a line in the sand

Today dawned bright again and for the third day in a row I was in the school to play. I'm posting some short (never tell an 8 yo to keep the filming brief, lol) videos of today's work as a comparison to earlier videos, drawing a line in the sand so to speak. I'm pleased to see the lack of curl back, this is a big thing for Moralejo and although he is inconsistent into my hand, especially through transitions, this is definitely better than before. We need to work more on keeping the softness over his back, not blocking the energy when he chucks his head about and I hope this is going to improve as he gets stronger.

We are starting to build strength with the rein back to trot as you will see here and then a very short clip of the wall of death canter, it actually doesn't look so out of control as it feels on board. Going forward we will work on the transitions, the rein back to trot and, of course, the canter. I will be working on getting my short ass legs around that barrel of a horse and trying to loosen my right hip (not easy on a fatso) as my right leg has a life of it's own,lol.

more Moo work

Back on board this morning after a few days break (mainly due to not wanting to incite Fugly to gallop around and further damage his tendon).

Moo was a very good boy, mouthing beautifully in-hand and working calmly under saddle in spite of Fugly peering over the fence. Good trot work, balance is definitely coming and worked lots on the transitions to and from trot, slowing the rising gradually to get a relaxed jaw and neck into the walk. He tries so hard.

Finished with a canter (yay, this still excites me) and can complete a full circle on the left rein, not yet on the right but he does at least strike off correctly. It's all a bit *wall of death* stuff at the moment but I love his energy and the fact that he tries so hard to please. We had a meander down our chemin to finish and he copes so well with the steep hill now, even if he does have to *jump* the little water drainage ditch that is all of 6'' wide/deep...bless.

re:Fugly, he was re-visited by previous owner after I told my neighbour to call the vet (no of course they didn't call him). They seem to be leaving him be and he has at least calmed down (although it's too late as it is already bowed) apparently ERF can only do something if he is ridden like it and then they need video evidence; hope it doesn't come to this.

Walking on sunshine

Whooo hoooo!! We cantered, we cantered yay!!

Moralejo was so good (wish I was a clever as him) lunged first which is something I stopped doing because it just got his beans all shook up but today he went straight out on to a circle and stretched down in walk, then in trot. He was really cool and calm and the trot is starting to look like a proper trot, lol.

Got on whilst he stood perfectly (he does this pretty much always now) and the walk was contained but still expressive. We did lots of lateral work and then on to trot which was again pretty contained for him, everytime we lost the balance I lifted the reins (or sometimes just one) and made him take responsability for himself again. We worked on walk/trot/walk transitions which need LOTS of work but it's going to come good, I know. Then lots of direction changes in trot, large circles, small circles figures of 8 and anything that avoided being stuck on the track. It helped also to sit to the wrong diagonal in the trot and then swop backwards and forwards between correct and not to keep the inside hind leg straight.

Negatives at this point; he gets heavy through transitions around trot and is slightly over cooking the flexion (horizontally) but you can't have it all straight away I suppose.

Then towards the end we were having a stretch down in trot and I asked him back up into a shorter frame and hey, it felt just like it should be a canter transition so we did.

Hallelujah.... the boy can canter and so that's why I'm walking on sunshine (oh and it is gloriously sunny and about 20 again).

time

So how much time does it, should it take? He's not a baby but Moo is still finding the right canter tricky on the lunge. Bucks and farts and even manages all four feet off the ground (no mean feat for his podginess) and generally just finds it hard to go straight forwards. After lots of transitions and spirals he improves, bit of clicking for the good transitions always gets him more focussed too.
I'm glad I'm writing all this up because the day I say...yay the canter is THERE I can look back and see how hard it's been, lol.
The last WB I owned was a baby but he could ride a canter circle from almost day one, in relatively good uphill balance. On the other hand my Friesian found it incredibly hard for ages but got there in the end.
So, back to *time*....the book's open, any bets as to how long? You can have evens on it taking more than a year!!!
Lovely sunny day today, feel very lucky as so many folks in the UK have had it quite rough.