Not got round to updating for a few days, nothing of earth shattering dimensions to write up but all continuing to move in the right direction. Weather has turned ice cold again and yesterday I spent a good part of the day outdoors helping train other folks horses. Worked with my favourite cremello stallion again and a new anglo arab mare. Interesting mare, no muscle and NO mouth. Very hard into the hand and it made me realise just how light Moo is, sometimes I don't give us credit where it's due and I'm just too much of a perfectionist. Anyway, I think we made some real progress with the mare but *petit à petit* as the French say and it's going to take lots of going back to the basics to get her right but well worth persevering.Reasons to be cheerful today:
I've ordered some new long reins, delighted to find the sort with cord for the first few meters and then into tape. Will be starting to play more seriously with Midget soon.
There is definitely grass growing, despite the cold.
Moo and the Midget are shedding their coats BIG time; the pony won't start until almost summer bless.
4 comments:
don't mention shedding! molly has started - it's the light nights, not the weather, i understand ... euch.
re the mare - try her in a bitless?
I don't have a problem with bitless but ultimately you have to teach them to communicate through the bit from the ground and then translate that to the ridden work. She isn't *fussy* in the hand but just has no real *communication*....we'll see
yes - it's just that i know it helped Molly to use that for 6 months - as you know, we're back to a bit and have been for a while, but i think they can help a horse "get over" past issues before you then find a bit that both rider & horse can get on with....
Yes, I absolutely take your point Claire, I rode Moo bitless for a few months and it did prove the point that the problem was the bit. However, I do think the biggest problem is that folks don't ever really teach a horse what they want from a bit and bitless doesn't solve that one.
Post a Comment