A Suppling Exercise

I am sure you can guess for who. If you said Izzy, you'd be right. Everything I do with him these days is to help him stretch over his back. If you've been following our little journey, I am sure you've rolled you eyes at least a million times wondering why I haven't done this or that to help him stretch down. Believe me. We've tried this and we've tried that. This horse just wasn't ready or willing to trust what we had to say.

Deciding to play ball - from 2015?

Not long ago, an acquaintance said something like oh, he's got your number. I am too polite for an audible WTF?, but inside, it was accompanied by a very arched eyebrow. Whatever - it wasn't worth my time to clear up her confusion.

When I mentioned the comment to my trainer, owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables, she laughed. It might look that way to someone on the outside, but that isn't what's going on at all. Even when Chemaine has ridden him, he's given her a hard time. Anyone who has actually seen me ride him through the jackassery knows that I am not afraid of him. This horse has just been a tough nut to crack. I like to call him my Verdades.

Nope. Stretch down? Can't.

I am not saying that a more knowledgeable rider (maybe Laura Graves has some free time?) couldn't have gotten him squared away a lot quicker than I have because that would be a lie. He and I have had to do a lot of learning on the fly. Even though he has demonstrated that he can be a real jackass, I've learned something new each time I've been in the saddle. 

Not only playing ball, but liking it!

After more than two years of trying this and that, we finally tried something that made the stretch down clear to him. It ruffled the feathers of some, but it worked like a charm for Izzy. It was the over flexion exercise, and I still use it (bend him to the inside and then use the outside rein for vertical flexion until he asks to stretch down). Most of the time, simply getting the inside flexion is all I need to do before he asks to stretch down.

But that's not the exercise I wanted to share. He's learned that stretching down feels good. Now we're working on suppling his back even more so that he can take a longer, deeper stride. Here's how it goes.

On a 20-meter circle, we do a shoulder in. At first, I go around two or three times. it depends how quickly he lets go. Then, we do a haunches in on the same circle, again going around several times. As he gets looser through his back, I might do half the circle in shoulder in and the second half in haunches in.

For the next part of the exercise, I ask for a counter shoulder in which is shoulder in to the outside of the circle. Like before, I go around a couple of times until I feel him relaxing. Then we do renvers (haunches out) for a few circles. Like before, I gradually switch back and forth from counter shoulder in to renvers.

And then it's time to check. I straighten him and ask for a stretch down while also asking for a longer stride. If he'll give it to me, great. If not, we repeat the shoulder in/travers and counter shoulder in/renvers until he finally asks to stretch down.

Always searching for more moments like this one.

After just a week or two of doing this exercise, Izzy's back is getting looser and his stride is steadily getting longer. There was no magic bullet. It wasn't just this or just that. It was this and that over and over and over again for several years. I am so glad I stuck it out. I am having a blast riding this horse, and I know he's much happier now that he knows how to stretch down and relax.

​The real trick is just time. Good thing we have a lot of it.