HUGO (JUGADOR XVIII)
Hugo, now in his 7th year, is a lovely moving horse with elastic paces, and very good over his back. Last year was all about going forward, into the rein, and swinging over the back. He can lengthen his stride well, with a good lengthening of the frame. Now it is time for him to begin to come up a little more in front, to develop his self carriage and be able to adjust his balance better, to bring the hindleg a little more under and to lighten in front. And that is where I have hit a little problem. Hugo has a huge powerful neck and shoulder, and loved his baby frame and loose low way of going. He is a little disconcerted to discover that I want him to take more responsibility for the balance, and more importantly, not try to lean on, or grab my hand to avoid this. So we are patiently doing hundreds of trot-walk-trot, walk-halt-walk, trot-canter-trot transitions, each time asking him to step a little under and not grab the bit. First I need to demand that he does the transition NOW, then after a couple of rather untidy ones, I wait and try to preserve the softness, taking longer but not allowing him to lean on me. It is frustrating, and tempting to just go powering off in the way he likes, but the time spent now will be repaid in spades later on.
Adam has given me help with a little work from the ground. His reaction to the gentle touch of the whip on his hindlegs elicited a very willing response, indeed, he lowered his haunches and gave a few steps of beautiful piaffe. I looked in the mirror and thought “Wow!” After that we went forward in a fantastic expressive and uphill, light trot. It is easy to see how tempting it is to do too much with our lovely Spanish horses too soon, so many are ruined by overuse of this work, which can be so helpful in training, but can easily lead to abuse and confusion if incorrectly or inexpertly done.
ANTHONY (FULMINANTE-CEN)
We put Anthony in a double bridle for the first time this month. He will be 8 years old this year and is working at Medium level, he is accepting the snaffle well, but I feel he needs the refinement of the double to improve his self carriage. It has helped a lot and encouraged him to work more up through the shoulder, improving the neck carriage, which was a little long in the snaffle.
We have worked on his half halts, and introduced work from the ground, a few half steps, this has improved his understanding of the placement of the hindleg and encouraged him to take more weight behind. We just work on a few steps at a time, and keep him moving forward all the time. After that, I ride him in a strong, forward medium trot to utilise his energy and keep him thinking forwards.
In the trot half passes, we work him in little half passes, only a few metres at a time, correcting his carriage and balance. He must not learn to run across, nor must he fall onto the shoulder, so a few good steps is better than many poor ones.
We are not ready for it yet, but I can see the benefit of the exercise Jean Bemelmans did at the National Convention this year, where he worked the horse in half pass – piaffe – half pass. This improves the engagement and strengthens the hind leg.
TORO (CENTAURO II)
Toro has a tendency to shorten the neck, and so we have been concentrating on stretching and lengthening/lowering the neck, without coming behind the vertical, or getting too deep. With the more relaxed neck and back, his rhythm has improved and so has the tempo, not so erratic and hurried.
Once he has let go in the neck and is drawing into the rein, we can start work on the lateral exercises, the shoulder in and half pass. It is important that he stays even in the rein, and accepts the outside rein, for this I need to ride in renvers, especially in the canter. Once he has accepted the outside rein, I can straighten him and ride more forward or more collected as he is straight and even in the rein.
His changes are much better, the ones left to right are secure. Right to left is often late to the aid, or worse, short or late behind. Working on the shortening and lengthening of the canter has helped, now with more collection and straightness in the preparation for the change, it is correct and on the aid.
As the changes have improved, we have begun to attempt some tempi changes. At the moment, the counting is unimportant, I only ride the change when he feels right, so some are on 5 strides, some on 4. That is not a problem, as once he is secure to the aid, I can tidy up the counting. He does find it all rather exciting, but the good thing is, that once I put him back to stretch, he responds and relaxes over the back, so I am now able to adjust his frame more easily.
CHICO (ORFEBRE)
Chico is well established in his work, and the aim is to do an Inter II by the end of the year, which means we have to crack those one tempi changes and the piaffe.
I have been trying for ages to get the ones, he can do four, three and two time changes with ease, but the ones are proving to be a bit of a struggle. We have managed to get “one-two”, then a few strides, then we repeat. However, he thought that was it, and couldn’t make the connection that another change was required. So since Christmas I have spent a little of each schooling session trying to get a third change. We have achieved “one –two-three” on a few occasions, and each time I stop and make a big fuss of him. Adam thinks this is why horses like doing changes, and piaffe, because they get a lot of praise for little improvements. Once I can get three changes consistently on the aids, we can move onto more and once we can get four we will probably be home and dry, but it is a long way off. Of course I don’t help, I seem to end up halfway up his neck each time, instead of keeping my backside in the saddle. The answer to that is to do them without stirrups......anyone who knows Chico will understand my reluctance!
