Weekend round up

Weekend round-up Saturday 16, Sunday 17th Feb:

We have had some fantastic weather this weekend; bright blue skies, a little wind, but very cold. On Saturday I had planned on going into the manege for half an hour or so before ending with a short hack; unfortunately I was beaten to the manege by a trio of teenagers, so I decided just to go straight out instead.

I decided to do almost the same loop as I worked out last weekend, but my aim was to do more trotting. Pinto was a star, and surprisingly we had none of the pully-pully type trotting that we had last week.

Thanks to the wonders of technology... here is the route we took ;)



Unfortunately the majority of our attempts at sustained trotting were thwarted by walkers, dog walkers, and other horse riders! But we did manage some good trotting along the paved sections. It was so nice to hear Pinto clopping along. He has 2 very manky frogs at the moment which I can't seem to help much with, but they clearly aren't bothering him too much judging by how he was stomping over the gravelly bits on the paved roads.

We got back to the yard in just over 1 hour (last week the same route took 2!) so we actually must have done more trotting that I realised!

Sunday 17th:

Achieved my aim of getting into the manege for 30mins trotting (with 10 mins warm up in walk before hand). OK, so it's not very interesting... about as interesting as lunging I suppose, but it really does seem to benefit both me and Pinto. Surprisingly I have never really done much sustained trot work with Pinto before. I hardly ever go into the manege with a set idea of what I want to achieve, I'm so useless at schooling, andmainly keep wondering *how* am I meant to school Pinto, when my riding is nothing to write home about. Anyway this sustained trotting is allowing both Pinto and I to settle into the pace and to figure things out slowly.

This week I managed to:

1) Remember to keep my elbows bent and to raise my hands (something which I am awful for - keeping my hands just above the withers, but keeping them so low can make me tense across my upper back)

2) Allow a longer rein: Pinto is *not* going to run off with me in the manege so I really don't need to strangle him with the contact... but neither must I drop the contact all together!

Riding with the bitless for a year was an eye opening experience, but it made me hyperaware and overly conscious of how much contact I had with a bit. Consequently I tended to ride with too little contact I think, which in turn made Pinto jib and haw on the rein trying to find a consistent contact.

I also think it has taken the year being bitless for him to overcome whatever issues he had with the bit in the first place; although I have only really ridden with the bit a few times, and really only 4 times "properly" since our year with the bitless, he has completely changed. I know that 2 times hardly sets the precedent for correct work, but twice in row is definitely more consistent that whetever we have achieved in the past.

Again, over the course of the thirty minutes we managed to keep a consistent contact, and a nice pace. He was also making a *lovely* shape, and I [i]think[/i], working through correctly. His pace certainly was elastic and springy, very easy to rise to without overworking it. I still couldn't sit to it lol... too bouncy. I'm not really sure how to tackle that. So I slow his pace down further, and risk losing the elasticity, but it is slow enough for me to sit to... or do I just try my best at a working pace, and build up slowly stride by stride the amound of time I sit?

It is true that I'm still riding with his elastique on (gah! a dreaded gadget!) though I think that it more for my piece of mind than anything, it certainly is helping him find the proper shape in which to carry himself. True, he doesn't carry himself [i]as[/i] correctly when hacking as when in the manege, but i wouldn't expect him to really. There is far too much going on outside for him to nose at and to be watchful for than when in the manege!

I was so encouraged by the trot work I decided to try a canter. I was shocked and pleased with myself that I attempted this by myself without anyone telling me I must do it lol! Anyway, started off in a nice controlled trot, asked for canter in the corner, got 4 fantastic, controlled, [i]contained[/i], strides, then he fell back to trot in the next corner. This is entirely my fault, as I have unintentionally trained Pinto to do this. Anyway I asked immediately again for the canter, and everything started to fall apart. He rushed away doing his best 'sewing maching on crack' trot, falling on on all the corners and generally being a hooligan. Not to be defeated though, I managed to get some semblance of order before trying again, and did manage to get something like a canter, though it was terribly rushed, unbalanced and a bit :o :;/ in general! Had a definite "oh sh!t" moment as he went tearing round the corner as first my balance went one side, then over compensated and went "oh sh!t" the other side, before shouting "WHOA" in a very unlady-like manner.

I had just about calmed down enough to consider trying again onthe other rein when I was "saved" by the three teenages from Saturday anting touse the manege. I figured we had been in there for almost an hour and it was time to relax.

I had planned on going out for just a short time, to allow the both of us to cool off after the "hard work", in the end we were out nearly an hour, following a slightly different route than Saturday, but it still encompassed nearly all of it. This time we went and trotted a lot of the route.

Here is the route:



Very, very good fun. Trotted on nearly all of the straight bits (and some of the curvy bits too!), very nearly came a cropper, when Pinto decided mid stride to try and take a short cut home and lunged off the path to try to go up the hill. Oooh, did he get yelled at for that! "Don't you EVER do that again!" Cripes, I sounded just like my mum when she was telling me off for something when I was little! :-[

I really started relaxing in the the whole trotting thing too. I think Pinto would be fantastic to drive... he has that very typical 'cob trot' once he gets going. Amazingly, I never felt out of control once. Pinto was being very responsive to all my little adjustments, and it didn't take much at all to bring him down from the "super cob trot" to something more sedate.

Once again, we ran into walkers (well, not literally, of course!). The walk must have just set off, as there were lots of people in groups, so the trotting was curtailed as I excused and "bonjour'd" myself past everyone. Pinto was very much admired, and I think the general consensus was "il est tres beau" :D :-[ the only time he gave anyone a second look was when someone was waving a hiking stick around, not that I blame him, lol!

Once we came out of the woods I separated from the walkers and decided on a the quick way home. was very brave and trotted nearly all the way up the road, and then walked the last 1/2 mile. In the end we were out for just over an hour, which made it to nearly 2 hours riding all in all.

Pinto was a bit warm when we got back (just a tad!) and had sweated up just about everywhere, so after hand grazing him for 20 mins popped his cooler on, as it really was a bit chilly (about 2-3C).

I left him knee deep in haylage (again! - honestly I must stop disturbing his lunch *snicker*) and came home a very contented girl :nod: