fionahogg
27th May 2001, 09:27 PM
Hi Heather. I should warn you this is really long!
I tried Monty in a pelham the other day. He's just come back into work after his break - he has had about a month off with no riding because he needed some physiotherapy, and before that he was in only very light work because of the FMD. So now I'm bringing him back into work and he's, well, full of spring fever :)! He's not working any where near the standard he was before his break. He gets tense sooo easily and is back into his habit of taking short strides and overbending and bearing down. After a while of working doing lots of transitions and half halts he comes nice though, so I think he's just feeling a bit fresh and also I guess the work will be hard for him not having had a lot of work recently.
Anyway I tried him in a pelham - a straight bar one with sliding cheeks and a small port - more of a little hump in the middle really. He's normally ridden in a KK training snaffle. He went nicely in the pelham in trot, he was very light though; if I'm not careful he will just back off from the contact and shorten his neck right up taking short strides. Not having anyone on the ground didn't help because he's quite handy at fooling you so I'm not sure if he was backing off or just taking a light contact - which I guess is good? He was much lighter than in the KK and he was also much more responsive to the seat aid from trot to walk. The canter, however, was bad. The first trot-canter transition was terrible, he rushed on into a fast trot and broke into canter instead of springing. Could this because my contact was so light and he didn't have anything to go forwards into, and not having an awful lot of balance yet (another thing that's gone out the window!), he just rushed on? The canter itself was short and tense, again he was relatively light in the hand but at times he overbent and beared down. When I brought him back to trot he was straight back into his old trick of nose between knees (slight over-exageration, but that's what it felt like!). I normally raise my hands quite quickly and give him a sharp squeeze and a little kick if necessary to ask him to come back up and then I ask for a walk-trot transitions in rapid succession to regain his attention otherwise he will happily trot around overbending like a demon. However in the pelham he was really overbending and I didn't really know what to do. With him having spring fever, any sharp squeeze would have sent him off again and he would have just lost further balance thus making him overbend even more. I didn't know which rein to use to lift the bit - I used the snaffle rein because I think this has a raising effect? It didn't make a lot of difference so I brought him back to walk to settle him, asked for a walk-canter transition which he did much better than trot-canter (I could have just asked too quickly so this could be why the previous canter transition was so messy) and then asked for just about half a circle of canter before I asked for trot. He did the same thing again. I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere with him so I took him in after this.
Anyway I was wondering if I would be better sticking with the snaffle (he does go much better in this).
Also with the snaffle he opens his mouth slightly even when he's swinging through the back and stepping under well. I had a look in his mouth and his tongue is really big, with the bit in I can see the bit pressing down on the tongue quite a bit. There's not a lot of room in his mouth for the bit, and I know that the KK bits are designed to act on the tongue because it's so sensitive. But if it's pressing on the tongue all the time then could this be why he's opening his mouth? He does this in most bits - I tried him in a straight bar happy mouth loose ring a bit ago (he used to be in this bit) and he still did it. He did it in the pelham too.
Sorry this has got really long!!!
Fiona
I tried Monty in a pelham the other day. He's just come back into work after his break - he has had about a month off with no riding because he needed some physiotherapy, and before that he was in only very light work because of the FMD. So now I'm bringing him back into work and he's, well, full of spring fever :)! He's not working any where near the standard he was before his break. He gets tense sooo easily and is back into his habit of taking short strides and overbending and bearing down. After a while of working doing lots of transitions and half halts he comes nice though, so I think he's just feeling a bit fresh and also I guess the work will be hard for him not having had a lot of work recently.
Anyway I tried him in a pelham - a straight bar one with sliding cheeks and a small port - more of a little hump in the middle really. He's normally ridden in a KK training snaffle. He went nicely in the pelham in trot, he was very light though; if I'm not careful he will just back off from the contact and shorten his neck right up taking short strides. Not having anyone on the ground didn't help because he's quite handy at fooling you so I'm not sure if he was backing off or just taking a light contact - which I guess is good? He was much lighter than in the KK and he was also much more responsive to the seat aid from trot to walk. The canter, however, was bad. The first trot-canter transition was terrible, he rushed on into a fast trot and broke into canter instead of springing. Could this because my contact was so light and he didn't have anything to go forwards into, and not having an awful lot of balance yet (another thing that's gone out the window!), he just rushed on? The canter itself was short and tense, again he was relatively light in the hand but at times he overbent and beared down. When I brought him back to trot he was straight back into his old trick of nose between knees (slight over-exageration, but that's what it felt like!). I normally raise my hands quite quickly and give him a sharp squeeze and a little kick if necessary to ask him to come back up and then I ask for a walk-trot transitions in rapid succession to regain his attention otherwise he will happily trot around overbending like a demon. However in the pelham he was really overbending and I didn't really know what to do. With him having spring fever, any sharp squeeze would have sent him off again and he would have just lost further balance thus making him overbend even more. I didn't know which rein to use to lift the bit - I used the snaffle rein because I think this has a raising effect? It didn't make a lot of difference so I brought him back to walk to settle him, asked for a walk-canter transition which he did much better than trot-canter (I could have just asked too quickly so this could be why the previous canter transition was so messy) and then asked for just about half a circle of canter before I asked for trot. He did the same thing again. I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere with him so I took him in after this.
Anyway I was wondering if I would be better sticking with the snaffle (he does go much better in this).
Also with the snaffle he opens his mouth slightly even when he's swinging through the back and stepping under well. I had a look in his mouth and his tongue is really big, with the bit in I can see the bit pressing down on the tongue quite a bit. There's not a lot of room in his mouth for the bit, and I know that the KK bits are designed to act on the tongue because it's so sensitive. But if it's pressing on the tongue all the time then could this be why he's opening his mouth? He does this in most bits - I tried him in a straight bar happy mouth loose ring a bit ago (he used to be in this bit) and he still did it. He did it in the pelham too.
Sorry this has got really long!!!
Fiona