WOW WOW WOW...AliG continues to impress!:)
Im still trying to mix things up with the riding and ground work so took him in the school today for some long rein work,lovely sunny day too.
I started with some long reining where I was working behind him then some lunging on the two reins with me in the centre.He was absolutely amazing, bear in mind im pretty new to all this making lots of mistakes and dont really know what im doing half the time but he just allows you to play and figure things out without any dramatics or getting into a tizz.
I tried some leg yielding coming off the circle and got a lovely few steps.I then attempted to change the direction in trot running my hand up what would be the outside rein(this is how Richard Maxwell does it on his DVD) and he went effortless into the other rein.He did some beautifully figure of eights in trot I cant describe how light,balanced and rhythmic he was it really did blow me away.
Probably only did 15mins but I was delighted with the work so he got huge praise and pats then we long reined over the road home.
This is probably the biggest difference between him and Polo, mentally, he doesnt get fazed when you arent entirely certain in what your doing with Polo if you arent 100% committed and clear he doubts then panics.
I then went for a nice ride on Polo with M and his chick Ellie,we saw some horse's on the way out then on the way home and he twice had to power walk to catch them and strut his stuff:))
Im getting a bit concern about the fact he keeps dropping down on his shoulder in walk it just seems to give way,its something he's done occasionally in the past but it seems to be happening more often,only in walk and when on a hack.Now he did have a serious elbow joint injury in his youth so I do worry about arthritis in this and because of his breeding and the fact he's built downhill make's me worry more.
Ive got a book on massage and stretches im going to try a few tomorrow plus the vets out for jabs on Wednesday so will have a chat about it.I'd have to pay for any treatment myself,if he needs any, because he's excluded on the joint due to the nature of the injury EVEN though I paid for the original ops and treatment due to being with a cr#p insurance company at the time (E&L!).
Hoping for more nice weather tomorrow!
2 comments:
Good for AliG! Don't worry about not knowing what you are doing when you long line. There are no real rights and wrongs as everyone has his/her own particular style. As you work AliG he will tell you sooner than any trainer what techniques and contact work and what things don't.
The real joy of lining is that you can see what the horse is doing and gauge his reactions
with more certainty than you might be able to under saddle at this point.
Hope your vet has some insight into Polo's shoulder issue. Might just need some strengthening exercises of some sort. And massage is always good.
Ali sounds wonderful. Polo sounds like he does have a problem :-((( I hope it's not too serious.
C
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