Training Indeed

It’s been over a year since I’ve posted a tape, so it’s also been over a year since I’ve seen what Indeed looks like under saddle.  I have to say,  I’m very pleased with his progress.  He not only looks generally better, he’s a much happier camper – and a lot more fun to ride. I’m sure he’s having much more fun being ridden too.

This is not to say he’s competition ready and perfect. He is still very much a work in progress. The progress that I care about is that he is learning to move loosely and freely forward under the rider. He still has to perfect his balance moving this way – because it’s so different than when he was trying to balance by bracing against the hands. But, he’s on the learning curve.
There are many who will look at this and think it’s not “classical” because his poll isn’t at the highest point. I suggest you read LDR and Article 401 before watching this. It will greatly enhance your knowledge and reduce your blood pressure.

Please also keep in mind, that if looking at a stretching horse you fixate on the distance from his nose to his chest, most of the time you will have a false impression. Part of the reason is that you’re viewing this through a zoom lens, and it is the function of a zoom lens to compress distance which means you can only see this distance in the occasional moment the horse is exactly perpendicular to your line of sight. So, if you think you see his “nose on his chest” and then a few seconds later you see it is clearly many inches away from it, the long distance is the actual distance.

This is a very long tape – 30 minutes – so long that I’ve had to divide it into two parts “a” and “b”.   I haven’t commented any of it. You can decide what you want about it.  I will say that I’m aware the changes from left to right are not what I want them to be, but that will get sorted out in short order.

This tape is fairly complete. It starts a few minutes after I got on. I took out boring stuff, and a fair amount that got buried in the dust.  But the rest is a fair representation of a typical day of schooling.  I warm up in a rising trot and canter. I do ride without stirrups for most of the ride now.  And I do spend all that time doing walk exercises with lots of releases and allowing him to stretch.

So, sit back, get comfortable, enjoy the show.  Here are the links:

Indeed – May 2010 part “A”

Indeed – May 2010 part “B”

OK – it’s been over a year since my last video, but it’s not for lack of progress.

The really important thing is he’s on my side now.  He’s finally figured out that this rider is not his adversary.  That started happening for real late last fall and I can honestly say I haven’t had a bad day on him since!

Virtually all of the old nonsense and head tossing is gone. There are still some stopping issues at the start of the ride, but now it seems more like he’s just doing it to see if it might “work” today.

He’s working on his flying changes and I couldn’t be happier with them. No, not every one is perfect, but more and more of them are. Most important he never gets upset of tries to rush off after a change.  His rhythm is rock solid so it’s only a matter of time.  We even did a line of 4 tempis the other day.  Well, I think we did.  I came across the diagonal and did a change, then when he felt ready I changed back, and there was room for another so I did that too.  Coming around the short side of the arena it occurred to me that I had just done a line of 4’s. So, I’m pretty sure we did.

We’ve been working on some other very cool stuff too.  I promise I’ll get another video up asap – I want to show off a bit!

In the meantime, check out my new book, Riding in the Moment – The Hidden Language of Dressage.  I’m so sure you will find this book incredibly useful in your training that I’ll give you your money back if you don’t agree it’s worth a lot more than the $19.95 it cost.  There’s a picture of it just to the right of this post – click on that or here to find out more,

Mike