Monday, November 27, 2017

Lazy, Leg Off

In continuation of my last post, my lesson this week followed the same theme. I was having a rough day so I opted to only ride Roscoe. Comrade got the day off and Mom got a private. Mom and Rosemary went first. Lauren and I got to try out our new viewing deck. Also we felt very high tech since Lauren brought headsets so that we could hear her easily.



 Mom and Rosemary worked transitions to get Rosemary engaged and listening. Then they moved onto shoulder fore. Rosemary is funny in that she will do the movement until a certain point before saying "I'm done, move on." They continued to blow her mind by pushing for shoulder in. Then her head really exploded when Lauren asked for half pass. Rosemary said it was hard. Lauren had Mom come about it slightly differently. On the long side she asked for haunches in. Then going across the diagonal, she again asked for haunches in. Making sure that the shoulders stayed on the diagonal. And voila, half pass! Mom said she heard the method years ago when she audited Robert Dover. Rosemary got to settle into some easier work after that.







First you want forward, now you want me to stand still...

Then Roscoe and I were up. Lauren wanted me to get Roscoe to react when I asked him to move on. My poor little kicks were laughed at by Roscoe and my audience. Soon I did figure out a big kick that actually woke my pony up. Lauren did have me carry the whip because she wanted me to be able to immediately have back up if Roscoe ignored me. She said that with a lazy horse you want them to move off when you take your leg off. Translated, they learn to figure out that when the leg comes off a big kick will follow if they don't move forward :) All my thumps and bumps started to pay off as I could literally feel improvement in his trot. Plus I was not working that hard. And even better, my position improved because of it. As we continued, Roscoe's body lengthened and he did this rhythmic huff. His canter was the best yet. He lifted and pushed, then actually kept cantering without me bugging him.













Hopefully I will have a pony who knows what leg means in no time. He has improved every ride since and he takes less 2x4's to get the point across.

Up next is a dressage show in December. It will be at the same place where his inspection was held, so we will see if he remembers. Then I start the hell of inventory at work and will hand the reins to Lauren for the January show. I am excited to see what test she decides to ride. I have only seen her doing training rides, so I can't even guess. Now I am off to work on my Blogger gift!

1 comment:

  1. It sounds like a great lesson. I remember Charlotte Dujardin saying that lazy horses need to be ridden with the leg off and hot horses with the leg on. Or something like that. :)

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