Sunday, February 28, 2010

To Fall, Or Not To Fall, That is the Question...

Yesterday as I peel myself out of bed and make myself some coffee I start hearing about the earthquake in Chile. Who couldn't? After about an hour my hubby calls me and says "hey there is suppose to be a tsunami hitting Hawaii," STACEY!!! I instantly grabbed my cell and text her telling her to GET UP! The text wasn't as polite. I wasn't sure if she had even heard. Luckily and thankfully she text me back saying she was on it. I followed the KHON2 live news feed for a few hours and then decided that the big worry was not so big, everyone was gonna be fine. Whew! After finishing my coffee I get my Carhart and head out to do some slow canter work with Olly. We start off with pulling and racing, not my favorite. After fixing my seat and lots of circles I decided to take my coat off and lay it next to the camera. We had some jumps to work on. Well, let me tell you this next part didn't go as planned. NEVER, NEVER take your jacket off while on a TB who thinks he is from off the track (he isn't he just thinks he is). I totally wish I had the camera on to film me. It would have been the most embarassing moment of my life to capture it but, it would have been good! As I am walking to the tripod, I decided to kinda hang my jacket a bit further out than normal. At first he kinda shied, but then recovered. Good Boy! So what do I do? Let's shake it a bit! OMG, this totally was not proof of me having a brain. He held for a minute but then started skittering to the right, I had this!!! I sat and rode him about 15 feet, then he spun. I had the reins in my right hand and the jacket still in my left, yup, that's right folks, I never even thought of dropping the jacket. Not even after I was laying flat on my back. I waited for a 3 count to make sure I didn't lose my breath. I hit hard on my left shoulder, I even have a pretty nice bruise on the inside of my left elbow. As I sit up I see Olly looking at me like, "Mom, I am soooo sorry, it was gonna eat me!" I got up and started walking to him and he hangs his head and meets me. I told him I was sorry and it was all my fault. I carried my jacket over to the camera, brushed te leaves off and turned ON the camera. This is the video I got. We worked alot on slowng down. I decided to keep the Boucher on him for the time being. I think that he will be fine with it. I think I need to fix my riding. Until I fix myself I really don't want to change bits. I can already see some habits that are carrying over to him. The speed is the biggest. He is now attacking the jumps with out pausing and I am now the problem. I remembered a lot of information at the lesson that I HAVEN'T been applying when I ride. Like Terri at Brandywine Farms said "the hardest thing is to do nothing on his back." And it is. After trying so hard to get him over those jumps, now all I have to do is nothing....seems too easy. But I am trying to break my habits. After about and hour of going slow, or trying really hard to go slow, Olly was in a sweat. It is hard work to try to exert litlle enegry when you are a big red horse. We walked home, I was on foot. He had worked so hard he deserved to not carry me the last 1/4 mile. After a good brushing and some sugar cubes, I went straight up to the bath with my homework and sat in some HOT water to try to relieve what aches would be there in the morning.
Today we worked on the same thing, no jumping and no cantering. Just a nice even pace at a walk and a trot. We worked in circles alot and collecting. He actually did better than I thought. He is really slow and collected with these two gaits, it is really just the canter we have problems with. My thought: Lets work in the trot for a bit and then make the canter our next project. I am going to set up some low verticals (2ft) and work on speed before and after the jumps. That will be next weeks project. In the mean time, over the next few days we are going to continue working on our flat work, trotting and cantering controlling our speed over ground poles. Our first show is March 27th. So time is ticking. I am curious to see what he will be like in the show ring.

1 comment:

  1. Hey SassySki!

    Thank you for commenting on yesterdays post. Its great to meet new horse bloggers, and I am looking forward to watching you and Olly in the show ring! (He is beautiful!! There is something about TB's that just draw you in ya know?)

    Glad that the Tsunami did not impact HI. And I hope that you aren't ever in the path of one!

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