more and is trying to work out just how to deliver it. He will get it sometime in the next few months.
What a great lesson!
C
posted by cptrayes @ 3:43 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Sounds like a fantastic session, very productive once again. And it seems to me you've not at all sold your once shot at dressage brilliance, should you choose to go down that route!
Will you take Radar for lessons with Sonia at some point?
Zippy was hard-wired for the extended work as well as the collected Sarah, so on another level altogether. Sonia thinks Jazz will win at Advanced and I want to train him to do as many Grand Prix movements as I can. I think he can probably do them all, even if they are never quite good enough to compete with. It's going to be great fun to get him there, and such a wonderful contrast with hunting.
I don't plan to take Radar to Sonia because I don't plan to do dressage with him and I can teach him everything he needs to know without her. He has lovely paces now, but they don't compare with a dressage bred warmblood, they will just make him a superbly comfortable and capable (not to mention impressive!) hunter.
It's "horses for courses" for me for a year or two - Jazz for dressage, Radar for jumping.
C
A lovely position to be in. And hard earned with some of the horses you've had from reading your blog!
:-)
Way to go, Jazzman! Toby always worked better in the double and he took some nice contact in it too. Not sure that will be so with Tucker.
Sonia is right on about training the different sides of the horse. Ultimately, you want both sides to be exactly the same, but to get there, sometimes you need some different techniques. (I was so proud when an International trainer got on PJ one time and comments, "He is so much the same on each rein.") Takes a ton of work and focus, as well as determination to keep yourself straight and correct.
Now you can see why dressage really isn't boring. It may not be the thrill of galloping cross country, but it still gives your brain and body a pretty hefty work out.
I never thought dresage was boring Jean, I've always loved improving the horse's way of going, and that's all dressage is isn't it?
C
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