Ros and Merlin update

[Heather]

This pair never cease to amaze me- Ros has no school to ride in and due to the foul weather of late has had little chance to practise in between lessons, but every time, she and Merlin seem to have magically improved!

Merly went just brilliantly today- I managed to restrain myself -with difficulty as he is such a lovely horse to ride that you don't want to get off!- from getting on him and hogging some of the lesson, when Ros was more than capable of doing the work herself.

They really got the hang of transitions and Merly looked really pleased with himself. Ros can give herself ten out of ten for her riding - she is sitting just beautifully and looks every inch the elegant still Classical rider. I will be proud that she is my pupil when the pair of them start to compete.

Heather

[ros]

Thanks Heather!

Actually, yesterday I did really feel things starting to come together. I think it helped greatly that Merlin travelled much better - he was eating most of the way for the first time, and although he was still sweaty when we arrived, I felt he was more relaxed: ergo, so was I!

I've been trying to remember to take a slightly firmer hold of him, and he does seem to respond. Heather can ride him on very little contact at all because he knows her now and respects her, but as yet he still thinks he can take Mum for a ride, so I have to start by being firm and think about giving when he complies.

I also tried to remember to be stronger with my inside leg, which paid off in the corners while we were warming up. However, when we started practising transitions (walk-trot-walk first) I was focusing so much on trying to keep him relaxed - he has a habit of trying to "catch me out" as Heather puts it by chucking his head up - that I was forgetting to use my legs, so we were coming down from trot and grinding to a halt the first few times. But he did stop sticking his nose out, so then we were able to concentrate on the legs a bit more, and tried some trot-halt-trot transitions as well (not TOO bad, but not sharp enough off the leg going up to trot, and not immediate enough coming back to halt yet; I can practise out hacking!)

The REALLY exciting bit in this lesson was the rein-back to trot! Near the end Heather suggested we try it, and after we persuaded Merly to rein back more than one step (bit of help from Heather required here - he does do rein back, but only usually when we're doing gates and there were no gates in the school so he got confused!)...as I was saying, we got about four steps of rather wobbly rein-back, then pushed on into trot, and even though the transitions were what the BHS would describe as "progressive" it did the trick - the extra spring in his trot was amazing! I really couldn't believe the difference!

So we did that a couple of times and then, by mutual agreement, stopped while the going was good. I do so believe that when a horse does something well you don't need to ask him to keep on repeating it over and over again, as some instructors seem to want you to do ("let's just make SURE he can do it" so often translates into "let's just see if we can bore the pants off him and make him sour"). I'd much rather get off and leave it right there, with something good being the last thing in his mind. You can ask him to do the same thing more often once it becomes established and therefore easier for him.

So thanks for a great lesson Heather, and maybe now the clocks are due to go forward we can practice a bit more regularly!

[floppy]

your acheivements sound brilliant ros :D

and i bet the fact that heather actually comments on how good your are and how much you improve helps you improve even more. I know it does for me if someone gives me priase as it encourages me to do better.

[Monty]

The groan wasn't derogatory Ros, it was despair! Oh! How I WISH I was that good!! I really, really do.Why do I feel (and probably look) like Winnie the Pooh when I'm riding?? (Deep Sigh!) Good for you anyway!

[ros]

Oh Monty - it was only about half a dozen lessons ago that I was thinking I looked a bit like Pooh Bear myself! Anyway, Sue (Carnell) is doing sessions at a riding school near me at the moment, and she says her star pupil is about 60 and crippled with arthritis, so there's hope for us all!

And yes, Floppy, it does help to think positive - after all, if you don't believe you can improve there's not a lot of point trying, is there? That's exactly how I felt myself until I met Sue and Heather. And of course, Merlin LOVES to be told he's clever! (Congrats. on your gorgeous new horse, by the way - what a pretty face she has!)

As I said once before, the only BAD thing about all this is that I shall have to start appearing in public at some stage to justify all this effort on Heather's part. I was looking at a photo of her ex-working pupil Sara Rice in our local rag - extremely smart and professional, and her delicious horse Raffi had those teeny weeny little dressage plaits with the ribbony things in them, about three hundred of them all along his neck, and I just wonder how many days it took her to get him looking like THAT! (Thinks: M stands for Merlin, Mane, er...Mud!)

[floppy]

thanks ros :)

about the plaits though..i shouldnt worry too much if you achieve more than 10 its a success..

my poor little cousin has to beg for my help before shows because she is absolutely cack handed and on a big 16hh trakehner she managed 5 plaits and was very proud of herself but no matter how hard she tried she just couldnt manage anymore.

anyways i look forward to hearing more about you and marvellous merlin :D

[Sue Carnell]

Hi Ros,

You're absolutely right. Jenny is well into her 60's and suffers from arthritis, some days being better than others. When she first came to me at the end of last summer, she asked whether I minded teaching her and apologised for herself. She rode only once a month, having a lesson on Millie. The last lesson she had at Heather's, she managed travers to shoulder-in in sitting trot on Millie and informed me she was determined to get to Grand Prix by her 90th birthday!

She's now having a lesson once a week and in my lesson last week at Cheston, Jenny taught a young cob leg-yield. She said that she thought she'd be my worst pupil and I informed her that she was actually my best, to which, the school owner who had been stood behind me without my knowledge, retorted that it was a sad reflection on the rest of us! Lol.

Jenny's own horse is retired and she's hoping to get herself a schoolmistress to hack out on the moor and have a lesson with about once a week. She's an inspiration to us all I think. I have LindaAd to thank for working out that I needed to simply leave Jenny alone for the first 10 to 15 minutes to loosen up and then I could start to teach her.

I never complain that I'm too old and stiff and bemoan that I didn't start EE earlier nowadays. :)

PS: You might look like Pooh Bear Monty. I look like a pea on a drum riding Heather's horses, my legs look shorter on the horses, not longer, yet I'm supposed to be good. The horses like me though and that's the important thing. I did appear in public a couple of times, but I think Heather regretted making me do it! :)

Sue Carnell
sue@eclipse.co.uk

[Heather]

Stuff and nonsense Sue- no regrets and you had better polish up your boots ready for the next time!!

Heathre