January 2004
* Monday the 19th *
It's a splint, so I am giving him 4 weeks days off, and then see if he is ok.
If he is, I will start riding him two weeks after that.
* Sunday the 18th *
He was still a bit sore, but I got to rode him in the Preliminary 1:1
dressage test, but had to pull out of Preliminary 1:3 because he got worse.
You can see how we did here!
Scores ranged from 37.7% to 75%! (Top five - 75%, 64.5%, 62.27%, 60.4%,
60%) We would have gotten one mark more for each movement that said he was
uneven if he was ok!
* Saturday the 17th *
Took him down to the show just to have a look at everything, and he was fine
with it all.
* Friday the 16th *
Didn't do anything with him today.
* Thursday the 15th *
Someone came to look at him and massaged him (top of shoulder, base of neck
and breast) because he was quite sore there.
* Wednesday the 14th *
The farrier came to look at his feet. Found nothing wrong with his
hooves, but there was a definite lameness. Soon after the vet came to look
at him. They had a hard time finding where it was coming from, but then
identified his knee, by doing a flex test - flexing it for one minute and then
immediately trotting him out. Bad news! One week of rest, so that
means we're out for the show!
* Tuesday the 13th *
We practised our dressage tests today with the instructor. He was
feeling a bit uneven - only occasionally so we did not know what was wrong, so I
just kept riding! The only thing I need to work on is my elbows but Red
was great!
* Monday the 12th *
Red is staying at the pony club all week and it was far too hot to ride
today!
* Sunday the 11th *
We rode to pony club, and what a little mister he was! He decided to
pig jump a few times and my instructor was having a little laugh at him.
As soon as her back was turned he decided to jump straight up in the air, lol,
funny wee boy. He calmed down after he had been warmed up, but not from
trot to canter, he decided to play up then too. Next time I should
probably go into a corner and warm him up on his own with lots of changes of
bend and getting him bending properly.
* Saturday the 10th *
Day Off.
* Friday the 9th *
Another great day! We started with 10 minutes walking - five minutes round
the paddock and then five doing serpentines. Then did 10 minutes at a
trot, about 7/8 minutes of rising and 2/3 minutes of sitting. Then I took
my stirrups away and we did more sitting trot. He went on the bit well on
the right rein but when we switched to the left, most of the times he went to
just accepting the bit. Did six and then seven lengthened strides today.
We haven't been doing much to do with jumping, so I put my stirrups up and we
did some cantering - sharp turns etc (without jumps). One time it felt
like we did a pirouette (even thought I don't know what it feels like!) I know
we didn't do one though.
* Thursday the 8th *
WOW! In the first five minutes of walking, he was going really fast, and
same with the trotting. So we did figure of eights at the trot, soft
contact, then walking serpentines and he was a dream! We moved on to trot
serpentines and then circles, he improved so much with just a different kind of
warm up! He came on the bit with soft contact at the trot, but then when
we did a bit more walking he wouldn't come on the bit as well as he had been
doing earlier. It was like riding a different horse! (Most of the
time.) I was a little nervous of what would happen when I asked him to
canter. He went in to a canter and came back to a trot perfectly!
(Better on the right rein than the left.) Lengthening was good, increased
it to six strides and he did that no trouble.
* Wednesday the 7th *
Not very good today! His trot to canter transitions are improving but his
canter to trot, are not. Today he was practically cantering on the spot
before he would come down to trot! I videoed the lengthening, and he was definitely
lengthening so now I'm happy that I know he's doing it right!
* Tuesday the 6th *
He was going ok, but not the best. (It did starting raining, so that may
have played a part!) We mostly worked on trot to canter and canter to trot
transitions - they went ok, trot to canter actually better than canter to trot,
needs a bit of work on that! We did some lengthening for those four
strides and then I increased the pole so we would be doing five strides instead
of four. We will gradually increase it, until we're doing about 20 to 25
strides. (If my calculations are correct, that would be the diagonal of a
40 x 20 dressage arena.)
* Monday the 5th *
We went up the beach. He was looking at things a lot but once we got
working he was fine. We trotted and cantered, he thought of bucking once
(and tried to take off!) but I made sure he didn't! Then we cantered back
up the beach and then did a little gallop back.
* Sunday the 4th *
Day Off.
* Saturday the 3rd *
He wasn't so good today. He was drifting out in the canter and coming off
the bit a lot at the trot. There seemed to be something to look at!
The lengthening is much better, getting the four strides every time apart from
the first.
* Friday the 2nd *
He was so much better today! We took away the second, third and fourth
poles and we got the four strides (most of the time)! A couple of times he
was a bit silly and started cantering or just increasing the speed.
* Thursday the 1st *
His canter was shocking. He wouldn't come on the bit and most of the time
was resisting it. This was only on the left rein though. We need to
do more work on trot to canter transitions because he picks up the wrong lead
too often. The lengthening was good. I took away the fourth
pole and he was good so I took away the second and he was still going well.
I will take away the third tomorrow most probably.