AEBC Intensive - Day 4.2

This took 24 hours longer to write than I anticipated, mainly due to the unbelievably exhausting drive home yesterday in the pouring rain. More on that later...

So our last lesson was at 7:30am yesterday morning after Manu very kindly offered to put my last private with her off to the next day. It turned out to be a great move, though even then both Jedi and I were still pretty sore and tired! Jedi's feet were also a little sore after the challenges of the week so I think it was a bit harder for him.

We started off really well, though, consolidating all the week's learning. Squish is really becoming useful at halt to get him out of his habit of setting his jaw and looking like a camel. It's hard to do much about that using any pressure like reins as that means step back. The squish is now working within a couple of seconds to bring him round and soft, attentive and now he shuffles around a bit so he's square. Produces a really nice transition into walk or trot too.

We worked a bit on his laterals, moving him around from the indirect turn and a proper leg yield. He's really improved in both, though he still finds it challenging not to bend his neck and fall out. A lot.

We spent a long time on 'little trot' to help his suppleness, rhythm and start to produce some longer trot. Little trot is basically slow and short steps, a jog really. It helps just slow everything down and give all parties a lot more time to work on contact, roundness, straightness and relaxation. For Jedi it also results in more swing and more forward, which seemed counter-intuitive.

In little trot, we worked on pushing right into the corners of the arena, feeling his inside hind really step under him and his hocks finally starting to lift and push his legs under him. It was a great feeling, despite his tiredness. He also rounded and maintained the contact much better, though started to lean as it got a bit harder. Manu just told me to lift my hands and his head came up a little. Sorted.

We worked again on circles - the 10 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 6 o'clock exercise. A fairly strong turn in at each of those points on the circle, resulting in a kind of spiral really, and a bit of a kick or whip tap straight after each turn, and he was soon striding forward in a lovely soft frame. Correct bend and all. Sorted.

He was tired enough that we moved on to a bit of canter. It was interesting as I had been literally doing trot/canter transitions over and over at home, with some success but some definite tension. Manu was not at all concerned about his few steps of running into the canter (though only a few steps were permitted, not half a circle!), and suggested we try a new exercise. I put him into canter then slowed and slowed til he almost trotted, then gave him the canter aid again to keep him cantering. This had the dual benefit of solidifying the aid for canter while not revving him up. He gets worried about canter as he often strikes off on the wrong lead and gets pulled up. I think he's been confused about it. This will help a lot with that issue I think.

We tried a few more little things to work on at home. Soon we can do canter, 4 strides of trot then back to canter. Trot for eight strides, walk for eight steps, back to trot for eight steps. Lots of changes, adjustability while holding line, self-carriage and relaxation. All good things!

We took off home on our big drive ASAP after the lesson. It started raining just as we started driving and it just got heavier and heavier until it was absolutely torrential by the time we got to Holbrook. I pulled into Holbrook for a wee break and had to up a rug on Jedi in the float as he was soaked and shivering. It simply poured down all the way from there. So hard we had to either slow down to 60 or pull over entirely. Unbelievable. Lucky I brought it all the way home with me and it poured on our very dry little farm.

What a fantastic week. Apart from the odd injury (did I tell you I slipped on the steps in Andrew and Manu's house the night before we left, landed fair on my hip and elbow, smashing my beer into their fish tank and ending up with a bruise the size if a grape fruit on my thigh? No? Don't ask...), we had a great time. Jedi was amazing. What a tops pony he is. Really looking forward to getting him out and about!