I don't know when, or why, or how but somewhere along the line between riding Seneca, her retirement and finding Fox I became afraid of speed. Years ago before she became a pasture puff I had no problem cantering Seneca at home. In fact, right before the seemingly endless rounds of vet visits and time off, I was beginning to work on cantering fences. This precipitated the whole saddle fit debacle where I realized that my current saddle did not quite fit Her Majesty.
Later that year I did my last XC schooling with Seneca where we actually cantered a XC fence. This was a big step for us and I hoped a bright spark for the future. Except a month later Seneca began the rounds of on again off again lameness that was the downward spiral towards her retirement.
Enter Thrill Factor, aka Fox, the slowest, most unmotivated OTTB on the planet. Which makes his registered name completely ironic. I loved him from the moment I saw him. He was absolutely not what I was looking for. I wanted tall, elegant, flashy. He was a small, decent mover and a very strange, ever changing chestnut color. But he was slow, quiet and a snuggler. I think the snuggling is what really sold me. He's very vocal and always comes to the fence when I walk out to see him. And off the property he behaves like a plow horse 99% of the time.
Yet I had this mental block about cantering him. Part of it is that he's hard to motivate in to a canter. Except that one time in front of a BNT when I was only asking for a trot. So at home for the last year I almost never cantered and only cantered occasionally when off the property. He would trot nearly any kind of fence without looking twice at it unless I was nervous about it. Then it was more of a "are you sure Mom?"
But last week I was on vacation to do clean-up of the property after the nasty winter we've had. Which provided me the opportunity to ride my horse multiple times in a week. So I worked on letting go of my fear, of putting my trust in the red pony and just dealing with whatever shenanigans he might pull. Except there were no shenanigans. He gave me the canter fairly easily on both rides. The first ride I only asked him for a few strides of canter a couple of times to see if the button was there. If he would give me the canter without doing anything naughty.
The second ride I made him give the canter for a lap of my make-shift arena. In both directions. Which he did, even though he tried to drop out of the canter a couple of times. I was so very happy with just those few moments of the ride. I mean he gave me other good things but I struggled with cantering Fox.
I'm not even sure why other than I hadn't cantered him consistently for a very long time. He would occasionally give me the canter after a fence and I would praise him and ride it out when he did but again he's very lazy and getting the canter after a fence wasn't a given.
So where do we go from here? I'm working on arena exercises to strengthen Fox's topline, doing our dressage circles of death, and we will be working on cantering ground poles soon. I am tentatively planning on doing one of the War Horse Series shows this summer. I say tentative because I plan a lot but often the execution gets muddled. I'm also planning on taking Fox to some lessons with a local eventer and hopefully some dressage lessons again with Sprieser Sporthorses.
Until then keep it between the flags!
Later that year I did my last XC schooling with Seneca where we actually cantered a XC fence. This was a big step for us and I hoped a bright spark for the future. Except a month later Seneca began the rounds of on again off again lameness that was the downward spiral towards her retirement.
Enter Thrill Factor, aka Fox, the slowest, most unmotivated OTTB on the planet. Which makes his registered name completely ironic. I loved him from the moment I saw him. He was absolutely not what I was looking for. I wanted tall, elegant, flashy. He was a small, decent mover and a very strange, ever changing chestnut color. But he was slow, quiet and a snuggler. I think the snuggling is what really sold me. He's very vocal and always comes to the fence when I walk out to see him. And off the property he behaves like a plow horse 99% of the time.
Yet I had this mental block about cantering him. Part of it is that he's hard to motivate in to a canter. Except that one time in front of a BNT when I was only asking for a trot. So at home for the last year I almost never cantered and only cantered occasionally when off the property. He would trot nearly any kind of fence without looking twice at it unless I was nervous about it. Then it was more of a "are you sure Mom?"
But last week I was on vacation to do clean-up of the property after the nasty winter we've had. Which provided me the opportunity to ride my horse multiple times in a week. So I worked on letting go of my fear, of putting my trust in the red pony and just dealing with whatever shenanigans he might pull. Except there were no shenanigans. He gave me the canter fairly easily on both rides. The first ride I only asked him for a few strides of canter a couple of times to see if the button was there. If he would give me the canter without doing anything naughty.
The second ride I made him give the canter for a lap of my make-shift arena. In both directions. Which he did, even though he tried to drop out of the canter a couple of times. I was so very happy with just those few moments of the ride. I mean he gave me other good things but I struggled with cantering Fox.
I'm not even sure why other than I hadn't cantered him consistently for a very long time. He would occasionally give me the canter after a fence and I would praise him and ride it out when he did but again he's very lazy and getting the canter after a fence wasn't a given.
So where do we go from here? I'm working on arena exercises to strengthen Fox's topline, doing our dressage circles of death, and we will be working on cantering ground poles soon. I am tentatively planning on doing one of the War Horse Series shows this summer. I say tentative because I plan a lot but often the execution gets muddled. I'm also planning on taking Fox to some lessons with a local eventer and hopefully some dressage lessons again with Sprieser Sporthorses.
Until then keep it between the flags!
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