Long and Low

Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer of Symphony Dressage Stables, was here for a clinic this weekend. I rode Speedy first, and then it was the big brown horse's turn. It took us a while, but Izzy really showed some relaxation and maturity for our first lesson. Nothing fancy happened, no cool exercises were learned, but Izzy behaved and showed glimpses of the horse he is going to become.

When I first hopped on, he was pretty good, but then he got sassy. He balked, he hopped up, he gave a good effort at a bolt, and he kept his back tight. But. He wasn't afraid, just sassy.

That took about twenty minutes to work through. He was tense, but it was more of an, OH MY GOSH I NEED TO RUUUUUN kind of tension. So we did.

We cantered for a good while. I got up off of his back in a modified two-point and just let him go forward. Little by little he started to focus until finally, he was flicking an ear back and forth at me.

Once he remembered that I was up there, I sat a little deeper and we got to work. Izzy is an interesting horse because he doesn't have any trouble with the movements; he's naturally talented. What he needs is confidence and focus.

The one thing that Chemaine had me doing that I wasn't consciously working on before was to do lots of changes of bend. Big ones if needed, but small, subtle changes are a good way to talk to him without forcing the issue. She really stressed that I need to keep "talking" to him to keep his focus on me. Can you flex left, can you flex right? Can you half halt here, can you stretch down here?

Here's a short clip of some canter work to the right. At the end of the clinic, Chemaine and I were chatting about where we're heading and what I need to work on and so on. While I was a little disappointed about Sunday's ride (more on that in a day or two), I was thrilled with the fact that Izzy now has a confirmed right lead canter. A year ago, we couldn't pick up a right lead at all. Six months later, we struggled to hold the lead. Now, with some work, we can canter a 10-meter circle on that same right lead.

In tomorrow's post, we do it all again!