M's back :) She's been busy with school so hasn't ridden Barokko regularly the past couple of months, but she's back now, and will be riding him Tueday evenings. Barokko hasn't been ridden alone on trails for a long time, so he's very tense and looky when they ride out. She's found a good route into Jægersborg Hegn, and will be riding the same route until he settles down with it, and then they'll start exploring more. This Tuesday their ride was quite exciting, they got caught in a thunderstorm when they were almost an hour away from the barn, and met all sorts of scary things (including a bunch of teenage guys hanging out in an empty drain pipe!). He spun around a few times, and bolted once (a group of roller skiers snuck up on him on the other side of a hedge, and all of a sudden popped into view with a mighty clatter of sticks and swish of little wheels), but all in all handled it very well.
Yesterday afternoon, I had a lesson. Barokko was tired from the previous day's adventure, and it was hot and muggy and there were tons of bugs >:/ After a few minutes I put his fly mask over the cavesson and doused him in fly spray, which helped a bit. I loosened him up on the longe in walk, he stretches FDO like a pro now. Our trainer noted that the muscles on the underside of his neck have become markedly smaller - and that he looks good after losing some weight ;)
I did some haunches-in with him in-hand, he understands the excersize pretty solidly now, so she told me to begin varying the angle, sometimes steeper, sometimes more shallow, to ensure that I can place him exactly how I want him. Also, she had me alternately lengthen and shorten his frame.
We tried shoulder-in also, but he was so distracted by bugs and two other horses in the arena that we couldn't really get it together. So instead we put reins on the cavesson and she gave me a leg up. For the first time I was able to easily bend him in the cavesson, and I got a pretty stable connection on the rein. We worked on ensuring he was connected on the outside rein, not hanging on the inside, and also on getting him to follow the connection into FDO.
She had me vary the pressure I put on my seatbones, lifting them up from his back as I asked him to stretch, and weighting them more when I asked him to come back up. Eventually, this shift in the seatbones should become the primary signal I'll use to indicate stretch vs collect.
2 comments:
How do you do haunches in in-hand? I do very little in-hand and would love to do more.
For haunches-in I position myself in front of him, standing on the inside side by his head. My outside hand on the longe line close to his nose, inside hand by his neck. I walk backwards, and as he walks with me I can adjust his head position with the outside hand.
I start by getting a slight inside flexion while we walk down the long side. Once that's established, I'll then with my inside hand put a little pressure on his neck, which triggers a reflex to bring the hip in. The exact spot to press varies a little, but it's closer to the body than the head, and in a straight line from the point of the shoulder. When he understands to bring the hip in, I'll straighten the neck but keep the pressure on the neck. That brings him into a haunches-in position, and from there it's fine tuning to get the hind further in, and keep him going forward at the same time.
I only work from this position (standing facing him by his head, walking backwards) when doing haunches-in, so he learns to assosciate it. Now he takes his hip in as soon as I ask him to go forward from this position. I can then ask for more bend by pressing on the neck, and adjust how he places his head with my outside hand on the back of his nose.
I'd like to get some video of our in hand work, I'll post as soon as I have it ;)
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