Yet more great work from Pinto last night :)

I spent an hour de-fluffing him and there is still loads to come out. Poor boy stands in his box sweating atm because it is so warm. Thankfully his summer coat is a nice bright white, and i may just have enough time to get rid of all the nasty yellow winter hair in time for the completition on 08 May. I don't know what I'm going to do with his mane and tail though! Talking of manes...


What do you think? Not too bad for my first attempt at pulling a full mane? Becky wants a trellis plait for the competition, (that's going to be fun on the Thursday night!) but afterwards I'll take it a little shorter so that it is all one length - then I can let it grow out again :nod:

Anyway, back to the riding... I dusted off my Fhoenix, and although Pinto was horrified to see a saddle two days in a row he stood nicely while I girthed up. I'm not sure though whether it's too far back - but that is where it "sits" - what do you think?



Again I'm always amazed at how well Pinto moves out in this saddle, but I find it such a faff to put on. It has to be absolutely straight when I girth up, and I have to do the girth up one hole at a time alternating sides else it sits crooked. I also have to do the girth up a lot tighter than I really like else it slips. To top it all off, it never stays in place once in on either. It always creeps over to one side as I'm riding as well. It usually takes about 1/2 an hour, but once it is crooked, I have to completely ungirth and start again - like I said I find it a faff!

Surprisingly though, for all it has been a long time since I rode in my Fhoenix it didn't take that long to get used to the set back bars, and I only had a few minutes of OMG no balance when trotting. The main problem I had was that I just couldn't get my whole leg on Pinto, I felt my ankle was dangling in mid air - however once my hips had stretched a bit ( :-/ ) I could manage a bit better.

I tried something completely different tonight. I made up my own walk/trot dressage test and rode it like I was at a competition... Cor Pinto was a bit sparky! It was almost as if he knew exactly what I was doing. it was good for me to, and gave me something to focus on, and made me more aware of my placement within the manège. "Having" to make transitions on the markers was good discipline for both of us. It made me much more aware of preparing for the transition - as daft as that sounds!

I did eventually get more control over my legs as the time went on and I felt Pinto worked really well. He was lower with his head carriage (and considering this is only the third time I havent used an elastique for months something of an achievement) and felt like he was reaching for the contact. Now I'm a bit more sure of myself, and hopefully Pinto is feeling better, I'll have to start asking for more definite curvation rather than just a hint.

We only worked for 20 mins, but it felt like a great 20mins so we stopped on a good note - fortunately for the dog obedience/agility club - who I had forgotten use the manege on a Wed night lol

Very pleased with my gorgeous man :)

Pinto had a quiet weekend as I was busy in my garden, so last night I decided that it was time to do a little bit of work.

Luckily the 7:30 group went out on ballade so I could use the manège, I had planned on having lots of great photos, but unfortunately my camera battery died during the warm up. Possibly it was for the best as we were struggling with losing the light and the photos I did get are really grainy.

It didn't take Pinto long to settle, and the only thing which marred my evening (and how selfish is this...?) is that one other person was in the manège practicing for a dressage test so I had to keep one eye on her and her direction and I wasn't able to concentrate 100% on Pinto.

Anyway we did a bit of work on direct transitions, and halt/trot/halt is getting so much better, with real jump into the up transition and very little walking in the down transition. We still have to do a lot of work containing the energy though, and asking for halt from trot does not result in immobility (at the moment!) but quite a lot of sidling and stepping. I am quick to praise even a second to complete still ness and I'm sure it wont be long before we can stand still for as long as I want! At the other end of the scale, we positively bounce back into trot from halt which is great, but there is then the propensity to rush off rather than containing the energy for a true working trot.

I played around with a lot of school figures and tried some serpentines for the first time in aaaaaaaaages. I really need to get my eye in on the markers again though as my three loop seprentine was a bit squished at on end and fairly wide at the other. Pinto managed very will though with two half 10m circles B-E, though i was getting an awful lot of strange looks from the other rider, as it is not something that is done very often(!)

My highlight of the evening though was when I asked Pinto to take the rein down in a stretch, and he did, even maintaining a contact on a fairly long rein... I was so pleased, that I stopped there.

It was a great 30 to 40 mins, and I can't wait to repeat it :)

09 April 2009

Well Pinto's rest didn't really happen. On the spur of the moment I joined my old class since there was a space in the lesson. I'd had prior knowledge that it would be "travail sur la plat" plus a little surprise, so I wasn't too concerned.

After the previous day Pinto felt a bit tired, but amazingly worked for me so much better and with more consistency than I've had for a long time. Though I've finally discovered the secret to "tête en place" - a full fly fringe - lol!

His trot was springy and consistent, we had good control over the pace, I could ask for a faster pace then bring it back without any problems. The only real hint that I had that he was tired was that he leaned on the rein occasionally, and he wanted to stretch more than usual, but that was the only hint.

The little surprise at the end of the lesson was to walk up to the cross and being able to have a walk about, practicing walking up and down hill. It was a comepletely different experience to the last time I was up there (but that was almost three years ago now!) this time I had no issues with the downhill bits, and I though the uphill bits were very inviting for a canter - Pinto did too, and I had to remind him frequently that we were only walking!

At the end of it I was really pleased that I joined the lesson, as both i and Pinto had a great time.

08 April 2009

Woo hoo, holiday at last. No more work until next Tuesday. I bet poor Pinto was wishing the same thing...

Becky is home from school for her Easter holiday and took Pinto on three ballades today as an 'accompanying rider' Fortunately two of the groups were ponies so it wasn't too frantic, but when he got back after the second ride he was lathered. He then had an hours rest and was out again with the G6/7 group and had a whale of a time apparrantly!

He can have a rest tomorrow...

07 April 2009

Was really pleased with Pinto yesterday.

I had planned on riding but since I didn't get to the yard until late (and of course since I was running late Pinto had decided to lay iin all the poo he could find!) I decided to lunge instead.

Now lunging has always been a bit of a tricky subject with Pinto, as he has had this awful habit in the past of bogging off when asked to canter, and I've tried lunging with a cavesson, with a bridle, off the bit, and i actually had the most success with a rope halter. Anyway, since we were only meant to be doing gentle exercise I decided to try him in just his headcollar and tried to banish all thoughts of bad things.

He was a really good boy and remembered all of the cues, despite not being lunged for aver a year. To keep things calm and collected i worked a lot on transitions, making sure he was making trot/walk/trot transitions at least 3 times on every circle, so really only having 2 or three strides of each before another transition. he took to it really well, and on the whole, his transitions were really nice and snappy.

We only worked for about 15 mins before stopping and doing some "manners" work, i.e. leading properly, stopping when I stop, backing up when asked. And we also did some work on "stay" at the end of the lead rope and not moving until I invite him closer.

We had such a great time.

Isn't it funny...

You can deal with all kinds of weird and wonderful things when you are concentrating on other things!

I took Pinto out for a "gentle" hack on Saturday as part of his osteo rehab and was meant to include "gentle and controlled trotting" Well we managed to start off gentle and controlled, then as soon as it degenerated I asked for walk, which lead to much bouncing, trying to escape left and right. - and I just sat there and ignored it all Even a year ago I would have been wibbling and thinking about getting off. Even more amazing is that I've hardly ridden at all for ages and this was my first hack since Jan or beginning of Feb.

One thing is for certain... with the right training Pinto would have a FANTASITC piaffe and passage lol

06 April 2009

What a fantastic weekend!

Spring has finally sprung in the Alsace, and both Saturday and Sunday the temps were hitting 20C. I was in the garden by 9:30am on Saturday and worked hard for 3 hours creating a proper flower bed before retiring for lunch and changing for the stables.

For the first time in ages I was able to tie Pinto up outside to give him a really good groom. Poor soul still has most of his winter coat, and was sweating just standing still. I was able to have a really good look at his feet too, after the farrier trimmed them on Wednesday. Once again all hint of his bars have been removed, but apart from that I am really pleased with how his feet are looking atm. The outer wall is a good 3-4mm all the way round even at the heels (and this is something we've struggled with a lot), and near the toe gets to almost 6mm. His frogs are also looking great, and for the first time has come out of winter with minimal ickyness and no cracks or impossibly deep central sulci.

After much thought, and not without regret I decided that I would have to shorten his mane. His forelock is very short, now that it's been pulled into some sort of shape, and his tail is almost show-cob length, so he looked daft with a long mane. I just started slowly, and over the course of an hour I shortened his mane by about 4 inches, then I left it and will finish the rest today hopefully (photos are promised when he's all done!) Honestly I didn't think I was taking that much off, a couple of hairs at a time, but when I came to sweep up, it looked like I had lopped someones tail off!

Pinto was still on rest on Saturday, so we went for a walk in hand. Usually we would normally just potter around the village, but instead we followed a short hack, which would normally take us about 25-30mins to do. Saturday it took us just on an hour with 2 stops to munch the grass. I really felt it on the evening as my riding boots really aren't meant for walking!

When we got back I decided to scrub Pintos knees. He has a competition on 08 May, if everything goes well, and I really need to start washing his white bits now to have any hope of him not looking disgusting. lol

On Sunday I went to the yard mid afternoon, in order to avoid the hoards of teenagers which congregate late morning. After Saturday Pinto only needed a quick brush over before I could tack up and off we went for a walk.

I think we'll have to build up the "lots of controlled trotting" as prescirbed by the osteo. Controlled and Trot just don't go together with Pinto when we're out hacking, so we did a few strides here and a few strides there and I ignored the bouncing and jogging after each transition down to "walk." His back certainly feels much more free now, and I could really feel the difference up and down the hills, his hips dipping and rolling with each stride.

After we got back we went around to the orchard to eat grass while he cooled down and dried off.

So... a wonderful weekend