The next one was on Axel, who I have had good and bad rides on. He is a fabulous horse, and REALLY awesome to teach with. He has super comfy paces and is very no fuss. Responds to aids very well.
My problem has been getting him in any state of collection. He notoriously hates pressure and hard work. You could ask him to canter all day, but as soon as you ask him to canter with a bit of shoulder-fore, or leg yield for instance, he will drop out of gait and shake his head around. Too hard! Don't wanna!
I also have trouble getting him soft on the reins and in a contact. He takes a very firm connection, and needs a very particular balance of leg and hand to get a good response. Otherwise it's the stop and shake head thing again.
I was concentrating again on my wrists staying straight, using my elbows as elastic bands, leg back, stretches and on. This ended up being a good lesson with Axel! After the first 20mins I had him forward and round, bending nicely and not making too much of a fuss about being asked to work.
Another epiphany, was how much my contact controls straightness, and why John kept saying 'horse's shoulders in front of the hips!". Axel is very flexy, and one of his ways of getting out of hard work is to bulge his shoulder out, effectively making the rider's aids useless.
With my newfound contact, I was able to control his shoulders better which I think made the difference. He wasn't able to get out of what I was asking, and since he was quite forward, he all just kind of came together.
Whenever a instructor tells me to 'bring the horse together' I must keep that feeling in mind. Horse forward, shoulder's controlled so that the horse is straight, and riding into the (consistent!) contact!
Easy, eh?
I have been teaching my own lessons quite a bit and have started to get some regular clients. Most of them are under the age of 10, but I don't mind too much now that I have a few teens and adults to balance it out. It's nice that the parents ask for me again. I must be doing something right!
I have, however, had to refuse to teach with one particular pony. Bronte.
Looks angelic... quite the opposite
Bronte is a Welsh Section A pony mare, around 20yrs old and 11.3hh. Bronte is mostly used for lead line lessons, and she is an absolute nightmare. I can deal with a lot, but being lunged at, bitten, barged and yanked around is not my idea of fun. She is just evil.
Off lead she is just as bad. She knows exactly what kind of rider she has on, and if the child is not strong enough, she will just chuck her head on the floor, pull the reins out of the rider's hands and do whatever the heck she likes. Really embarrassing as an instructor. Especially when you have disapproving parents looking over your shoulder. So I will not teach with her unless it is a capable teen or small adult rider. In which case she is a pretty great pony.
On the other end of the scale is Solo, who is my favourite kids pony ever. Another Welsh A at around 26 yrs old, he is just the greatest dude. Any kid can get on and he will politely do as they say, even if they have the tiniest touch on the reins, or the tiniest flap of legs on the saddle. Love him. He's really great for teaching independent riding, and is aptly nicknamed 'slowlo'.
Slowlo Solo!
This was one of the lessons where he went REALLY well. He was forward, round, engaged, and listening damn well for 98% of the lesson.
We worked through some pole exercises, but making the horses actually collect over them, instead of slop over. This was actually pretty difficult. Walter was a hunting horse before he came here, so when he sees a jump his head pops up and he starts pulling himself along with his shoulders, instead of pushing with his hind and rounding over the back.
This was hardly a jump, but it still took a bit of adjusting to get him keeping dressage mode over the poles. A heck of a lot of leg and half-halts, with transitions within the trot on the long sides to get him moving with impulsion.(i.e. collected to medium to collected)
A really good exercise for this is the old trot-halt-rein back-trot. Once again it was difficult to keep Walter 'together' through this. He's another that will bulge his shoulder and barge around if it becomes too difficult, and since he's a giant of a horse he tends to get away with it with the clients.
So during the reinback, he would swing his bum around and bulge his shoulder, sticking his head up and escaping the collecting exercise.
We did get there, I had to use the wall of the arena at first to keep him straight (he is SO strong that a firm contact wasn't enough!) but eventually we got there and had a nice few goes at the exercise.
Some really fabulous moments after this. He just felt so GOOD. Collection really changes the way a horse feels to ride. Hard to explain, but it feels 'up' and like you could make the horse do anything with little effort (all the effort is used getting the horse INTO collection!)
We did do some brief lateral work at the walk towards the end of the lesson, and this is when Walter tried to give me the finger. He is SO damn strong, and when he barges it's like holding his entire body weight with my hands and stomach mucles. Dear sweet Lord. All we were trying to do was simple shoulder-in and half pass at the walk!
Such a rude boy. Still, we got there and overall the lesson was a success, so I'll forgive him.
I'm off to go for a hack with Wanda- will keep updating when I get back!!!
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