Eventing Nation’s UK connection, aka lec, recently adopted a rescue horse and generously offered to take us on a multi-part tour of the horse’s development. Thanks for writing this lec and thank you for reading.
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Link: Part 1
From Lec:
Since last time I wrote to Eventing Nation, I have not done a huge amount of interesting things with my young ginger giraffe, but I have been working on key issues that affect every young horse–namely contact and forwardness.
Arthur now has a very clear idea of going forward. A dressage lesson with a GP dressage trainer shouting forwards at me all the time drilled into me and the horse how forward we need to be. My main struggle is that this was all very well in an indoor arena which was 60 x 30m but as soon as I took my schooling onto grass (I do not have an arena at home) we were inverted, hollow and slightly out of control with no walls to bounce off and provide boundaries. I could not touch his mouth as it made him more inverted so I was almost weeping hecause I had this horse who was going in flat out trot with its head up my nose. Arthur was never going to relax over his back and stretch into the contact like this, so I reverted to the good old neck strap. Slowly I managed to slow the trot down and Arthur responded to my tugs on the neck strap every time he shot off. With slowing down the trot came the relaxation across the back and stretch in the neck. Last week he just suddenly got the idea of long and low which seemed like a massive breakthrough and I was glad I had been patient about it.
At the last time of writing Arthur had no canter. This gait has now progressed and I can canter in a light seat in a circle. His kicking out attitude has gone and been replaced by a willing worker. The canter will be a slow progress but I think it will come as he gets stronger. Slowly he is beginning to understand the ‘inside leg to outside hand’ concept but lateral work still is met with the idea that leg on means forwards faster!
Recently, I went to an unaffiliated dressage competition to do the walk and trot test. I was just hoping to introduce him to dressage boards, atmosphere and vaguely doing the right movements in the right place. I had no expectations as he is on a knifes edge with the contact–he is either beginning to stretch into it or inverted. I was actually quite pleased because he was superbly behaved and he did all the transitions in the right place. On his 20m trot circle he actually relaxed and stretched. The test was a bit dull and boring but I feel that balance and control are more importance than flash and panache. I took the horse home as the competition was only 5 minutes up the road and then came back later to find out how he got on. I was met with a nice 71% and 1st rosette. I was thrilled as there had been 11 in the class and though I think it was very generously marked I think it bodes well for the future.
Its coming slowly, need more stretch and my reins need to be longer to allow that.
Relaxation over the back coming but more stretch needed in the neck rather than curl. Longer reins needed!
Also, Arthur has started jumping! We borrowed a friend’s arena and started him off over trotting poles before progressing to a small jump. He was confident about it and was if anything slightly lazy since he is 17.1hh and cannot be bothered to make an effort over 2ft. I moved the fence to gradually to about 2’6 and the result was better. At home he has been progressing well. He is still really green so I have to be careful not to be tempted by putting the fences up and instead I make them wider to get a better shape over them. Over grids he is just beginning to give me the feeling like he will be quite athletic. Over uprights he is quite lazy until they get to 2’9 where he then actually makes an effort to jump out of trot. Until the canter can be shortened and lengthened he will stay doing all his work out of trot. The plan is to take him cross country schooling in the next two weeks as I think he needs more to make him think and make an effort while keeping it really small. I am also debating about taking him autumn hunting and depending on how the cross country schooling goes a small hunter trial following a more experienced horse as a pair. I also have my riding club camp to look forward to which is 3 days of horsey fun and a lot of wine! I am very lucky as live in a very equine area with 5 large show centres within 45 minutes drive so I have my pick about what to do.
Finally my greatest frustration has been my farrier. Arthur lost a shoe last week and the farrier keeps re-arranging his schedule which is driving me crazy, so Arthur has had an impromptu holiday for a week. I am lucky that I am not eventing this season or else I would be fuming at so much lost time. Sadly I think its time to find another farrier which upsets me greatly as this one is fab but long term I cannot deal with his unreliability. I am absolutely anal about horses feet so the long quest will begin to find another one who I trust and does a good reliable job.
