After a hard day of riding I was treated to a lovely meal with wine and chocolates :-)
The following day, after the horsebox was finally repaired, we managed to get Risby to his lesson. My lovely friend Becca came with us to help. The sun was actually shining and I had been looking forwards to this for a long while. To get to June's school you have to walk around the edge of a field, and Risby found the mud rather scary and tiptoed his way through. Maybe he was just being precious about his white bandages ;-) He also eyed up the puddles in the school with great suspicion. Honestly, this horse needs to go out and do some cross country!
Warming up: rhythm + suppleness = contact
I had told June about Risby's history and what his main issues were, mainly to do with the contact and keeping him working positively into both reins. He can become tense in the jaw at times which obviously results in a total block through his whole body. I have had lots of trainers' opinions on how to solve this but everything had seemed like a bit of a quick fix. Yes, riding strongly forwards into the contact works as long as... you continue to keep riding strongly forwards, but then what? Yes, playing with the fingers will keep him there... as long as you keep playing. Yes, making him very round will keep something in the reins... as long as you hold him in this position by front-to-back riding. And at the very worst, yes draw reins will fix the contact... but then take the draw reins off and what happens. You get the picture. Some of these options may have their place at certain times, but in general they are not dealing with the cause, which in this case is primarily tension through the poll, leading to cramped tension in the longissimus dorsi muscle. Instead, I had spent the last month trying to ride the nose out as if the reins were sticks, not allowing any curling or ducking behind the bridle, and trying to maintain a soft, elastic contact with a still hand and fingers. As I weigh 7 stone nothing and Risby is a good 16.3hh now and has very big paces, I need to find methods that are easy and work without relying on brute force, needing arms of steel (never a good idea anyway. I always feel slightly scared around riders with bionic biceps!)
Getting the canter relaxed and supple...
June had some excellent advice which was kind, gentle and very effective - by asking for outside flexion before anything else and really working to get him totally connected with the outside rein, yet without giving away the inside contact at this stage. Risby has always felt like a laid back horse who you need to remind every so often to keep going forwards. However, we didn't start the session by driving him forwards too much at all. When everything came right, rhythm, suppleness and straightness, he offered the impulsion naturally without me having to do anything more than apply my inside leg on the circle. Sounds so simple, but it took time to get him soft enough through the poll, accept my aids and become more through. As June often says, it is important to remember where impulsion comes on the training scale, it is not the first thing to focus on. Yes, ride your horse forwards and straight, but don't rush your horse forwards and crooked.
... so that the back can really lift and swing
His canter then felt fantastic, loose and easy. Afterwards, he started to really relax his whole body, snort and start to want to stretch the contact more forwards downwards. I always think of my German teacher Herr Plewa stressing the importance of a non clamped, swinging tail and relaxed ears as the most obvious signs of Losgelassenheit :-) I am always careful to only allow the stretch out millimetre by millimetre, making sure he remains working into both reins evenly and doesn't become too light in the hand. We finished the session by walking back across the school, spooking at patches of mud and fallen logs. Very entertaining Risby but you seem to have forgotten all that hacking we used to do at David Rumsey's old yard with 100 acres of orchards!
Using counter flexion
So I'm feeling we've made a significant breakthrough today, which will hopefully result in him finally developing more topline, impulsion and wow factor, but still in a relaxed and easy way. Its so nice when everything just flows but if it doesn't, remembering to go back a step, or even two or three steps, re-establish the missing foundations and carry on. How often do we actually do this? So lost in that narrow thinking space of "I must get this exercise right today to make this a successful schooling session." I am becoming more and more of the opinon if the walk and trot aren't even right, why attempt to canter, its surely asking for even more problems, or at the least, magnifying existing problems. Don't get me wrong, on a genuinely stuffy horse I would tally ho around the school until he was off my aids, but I'm talking about working to actually improve the canter.
Definite lack of topline and at times, a very bendy neck, but watch this space...
His lateral work is established and his changes are coming, but its just the basics I am going to focus on for the next few weeks. He had definitely used himself in a different way today as he seemed much more tired at the end than usual, and finished by stretching nicely.
Foaming mouth, soft eyes and ears, stretching forwards into the contact.
A relaxed picture by the end I would say.
We got home and Becca then had a little lunge session on Charmeur. I was impressed how good he was, he hasn't really had anyone else on him, and Becca hadn't cantered since last Summer! It was useful to be able to watch him from the ground with a rider on board, and I can see clearly how he naturally carries his quarters to the right.
The following day Risby worked on what we'd learnt on the lesson. The trot and canter came much quicker but he still wanted to tense his jaw in the walk, so I spent most of the time working on that to soften him. Going from free walk to medium walk and back, playing with flexions. It might look to outsiders like I'm just walking around, patting him at times, but its amazing how much you need to concentrate on something so simple. Like making sure my weight is predominantly on my inside seat bone and down through my inside leg, whether his back legs are following his front (he's very sensitive and any flexing exercises can lead to inadvertent travers if I'm not careful), whether he's even in both reins, whether he's tilting his head, whether I'm tilting my head because I'm concentrating so hard... The list always feels endless! I'm lucky however that he doesn't ever lose the correct walk rhythm.
I took Charmeur for a hack with Hayley and Toffee and we had great fun splashing through a stream and gallopping across fields. We are planning a picnic ride when the weather is better haha! Dressage rider one day, over aged Pony Clubber the next!!
Charmeur not too sure about the water!
Today Charmeur wasn't quite as exhuberant in the school as he'd been on his hack! I had to work hard to get his full concentration, and remind him that I had an inside leg on the left rein. Lots of leg yield, straightening work and transitions. I think the sudden increase in temperature plus him still being fluffy is not helping. So I'm not too worried about his lack of fizz, I'm sure the spring grass will soon put an end to that. Risby went walking in the field today and just did light work in the school, again, focusing on the relaxation in walk.
So ends another productive week and lots more to come next week :-)
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