Horse flies: Not a play on words, apparently.
The horse I was on was getting eaten alive if we stood still for even a second. He actually had blood on his legs from the previous lesson where they were standing still for too long. I was worried he'd lose patience with what we were putting him through.
This was the same horse I rode last time. He also dumped me a couple years back when we were both much greener and he abruptly stepped out of the ring and into the woods. It's nice to be on nicer terms now.
We are working on half halts and it's just amazing how being aware of half halts has opened things up to new complexities. Like, right in front of the jump, he will drift right if I don't use a strong leg and a half halt (both on right side). If I use more than a half halt (pull and hold) his neck has no room for the jump and he will refuse.
He requires only the occasional squeeze (I counted every eight steps of the trot) to keep going, so I'm trying to use leg less, so he stays responsive to it. And trying not to pull on his mouth. Sometimes he gets stuck following after his friends when I want him to go a different way, so I have to pull the rein to my belly button to turn his nose and kick with the outside leg.
We did a jump to a bounce, and then the reverse. I did okay, but something about the bounce to the jump was messing me up a bit. I didn't have time to reorganize after the bounce to do the strong leg-half halt mentioned to keep him from drifting. So staying organized after jumps will be my big challenge if I hope to put a course together - those three jumps in a row were just at 2 feet. Sigh.
The horse I was on was getting eaten alive if we stood still for even a second. He actually had blood on his legs from the previous lesson where they were standing still for too long. I was worried he'd lose patience with what we were putting him through.
This was the same horse I rode last time. He also dumped me a couple years back when we were both much greener and he abruptly stepped out of the ring and into the woods. It's nice to be on nicer terms now.
We are working on half halts and it's just amazing how being aware of half halts has opened things up to new complexities. Like, right in front of the jump, he will drift right if I don't use a strong leg and a half halt (both on right side). If I use more than a half halt (pull and hold) his neck has no room for the jump and he will refuse.
He requires only the occasional squeeze (I counted every eight steps of the trot) to keep going, so I'm trying to use leg less, so he stays responsive to it. And trying not to pull on his mouth. Sometimes he gets stuck following after his friends when I want him to go a different way, so I have to pull the rein to my belly button to turn his nose and kick with the outside leg.
We did a jump to a bounce, and then the reverse. I did okay, but something about the bounce to the jump was messing me up a bit. I didn't have time to reorganize after the bounce to do the strong leg-half halt mentioned to keep him from drifting. So staying organized after jumps will be my big challenge if I hope to put a course together - those three jumps in a row were just at 2 feet. Sigh.
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