Pedro
12th Feb 2001, 02:38 PM
Hi everyone! It's a sunny day here in Portugal. This weekend the weather did a turn for the better, so much so that the beaches were invaded by Sunday afternoon. Let's just hope it hangs on like this...
Wednesday, 7 February
Thanks to two more days of constant driving rain the arena, that was nice and dry already, once again became a swamp. At least one fifth of it was twenty centimiters deep of water and mud. The rest, while a little loose and heavy, was at least aceptable.
Mr. Francisco was home with the flu, so the lesson was conducted by another instructor, Mr. Jorge (if I remember correctly - which is not very likely :)). He had given me a couple of lesson one weekend I had to compensate for lessons I'd missed. Today, without Francisco and not knowing exactly how we were going, he went for a more theoretical-philosophical lesson. I was ridding Astérix again, Carlos was on Lord and André on Juby. We started with the usual rising trot to warm up.
Astérix and I were second in line, with Juby in front. Although Juby is slow, still he was going at a nice rhythm for posting - nice that is, for him - Astérix had to speed up a little to keep up with Juby's long strides. Jorge told us to get in front and this was when Astérix started to misbehave. He has an incredible aversion to being in front, I have no idea why! When I finally managed to get us there, he was actualy working less, because he was now setting the pace and not Juby. I don't know if he is shy and feels unconfortable in front of the herd, or if he feels he works more when in front (because there isn't the incentive of another horse to follow), even if he really doesn't. One way or the other, the fact was that as soon as I turned him inside and insisted a little more to get him forward, he imidiatly sidesteped outside until he was scraping the railings and resolutly refused to overtake Juby. When we came up to the waterlogged side of the arena (blocked only by a few safety cones) he kept drifting outside, right into the swamp. That bothered me not the least, and was in fact the perfect opportunity to overtake Juby. Not much a "by the book" move, but it worked. Once in front Astérix setled and we caried on with the lesson.
Latter on he caught me unawere and tried another trick to get out of being the leader. Right after a corner he stopped and backed up into Juby. No amount a kicking and shouting changed his mind. He pressed into Juby who pressed into Lord, so that we soon had a dangerous horse-sandwich. I tried what I could think of in the spur of the moment, but nothing seemed to work. My inside leg was jammed against Juby, and I coudn't use both leg or crop on that side. Finaly Juby backed up out of that mess, Astérix tried to side walk into Lord but this time, with enough space to act, I gave him a really hard smack with the crop on his hip. He hesitated and I gave him another which finally got him to move. A few meters in front he tried to pull this stunt again, but this time I responded imidiatly and harshly with the crop and I only stopped when he obeyed the legs and started moving forward again. This was the first time I used the crop with a punitive intention :( but I could not, in any way, allow him to take this kind of action and put everyone in danger. If instead of calm (waaaayy too calm :)) horses like Juby and Lord, there were other more irascible ones like Catraia or Paloma, the situation could have been more serious (although I doubt he would try this on Catraia). At least he didn't try anything else during the rest of the lesson, which was a relief for both of us.
Jorge used the lesson to talk to us about lightness of aids, contention, having the horse on the bit and between the feet and the hand. And to ilustrate he asked Carlos to borrow him Lord for a while. He worked him for a while explaining to us what he was doing. He collected Lord, who was going in a nice curved posture, and showed how he could get Lord to canter, while keeping more or less the same slow rhythm, just by slightly giving with the hands. All the time insisting that he was not using strengh on the reins. To prove that to us (and I have to admit I was a little sceptical) he stopped Lord and got him to walk backwards while Carlos, standing next to Lord's head, tested the tension of the reins with a finger. Seing Lord - that lazy horse - do all this with such light hand aids (OK... the leg aids were not as light, but that would have been a miracle!) was a real eye opener. It was with that objective that Mr. Jorge had shown us this. Not with the objective of getting us to do the same anytime soon, but to show us the way ahead!
To finish the lesson (and to give us a treat) we did a little canter. As usual I had a lot of trouble comunicating with Astérix. I was tense even before we started, he didn't understood what I wanted and began racing in trot. That only made me more nervous. I asked more tenselly and incorrectly and the situation was escalating. Finally I realised what was going on and pulled to the inside and stopped. I told Jorge we were both getting too excited and needed to calm down, I gentled Astérix (and myself!) for a while as the instructor explained about the aids and emphasize the need for calm and lightness. When I felt we were both ready I pulled in front of the train, and for the first time on Astérix the two of us did a transition to canter on the spot, with calm and no racing. Yes!!
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
Wednesday, 7 February
Thanks to two more days of constant driving rain the arena, that was nice and dry already, once again became a swamp. At least one fifth of it was twenty centimiters deep of water and mud. The rest, while a little loose and heavy, was at least aceptable.
Mr. Francisco was home with the flu, so the lesson was conducted by another instructor, Mr. Jorge (if I remember correctly - which is not very likely :)). He had given me a couple of lesson one weekend I had to compensate for lessons I'd missed. Today, without Francisco and not knowing exactly how we were going, he went for a more theoretical-philosophical lesson. I was ridding Astérix again, Carlos was on Lord and André on Juby. We started with the usual rising trot to warm up.
Astérix and I were second in line, with Juby in front. Although Juby is slow, still he was going at a nice rhythm for posting - nice that is, for him - Astérix had to speed up a little to keep up with Juby's long strides. Jorge told us to get in front and this was when Astérix started to misbehave. He has an incredible aversion to being in front, I have no idea why! When I finally managed to get us there, he was actualy working less, because he was now setting the pace and not Juby. I don't know if he is shy and feels unconfortable in front of the herd, or if he feels he works more when in front (because there isn't the incentive of another horse to follow), even if he really doesn't. One way or the other, the fact was that as soon as I turned him inside and insisted a little more to get him forward, he imidiatly sidesteped outside until he was scraping the railings and resolutly refused to overtake Juby. When we came up to the waterlogged side of the arena (blocked only by a few safety cones) he kept drifting outside, right into the swamp. That bothered me not the least, and was in fact the perfect opportunity to overtake Juby. Not much a "by the book" move, but it worked. Once in front Astérix setled and we caried on with the lesson.
Latter on he caught me unawere and tried another trick to get out of being the leader. Right after a corner he stopped and backed up into Juby. No amount a kicking and shouting changed his mind. He pressed into Juby who pressed into Lord, so that we soon had a dangerous horse-sandwich. I tried what I could think of in the spur of the moment, but nothing seemed to work. My inside leg was jammed against Juby, and I coudn't use both leg or crop on that side. Finaly Juby backed up out of that mess, Astérix tried to side walk into Lord but this time, with enough space to act, I gave him a really hard smack with the crop on his hip. He hesitated and I gave him another which finally got him to move. A few meters in front he tried to pull this stunt again, but this time I responded imidiatly and harshly with the crop and I only stopped when he obeyed the legs and started moving forward again. This was the first time I used the crop with a punitive intention :( but I could not, in any way, allow him to take this kind of action and put everyone in danger. If instead of calm (waaaayy too calm :)) horses like Juby and Lord, there were other more irascible ones like Catraia or Paloma, the situation could have been more serious (although I doubt he would try this on Catraia). At least he didn't try anything else during the rest of the lesson, which was a relief for both of us.
Jorge used the lesson to talk to us about lightness of aids, contention, having the horse on the bit and between the feet and the hand. And to ilustrate he asked Carlos to borrow him Lord for a while. He worked him for a while explaining to us what he was doing. He collected Lord, who was going in a nice curved posture, and showed how he could get Lord to canter, while keeping more or less the same slow rhythm, just by slightly giving with the hands. All the time insisting that he was not using strengh on the reins. To prove that to us (and I have to admit I was a little sceptical) he stopped Lord and got him to walk backwards while Carlos, standing next to Lord's head, tested the tension of the reins with a finger. Seing Lord - that lazy horse - do all this with such light hand aids (OK... the leg aids were not as light, but that would have been a miracle!) was a real eye opener. It was with that objective that Mr. Jorge had shown us this. Not with the objective of getting us to do the same anytime soon, but to show us the way ahead!
To finish the lesson (and to give us a treat) we did a little canter. As usual I had a lot of trouble comunicating with Astérix. I was tense even before we started, he didn't understood what I wanted and began racing in trot. That only made me more nervous. I asked more tenselly and incorrectly and the situation was escalating. Finally I realised what was going on and pulled to the inside and stopped. I told Jorge we were both getting too excited and needed to calm down, I gentled Astérix (and myself!) for a while as the instructor explained about the aids and emphasize the need for calm and lightness. When I felt we were both ready I pulled in front of the train, and for the first time on Astérix the two of us did a transition to canter on the spot, with calm and no racing. Yes!!
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal