keeping his attention

[~*sugarlump*~]

attempted to do a prelim test the other day on king......:o:rolleyes:

wasn't the best. our circles were more like eggs, transitions a bit rusty, and he decided he wanted to do a giraffe impression.

two of YOs TBs were in field about 20ms away from our school, and they were messing around gallopping and using the gate to stop them.

before they were turned out his head was dropping and he was actually in an outline and pushing from behind with really powerful paces.

but as soon as we started doing the test his head was everywhere, looking anywhere, head up in the air. hollwing his back a pretty horrible outline :o

everytime i seemed to get his settling and dropping down abit and accepting the bit something new seemed to take his interest.

so the test proved quite challanging as he just didnt seem to want to listen to me anymore (jumping is a different story, his ears are pricked throughout jumping)
i don't think my RI was overjoyed with our performance:o:p

how can i keep his attention whilst sticking to the test?

[chickyd444]

this will sound weird but when my horse does that i ignore it and carry on - mind over matter kind of thing - well thats what i think happens. when he start to whinny to the others and look around i ignore neds, and i also think to my self - dont worry about that bit - push him on, press on, lots of other parts of the test to get it right - plus it was only your first go dont be to hard on your self.:)

i really do ignore it, if i worry about it and tense up he'll do it all the more to take the biscuit - i dont know if that helps just thought i would chip in. :)

[vikkig]

the mare i used to ride used to do that in practice and i dreaded our first test, when she was in the test everything fell into place and she went really well, it was like she was showing off to everyone that was watching, after that i didnt mind her sticking her nose out abit in practice as i knew she would do alright on the day.