Tracey, I can't help it, did you follow your own advice on
Toc? Jeanie
Absolutely.Toc was an enormous
challenge because most instructors couldn’t see past the naughty behaviour to correct my problems. It also made it impossible for me to
correct my position on the lunge as I would just be planted over and over
again.
Toc was bad for me in many respects as he
really knocked my confidence jumping, but I’ll always be grateful for him
for teaching me that the most important instructor in your life is your horse.His flatwork is now impeccable (barring
the few, um….shall we say “exuberant moments”) and we jump
him in a cavesson and snaffle.I use him to teach Roderick on because he
knows his work : lateral work, collected, extended,
flying changes, counter-canter, leg yield, shoulder in, travers,
renvers, walk pirouette (and canter on one rein,
still battling with the other).He’s
also starting to learn passage.And
all of this is in a snaffle bridle as well.
The art with him is asking correctly and asking
lightly or he simply won’t do it. Part of asking correctly is sitting
correctly.Karl (from DixieMidnight) taught me the trick about sitting and asking
for a straight line.And it’s
something I still use when I bring the babies home because they are REALLLLLLY
crooked JI also make Roderick
do it as he tends to ride off leg and hand and forgets he has a seat (eventers!!)
The best part of training Toc was that I
had to teach him largely by myself without the assistance of an instructor,
simply by watching others, watching other lessons to learn the aids, and then “feeling”
my way along.It’s largely
hit-and-miss and I’ll never compete him, but he’s
helped tremendously with the work I do now with the babies. If I’m teaching something and they’re
battling, I know that the first thing I must check is my position and HOW I asked.Jumpers tend to have one big flaw, which
is putting their lower leg too far forward (probably not helped by riding in
the new close contact, forward cut saddles) – that makes it very
difficult to communicate effectively with seat and leg to the horse.It also feels good when I do convince
somebody to sit on him (usually after a few drinks, very few people who know
him will sit on him sober, can’t work out why J) and they gush about how well-schooled he is J
I’m riding my LBJ (little Bay Job)
today actually, going to work on that canter pirouette.If he lets me.If he doesn’t, I might just hack
him out instead – I’ve learned that sometimes it’s “my”
day, and sometimes it’s “his” day J
