Lesson With Chemaine - Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote about getting a bit of piaffe on a schoolmaster and also showed Chemaine riding my lunatic. I felt a bit bad posting a video where neither Chemaine nor my horse looked good, but it was only to show what we're dealing with. Here's a quick screen shot to prove my point ...

Not so nice.

It only took Chemaine a few minutes to convince Izzy that he didn't need to be such an ass. Once he quit trying to bolt and jerk the reins from her hands, she was able to feel where he needed help, and then she taught him a few things. Here's a another screen shot from just 30 minutes later, but this time it's me aboard. There's nothing magical happening, but he looks much more composed and willing to listen.

His brain has turned back on!

So how did this happen?

In a nutshell, Chemaine showed me how to get control of his haunches and outside shoulder. I knew those were the problem areas. That's why we couldn't pick up a canter, especially the left lead. That was also why he was blasting through the outside shoulder and avoiding any contact or even going forward.

The video KG took will show you better than I can tell you, but it is a bit long at five minutes. The audio is excellent though and you'll feel like you got a lesson yourself. If you don't have time to watch it, here's a quick breakdown.

To get control of his outside haunches and shoulder:

• Open my outside rein.
• Pull it back towards my hip.
• Outside leg back to push haunches in.

This "maneuver" puts him in a counter bend while keeping his haunches behind his face. The instant his haunches start to drift, he leaves the conversation, and nothing good happens. See for yourself how to put it all together.

That was the first time I was able to ask for and get a left lead canter. I know it wasn't pretty and we couldn't carry it past the corner, but it did improve as we worked. Now that I know that the problem has been his fish-tailing rear end, I can keep the canter by applying the counter bend aid.

As he gets stronger and understands what is being asked of him, we'll be able to refine the canter aide so that it's not done from the counter bend.

I have one more video of working to the right, but I'll share that tomorrow.