ST Session - October 2nd

This time Karina was quite happy to see me. As soon as she had noticed me coming through the pasture, she headed towards me. Without any protests she went with me to the stableyard to be groomed. She didn't like her left front leg to be cleaned, because her hind left hoof is sore due to the thrush, which is being cured. Wet pastures and sweet hay do not help us to heal it, but I hope we'll succeed.

I forgot to play with Karina's tail this time, which is maybe as well, because she seemed to be over excited, just as if she was going to be in heat soon. Anyway, I dressed her up in the cavesson and away we went for a walk in the fields. I worked a little on head lowering and stelling. Now it seems to me that I should have worked on stelling much more, and should have started in a standstill. We tried a little shoulder forward movement, which worked quite well on one side, but on the other was much worse. That is not surprising at all, considering that Karina has her right side muscles so short and stiff.

Then we went to the riding arena, which unfortunately is covered all in nice grass and Karina couldn't focus so well as in the sandy roundpen. Anyway, we started working on the poles, and again I've made some mistakes. I should have kept a better eye on Karina's LFS during those exercises. Instead I walked on her outside and I couldn't control the inner hind leg. But it seems to me, now that I have watched our training video, that she starts to control that herself. She didn't lean so much on her right foreleg and she nicely stepped under with her right hind leg. That is not yet good enough, but it seems to me that we're getting somewhere. I walked with her three times over four poles lying on the ground and four cavalettis that were lifted just a little (10 cm, not more). That exercise I've found in a book 101 Dressage Exercises for Horse and Rider by J. A. Ballou. In the book that is of course a riding exercise, but nevertheless it's easy to change that into work in hand exercise. As the author states, this exercise (no. 10 in the book) helps to relax the lumbar part of the spine and brings more life to the horse's back. And Karina needs that badly...

After three rounds over the poles and cavalettis we changed direction and went another three rounds. Three times seems to me just optimal, because on the first time horse makes some mistakes, as it has to learn where exactly the poles are placed. Second time, Karina always tends to rush on them (out of excitement perhaps), and on the third time everything is just fine and the horse is not bored with the exercise yet. Always stop on the top :)

Then we worked a little on backing up, which though it is not yet on the straight line, but starts to look much better. Karina lifts her feet instead of dragging them backwards and lifts them diagonally just as she is supposed to do. This we did three times on one side and three on the other. After each backing up I asked Karina to move forward and that she did eagerly, with impulse. I've noticed not maybe a huge change in her movement, but a visible one. Her halts are becoming much better – she stops with her weight more on her hind legs, and not so much on the front. I hope this will keep improving...

Then we went to dress her up in her stable halter again and we went to search for some apples that have fallen from the trees. That was the end of our training.

After watching the video, again some things have occured to me. I've noticed that Karina's hindquarter muscles were very tense – they were clearly visible. That told me what a hard work that short training session has been for her. That told me also how weak her hindleg muscles are and how slow and careful my work on that must be. And that explained to me why our sholder forward beginnings are so hard and why Karina, who is usually so eager to work on new things, rebelled against that exercise. I knew that there might be some trouble with that exercise, therefore I didn't dare to ask her to bend more and work on shoulder in yet. Maybe I should move to LFS on circle in trot, before I move on to shoulder in. But somehow I thought that way it would be easier.

Update: Now that I've watched more Marijke's videos and read more about the shoulder in exercise in dr Heuschmann's books and Marijke's ebooks, I know that I'm on the right track. But we need to work more on lateral bending, as it is the starting point of the LFS, and everything other will improve.