Cashmore clinic- The Kate

Doing this clinic on Kate actually amounted to the first lessons I have had on this horse in the year I have owned her, which is probably pretty poor when you think about it. No wonder I still don't have her number really. The new saddle makes a big difference because I love being able to get my knee in to those knee rolls. Initially she was short behind but as she worked she did start over tracking. Grant believes it's just because she has never been asked to work correctly and never really traveled straight, so the muscles on that side are somewhat shorter. I have noticed this before myself out hacking but it's always something she works out of.



Anyway, Kate was also too sharp off of the leg, which is fair enough because to Kate, the idea of leg meaning moving sideways as opposed to faster was only introduced a year ago and lately she has had no schooling. She is very sensitive and very spooky and I couldn't get any inside bend on the right rein because when I opened my inside hand, my right leg wasn't strong enough to hold her out on the circle and get her to soften.



Grant rode her and got her working really nicely. With her you have to keep her soft to maintain the relaxation. He did say she was cute and he seemed to think she was quite fun. My homework on her is lots of walk and trot circles, getting the inside bend and keeping her soft.



The next day the weather was very very rainy and rubbish for Kates lesson which wasn't great. Anyway, she was a lot softer the second day and a bit more settled because she is learning what flatwork is all about. We did some cantering work and I can get her really good on the circles, but as soon as I go straight she switches out and I have to work on maintaining some inside bend rather than going straight to keep her on the right lead. I think at one point he just wanted to get her worn down a little bit, so she would relax more, but shes a TB and she just kept humming along despite the fact after I got off she was one tired looking pony. One thing I found particularly interesting, is that all my horses fall out the right shoulder because my right hand is weaker (odd in a right hander).



But with Kate when she falls out, she feels unbalanced and freaks out (we did lots of bounding around the arena- combination of she didn't like being told how to work, and how hard, with the unbalanced thing). So at least with a horse this sensitive I really have to work on maintaining the straightness and it will filter down to the others as well.