I have been working on Bills canter. Her walk and trot is coming along really nicely but her canter is very average. It's not that it isn't a nice canter, because it is, it's just that once you add a riders weight, and with her natural tendency to fall on the forehand, and her long powerful stride, and you get a runny bulldozery type mess when we canter. Of course this is in the open down the farm tracks so it's all straight lines basically and I can't use corners to help balance her. The last ride I had on her the cantering started pretty well with some good rate, but once she got a bit tired we got some huge bucks and it fell apart a bit. I made a big effort to get my work done early and took her to a nearby indoor, where the surface would be good and I could practice some cantering.
She traveled really well on the truck and was remarkably settled on arrival. She is getting to be so grown up. A bit of walk and trot to get her used to the arena and then straight into the canter. Interestingly, being inside backed her up and she didn't run in the canter, in fact it was hard to get her into the canter. It took her a while to believe me that she could canter indoors, but she was actually pretty good, with a nice amount of speed control, though she tended to fall behind the leg. She even managed some 20 meter sort of circles. The right canter was a lot less balanced than the left, but this one sidedness it's normal for her. She falls in and out a lot at the canter but as her walk and trot gets stronger, and she gets more responsive to the leg I will have more control of her body. Her walk and trot work was fantastic, and overall I was very happy with how she went so now I will bombard you with Bill pictures. I did think it was interesting how in nearly all the photos I am in a quite light forward seat. It wasn't conscious. I wonder if she is better like this, or it just sort of happened. I'll have to play with this more consciously. I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up being a horse you sit on lightly, her dam was, and she was a similar short coupled horse.
In other news I have been back on Kate and Connie and it was bliss to be back on grown up trained jumping horses. Kates canter is so beautiful and easy to collect, it's effortless for her, and Connie is so phenomenally soft in the bridle and square to ride and responsive. I did a good job if I do say so myself, she is such an easy ride. My sister rode her at the indoor and raved about her which is hilarious, because she has never really been a fan. Connie and Kate are both so hairy though. It's unbelievable. Sent my clippers away yesterday so next week they will have to have makeovers to make them less goat like.
She is a beautiful mare. I am glad that Bill was able to find her canter this way. I used to use an indoor to help my horse. He found it terribly difficult to canter inside. It was a long time before he could do it without tightening up and even then his canter was never as nice as it is outside.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of your Bill - particularly nice trot. Still a young horse look but coming along nicely.
ReplyDeleteA good trained horse is always such fun. It sounds like Bill is well on her way to earning that title next to your other girls.
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