Pedro
23rd Mar 2001, 02:19 PM
Wednesday, 14 March
Today I had a very interesting lesson, mostly lateral work oriented. I was ridding Mefisto (which made it all the easier, as he is so responsive) who seemed to have settled down since the last time I rode him... no more head shaking.
We started with the usual warm-up exercises and the lesson was going on the usual way when Francisco introduced some "innovations". First we did leg yielding down the length of the arena, starting halfway down the width and finishing in the opposite corner. We did it several times on both reins and it didn't present me with much of a problem. Mefisto is very responsive to the leg and all it took was a little more pressure with a slightly more backwards leg position to have the desired effect. In fact I had to lessen the pressure, because the first time we ended up against the side too soon.
Next in line was circle work. We started with a normal circle, but changed it to an inside drifting of the hindquarters, after a while of this we return to a normal circle followed by a drift outside of the hindquarters. We repeated the two exercises, this time on the other rein. This was when I realized that I had a harder time moving the right leg backwards and applying aids, than with the left leg. Back home I tried to compare the strength and suppleness of both legs, and I arrived to the conclusion that I'm stronger and more agile on my left leg (the one I jump with, for example) but more dexterous with the right one (the one I kick with in soccer). Thinking about it, it is obviously and naturally so - it's just that I'd never been presented with an obvious demonstration of the difference. This also explains why is it that sometimes I have a harder time keeping many of the horses away from the centre in right handed circles than with left handed ones. I though that they just worked easier to the left, when in fact they were just responding to the differing aids I unconsciously give with the left and right legs - how's that again? There are no bad horses, only... :D
To finish the lesson, after a little canter work, with tried leg yielding in canter. Lotus' owner went first, and then Francisco asked if any of us would like to try it out. I immediately volunteered, but my canter work is sketchy at best and this kind of work is still over my head. Nevertheless we all tried it and we all showed at least a little something in the right direction.
With the lesson finished we went take our friends home. After taking his bridle and saddle off, I stayed around Mefisto for a bit. I like to just see how the horses react to my presence next to their boxes. For example Juby will ignore me, maybe make an half hearted attempt to smell my hands looking for titbits and if bored will simply retreat inside. Génio will show a lot of interest in you, smell, mouth and yank at your pockets (or at least pocket area) looking for titbits. When convinced that none is present he will start grooming you, specially if you start doing so yourself. Unfortunately he is very rough in his way, so this is not at all a pleasant experience. His idea of grooming is either chewing your elbows or scratching your shoulders with his upper incisor teeth - all of which might be very pleasant for a half ton horse, but is not so for a much more easily damageable human :-)!
In the spirit of these experiences, tonight I stayed around Mefisto's box. At first he came to the door, curious about me, I tried to exhale slowly and forcefully with my head slightly extended, and he responded by putting his mouth against my face, sniff my breath and exhaling himself ("Now Mefisto, don't take this the wrong way, but you could use a mint!"). He then cursorily (and gently for a change) groomed my shoulder before retreating. Incited by this success I insisted again, but this time, after the mutual smelling and when I tried to groom his neck he sent me packing with a nip in the shoulder :eek: (or maybe he took it the wrong way after all!). A funny thing about the horses at the school (since I really don't know others I don't care to extrapolate) his that they show different behaviour whether you're working inside the box or just standing at the door bugging them. While in the later case they might show threatening ear posture and slight bite threats, as soon as you show up with a saddle or a pitchfork, or you're just at the door checking for last minute droppings ignoring them, they behave in a very different mater. They kind of become business like - you ask them to move over, they do so. Ask them to stand still and they will. Even the more excited "threatening" ones (like Pipas, Lotus and Ben-Hur) can be worked easily (but always cautiously - I've learned my lesson, thank you!) in the confined space of a box. When you're over to "make friends" you just have to subject yourself to their eventual lack of patience.
Friday, 16 March
Today Francisco had, in his own works "A little present" for me. I was to work with Paloma tonight. Now the problem with Paloma is that she is two different horses, depending on the rein you're working on. She was "borrowed" sine die to Francisco by her previous owner who had no use for her. Sometime in her early life her physical development must have been neglected... irretrievably so. Nowadays she will only work right if she can't possibly avoid it. To make matters worse, she recently developed more of an attitude to avoid the work she doesn't want to do. She'll jam herself face forward against corners to present a more difficult situation to her (mostly) young and inexperienced riders. She also took to complain by mild rearing.
Having all this really clear in my head I took her to the arena. Let me just tell you that Paloma's conformation isn't exactly up there with the best. Her croup is higher than her withers, throwing you forward on the saddle. Also, as soon as one is up there looking down on the neck one can see that one side of it is differently developed from the other - obviously so!
After getting up I started her on a right rein. I was not sure of which side she preferred, but Paloma quickly showed me that the right one wasn't it. When she realized I was taking her right she started with mild rears intermixed with shoulder popping and throwing herself left. I was not impressed with her tantrums (in fact I was slightly amused) so I just shifted my weight slightly forward and let her tire herself. As she was definitely not keen on letting me walk her right I just turned her left, got her to trot and do a very tight circle. Before we were back in the original position I undid the circle and turned her right and into the path. Confused or convinced the fact was that she didn't complain :-). After working her on both the right and left reins, when I wanted to change reins back to right, she tried the same stunt again. Another dose of the remedy she settled into working in whichever rein I wanted ("Which is not to mean that I'll work anything decent!!").
There was only me, and another, even less experienced, student in the lesson. Francisco ended up riding with us on Juby who had been waiting for a student that didn't show up. With Francisco riding with us we could do a couple of different exercises. The first one was what we call the Carrousel. Basically it consists in the last rider in line cutting forward, followed immediately after having pulled in front, by the (now) last rider. We did several laps of this in trot and had some fun, because we were so in sync with the size of the arena that we were always passing each other in the exact same places. The second exercise was simply trotting in line, turning inside at the same time and performing three independent circles, returning back in line at the same time. The tracks we were making would resemble the top part of the Olympic symbol, with three intersecting non-concentric circles. It was also a very interesting exercise, because we had to adjust our circles and speed with the other riders to avoid "bumping" into each other.
It was at some point around here that the lesson's most funny mishap happened. I had not been very happy with the tightness of the girth as, although it appeared tight, the saddle still shifted quite a bit. When we were trotting down the far edge of the arena, the saddle started to slip outside, I just had time to stop Paloma and push one more time with the outside stirrup, so as to get out of the slipping saddle (which of course slipped even more) and back to the semblance of a vertical position. I them calmly stepped into the arena's fence and from there to the ground. After Francisco had taken a look at the girth (it was tightened to the uppermost hole) he noticed that it was the wrong saddle altogether! That was why it was slipping so much, whoever had saddled Paloma got the wrong saddle and no one noticed :-). With the lesson near the end anyway, I just got it back in place and made sure I was properly balanced the rest of the time, not relying in the stirrups.
The harder part of the lesson begun then. We were to canter, each in his own time, starting with a right lead. To make a long story short, after some twenty minutes trying to get Paloma to canter on the correct lead - unsuccessfully I may add - we just had to give up. Not without the three of us getting really exasperated with the situation: me, Paloma and Francisco! During that time I had quite an earful from Francisco :-), but try as I might, Paloma always got the best of me. She would flee with the hindquarters in to avoid bending right, she would jump into a left lead canter just before I asked, she would change leads right after I got her to start with the right one, we pirouetted, we raced, we did everything but cantering on the right hand! Although Francisco had threatened that "..we'll stay here until you get it right!", in the end good sense (and incompetence ;)) prevailed and we stopped.
Not exactly the best of ends for a lesson, and if it is true that getting Paloma on a right lead is not an easy task, the fact is that my position and relaxation in canter (not to mention my transitions) still need a lot of work! I knew that sooner or later I'd be meeting difficulties harder to solve, and (so far at least) I kind of relish the challenge...
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
Today I had a very interesting lesson, mostly lateral work oriented. I was ridding Mefisto (which made it all the easier, as he is so responsive) who seemed to have settled down since the last time I rode him... no more head shaking.
We started with the usual warm-up exercises and the lesson was going on the usual way when Francisco introduced some "innovations". First we did leg yielding down the length of the arena, starting halfway down the width and finishing in the opposite corner. We did it several times on both reins and it didn't present me with much of a problem. Mefisto is very responsive to the leg and all it took was a little more pressure with a slightly more backwards leg position to have the desired effect. In fact I had to lessen the pressure, because the first time we ended up against the side too soon.
Next in line was circle work. We started with a normal circle, but changed it to an inside drifting of the hindquarters, after a while of this we return to a normal circle followed by a drift outside of the hindquarters. We repeated the two exercises, this time on the other rein. This was when I realized that I had a harder time moving the right leg backwards and applying aids, than with the left leg. Back home I tried to compare the strength and suppleness of both legs, and I arrived to the conclusion that I'm stronger and more agile on my left leg (the one I jump with, for example) but more dexterous with the right one (the one I kick with in soccer). Thinking about it, it is obviously and naturally so - it's just that I'd never been presented with an obvious demonstration of the difference. This also explains why is it that sometimes I have a harder time keeping many of the horses away from the centre in right handed circles than with left handed ones. I though that they just worked easier to the left, when in fact they were just responding to the differing aids I unconsciously give with the left and right legs - how's that again? There are no bad horses, only... :D
To finish the lesson, after a little canter work, with tried leg yielding in canter. Lotus' owner went first, and then Francisco asked if any of us would like to try it out. I immediately volunteered, but my canter work is sketchy at best and this kind of work is still over my head. Nevertheless we all tried it and we all showed at least a little something in the right direction.
With the lesson finished we went take our friends home. After taking his bridle and saddle off, I stayed around Mefisto for a bit. I like to just see how the horses react to my presence next to their boxes. For example Juby will ignore me, maybe make an half hearted attempt to smell my hands looking for titbits and if bored will simply retreat inside. Génio will show a lot of interest in you, smell, mouth and yank at your pockets (or at least pocket area) looking for titbits. When convinced that none is present he will start grooming you, specially if you start doing so yourself. Unfortunately he is very rough in his way, so this is not at all a pleasant experience. His idea of grooming is either chewing your elbows or scratching your shoulders with his upper incisor teeth - all of which might be very pleasant for a half ton horse, but is not so for a much more easily damageable human :-)!
In the spirit of these experiences, tonight I stayed around Mefisto's box. At first he came to the door, curious about me, I tried to exhale slowly and forcefully with my head slightly extended, and he responded by putting his mouth against my face, sniff my breath and exhaling himself ("Now Mefisto, don't take this the wrong way, but you could use a mint!"). He then cursorily (and gently for a change) groomed my shoulder before retreating. Incited by this success I insisted again, but this time, after the mutual smelling and when I tried to groom his neck he sent me packing with a nip in the shoulder :eek: (or maybe he took it the wrong way after all!). A funny thing about the horses at the school (since I really don't know others I don't care to extrapolate) his that they show different behaviour whether you're working inside the box or just standing at the door bugging them. While in the later case they might show threatening ear posture and slight bite threats, as soon as you show up with a saddle or a pitchfork, or you're just at the door checking for last minute droppings ignoring them, they behave in a very different mater. They kind of become business like - you ask them to move over, they do so. Ask them to stand still and they will. Even the more excited "threatening" ones (like Pipas, Lotus and Ben-Hur) can be worked easily (but always cautiously - I've learned my lesson, thank you!) in the confined space of a box. When you're over to "make friends" you just have to subject yourself to their eventual lack of patience.
Friday, 16 March
Today Francisco had, in his own works "A little present" for me. I was to work with Paloma tonight. Now the problem with Paloma is that she is two different horses, depending on the rein you're working on. She was "borrowed" sine die to Francisco by her previous owner who had no use for her. Sometime in her early life her physical development must have been neglected... irretrievably so. Nowadays she will only work right if she can't possibly avoid it. To make matters worse, she recently developed more of an attitude to avoid the work she doesn't want to do. She'll jam herself face forward against corners to present a more difficult situation to her (mostly) young and inexperienced riders. She also took to complain by mild rearing.
Having all this really clear in my head I took her to the arena. Let me just tell you that Paloma's conformation isn't exactly up there with the best. Her croup is higher than her withers, throwing you forward on the saddle. Also, as soon as one is up there looking down on the neck one can see that one side of it is differently developed from the other - obviously so!
After getting up I started her on a right rein. I was not sure of which side she preferred, but Paloma quickly showed me that the right one wasn't it. When she realized I was taking her right she started with mild rears intermixed with shoulder popping and throwing herself left. I was not impressed with her tantrums (in fact I was slightly amused) so I just shifted my weight slightly forward and let her tire herself. As she was definitely not keen on letting me walk her right I just turned her left, got her to trot and do a very tight circle. Before we were back in the original position I undid the circle and turned her right and into the path. Confused or convinced the fact was that she didn't complain :-). After working her on both the right and left reins, when I wanted to change reins back to right, she tried the same stunt again. Another dose of the remedy she settled into working in whichever rein I wanted ("Which is not to mean that I'll work anything decent!!").
There was only me, and another, even less experienced, student in the lesson. Francisco ended up riding with us on Juby who had been waiting for a student that didn't show up. With Francisco riding with us we could do a couple of different exercises. The first one was what we call the Carrousel. Basically it consists in the last rider in line cutting forward, followed immediately after having pulled in front, by the (now) last rider. We did several laps of this in trot and had some fun, because we were so in sync with the size of the arena that we were always passing each other in the exact same places. The second exercise was simply trotting in line, turning inside at the same time and performing three independent circles, returning back in line at the same time. The tracks we were making would resemble the top part of the Olympic symbol, with three intersecting non-concentric circles. It was also a very interesting exercise, because we had to adjust our circles and speed with the other riders to avoid "bumping" into each other.
It was at some point around here that the lesson's most funny mishap happened. I had not been very happy with the tightness of the girth as, although it appeared tight, the saddle still shifted quite a bit. When we were trotting down the far edge of the arena, the saddle started to slip outside, I just had time to stop Paloma and push one more time with the outside stirrup, so as to get out of the slipping saddle (which of course slipped even more) and back to the semblance of a vertical position. I them calmly stepped into the arena's fence and from there to the ground. After Francisco had taken a look at the girth (it was tightened to the uppermost hole) he noticed that it was the wrong saddle altogether! That was why it was slipping so much, whoever had saddled Paloma got the wrong saddle and no one noticed :-). With the lesson near the end anyway, I just got it back in place and made sure I was properly balanced the rest of the time, not relying in the stirrups.
The harder part of the lesson begun then. We were to canter, each in his own time, starting with a right lead. To make a long story short, after some twenty minutes trying to get Paloma to canter on the correct lead - unsuccessfully I may add - we just had to give up. Not without the three of us getting really exasperated with the situation: me, Paloma and Francisco! During that time I had quite an earful from Francisco :-), but try as I might, Paloma always got the best of me. She would flee with the hindquarters in to avoid bending right, she would jump into a left lead canter just before I asked, she would change leads right after I got her to start with the right one, we pirouetted, we raced, we did everything but cantering on the right hand! Although Francisco had threatened that "..we'll stay here until you get it right!", in the end good sense (and incompetence ;)) prevailed and we stopped.
Not exactly the best of ends for a lesson, and if it is true that getting Paloma on a right lead is not an easy task, the fact is that my position and relaxation in canter (not to mention my transitions) still need a lot of work! I knew that sooner or later I'd be meeting difficulties harder to solve, and (so far at least) I kind of relish the challenge...
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal