Medium Test

Sonia ran me though Medium 61, which she knew off by heart and I don't know at all. We were both very pleased with how Jazz responded to the pressure of movements changing one after the other, bang bang bang. He did it all, and quite passably too, for a first attempt. Of course we want "more" of everything, more bend, more crossing, more lift, more extension but considering neither he nor I knew where we were going or what we were doing it was pretty good stuff.

Apart from that today we practised submission and she coached me into catching him before he lifts his head, not after, which was really useful stuff. And we did some medium trot and worked out that his issue is that he is not staying straight, so he cannot put the power through from back to front. Sonia's answer to that is to lengthen on the diagonal, making sure he is straight first. That way, he can't mentally "lean" on the arena boards and avoid actually carrying himself with the power coming through. That worked well.

He is still bucking into his left/right canter change and you won't believe the exercise she had me do for that! A figure of eight across the short end of the arena - two 10m circles, changing the leg when pointing directly at the fence at C. Blimey - this time last year he'd just have jumped the fence :-0

He is handling pressure so well these days. There was a digger working only about thirty yards away putting in some drainage. He had an audience of people in one corner and loose horses in fields on two sides that were interested in who he was. He's just getting better and better.

C