Sunshine and smiles

Posted Mon, 03/08/2010 - 09:47 by Michy  Michy
I worked Jester in the school all week with some very good progress we had long neck stretches in all paces and transitions are getting much smoother as im getting my head round my independent seat and energy.  On Thursday he was long and low in canter but then just for a few strides he lifted himself as if I had asked for collection and did a lovely slow collected canter which felt amazing. I need to start grading things now like my corrections to the rail on each lap of the school so I can see progress. 
 
I read an article by Pat and Linda called when they bite say ow, brilliant and I haven’t been nipped by Jess for over 4 days now, well worth a read if your horse plays with you in this way.
 
Ground work is limited so im eagerly awaiting the arrival of my levels 1 & 2 pack to enhance that and can then have ground work days to break up the ridden work. Jester will also happily stand tied in the yard now while I pamper him and means I can now have him eat his whole tea in peace away from the others. Standstill in the school is perfect now, even with all the JCB’s and other noisy works stuff we have round the yard at the moment (the site the horse are on is being converted to a high ropes and outdoor pursuits centre so its very busy and noisy at the moment).
 
Saturday was a beautiful day so I arranged to do our first hack since bringing him home with my friend.  Jester spent most of the ride walking at a very slow speed with his nose on the ground investigating things. Before his trip to James Jess would walk top speed head high and neck tense for the whole ride and leave everyone else behind and if I ever asked him to standstill for a gate or road junction he would back into cars, ditches, fences all dangerous and not enjoyable for either of us. 
 
We did a standstill as we got to the top of the ridgeway and he rested his leg and admired the view with us, I could have cried I was so happy, that’s perfect that’s what I wanted. We had another good standstill while he waited for bugs to open and close a gate. I then asked for one further standstill towards home, bit restless so just kept him circling to avoid any backup and kept calmly stroking the rein to request a standstill which he gave me in the end, so I moved him on again quiet soon after the ok then if we must submission so as not to tarnish a good effort from him. 
 
The plan now is to do more calm and fun hacks like that and hopefully get to a point where if we stand still in a field he will take the opportunity to graze for a while. There are also some lovely small logs on the trail, so maybe its time to work on the ground with up and over (hopefully covered in my level 1&2 pack) to see if maybe we can have some fun popping these while we are out….. I can also start training him to open and close the gate to the school to prepare him for doing it out on a hack one day. Its going to be a busy year, and I cant wait.