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Do dah, do dah....
Dec. 13th, 2006 09:32 amFontana is still climbing the fitness mountain, and it's getting steeper. Warmed her up on the lunge as usual, and she tended to be sluggish with her hind legs. She broke to canter a lot from trot as I tried to get her hind legs more active, and to the left she lost her balance badly, but as she warmed up she got better. I got on and she was actually more quiet and willing than usual, so I think she is starting to get in shape. Nothing really extraordinary in our workout, except that when going straight I took her off the rail and down the quarterlines some. This makes her crookedness much more apparant and actually makes it a little easier for me to address because it becomes so obvious. Fontana hated it but I think it was very good for her. We still worked a lot on the circle and she kept breaking to canter from the trot in the beginning, so I pushed her forward and tried to get a nicer canter. "Don't pump," Peggy's voice-in-my-head says, and I try to sit still and think about "Pushing her haunches down". My good rider switch isn't completely in the "ON" position, but it's not off either. I felt myself settle into her back and I just let the canter happen under me. It started out as a poor canter but I was able to just sit there and not let it throw me around. It improved steadily and ended up much better than it started. I didn't try cantering her to the left because of her trouble on the lunge.
The trot felt like it was getting very round and nice, and we worked some on trot-walk, walk-trot transitions, and then as we finished up I worked on improving things at the walk. I've never ridden a horse before that actually required half halts at the walk, but Fontana does. I'm realizing that a large horse with a lot of power can throw herself out of whack very easily. Peggy was telling me that with a big, leggy horse there is a fine line between taking long, forward strides, and falling down and running on the forehand. A bit of leg to correct the head tossing, a bit of half halt to keep her from falling on the forehand, and a bit of moving the bit to keep her attention on me. The walk can be extrememly complicated.
Something that really became apparant to me about Fontana is that the reason she tends to try hard is because she's a DOer. She wants to constantly be DOING something.
Example of her internal dialog:
"We're walking huh? Walking. You know, we could be doing leg yield. Or shoulder-in. We could be doing shoulder-in! Or trotting. We could be TROTTING!"
We trot.
"We're trotting. Cool. Trotting. You know, we could be doing leg yield. Or shoulder-in. We could be doing shoulder-in! Or CANTERING. We could be CANTERING! Don't you want to CANTER?"
Cantering.
"We're cantering!!! Where's the jump?"
She's sort of like a kid with ADD, though not quite that bad. More just that she wants a challenge (which might be why she seems to test me a bit) and she likes feeling like she's accomplishing something. Good work ethic but kind of a type A personality. I can relate, I'm something of a doer myself- I'm happier when I'm busy.
The trot felt like it was getting very round and nice, and we worked some on trot-walk, walk-trot transitions, and then as we finished up I worked on improving things at the walk. I've never ridden a horse before that actually required half halts at the walk, but Fontana does. I'm realizing that a large horse with a lot of power can throw herself out of whack very easily. Peggy was telling me that with a big, leggy horse there is a fine line between taking long, forward strides, and falling down and running on the forehand. A bit of leg to correct the head tossing, a bit of half halt to keep her from falling on the forehand, and a bit of moving the bit to keep her attention on me. The walk can be extrememly complicated.
Something that really became apparant to me about Fontana is that the reason she tends to try hard is because she's a DOer. She wants to constantly be DOING something.
Example of her internal dialog:
"We're walking huh? Walking. You know, we could be doing leg yield. Or shoulder-in. We could be doing shoulder-in! Or trotting. We could be TROTTING!"
We trot.
"We're trotting. Cool. Trotting. You know, we could be doing leg yield. Or shoulder-in. We could be doing shoulder-in! Or CANTERING. We could be CANTERING! Don't you want to CANTER?"
Cantering.
"We're cantering!!! Where's the jump?"
She's sort of like a kid with ADD, though not quite that bad. More just that she wants a challenge (which might be why she seems to test me a bit) and she likes feeling like she's accomplishing something. Good work ethic but kind of a type A personality. I can relate, I'm something of a doer myself- I'm happier when I'm busy.
