Lisa's Blog post # 27

Oak Hill has worked it’s magic.  Caitlin, the saddle fitter, gave Cotton a check up today and announced that his top line had developed to the point of not needing his extra pad and withers inserts! 

This new outlook on riding is extremely refreshing.  With my boys home for summer I am only going to ride 3 days a week – one will be serious dressage, one will be stadium and one will be XC.  Hopefully my friends will pick up rides on him on the weekends to help keep him in shape.

Today we worked in the stadium ring.  I wanted to just go around the outside at a relaxed canter to see how his back did.  Then I wanted to try cantering over some little 2 footers – I had gone around and put them all down for us.  Neither of those things happened.  There were 2 poles on the ground that you had to go over if you went down that long side of the arena because jumps were in the way to the inside.  I didn’t think cantering over a couple of poles would be that exciting!  So much for a relaxed canter –

Once again, we back-tracked and worked on his mental attitude.  I spent the remainder of our ride, which was most of it, in 2-point at the trot – my legs were quivering when I touched ground again!  My new goal for the day was to get him to trot at a normal speed over both of the poles while I was in 2-point – because you know, to Cotton, 2-point means speed.   I was very conscious to relax the reins in between my ½ halts so there was a little floppiness in them – I even peeked down just to be sure!  If he sped up right in front of the first pole I waited to ½ halt him after it because I wanted to practice not pulling on him in front of a fence.  Often times he sped up and cantered over the second pole.  When he did that I calmly halted him, turned around and did it again.  Sometimes I circled in between the 2 poles or had him walk right before.  By the end of our ride he had gotten the message and we did a few lines with loopy reins and consistent speed – mission accomplished!

I will have to add, however, that even though he stayed at a working trot his energy level was still very high.  I think feeling that energy and excited tension underneath me is something I will need to get used to – that alone could be a big part of my problem in learning how to ride him.  I'm sure Lesley is remembering Felix right now and laughing – I know Cotton isn’t nearly as energetic as Felix was but he’s enough for me to handle!

Anyway, even though it was time to take him in for the day, I was dying to jump something so we went over a little 2 footer, came back to trot and did the poles on the ground one last time as a test to see if he would speed up after having jumped a little fence.  He didn’t!

After reading Lesley’s articles on jumping, I realize how much flat work Cotton and I have to do before we’ll be ready to canter a BN course.  I’m not going to wait until he is easy to ride (i.e. slow and calm) – I’ll be too old and grey if I wait that long!  I just need to learn how to make those ½ halts and other adjustments timely and smoothly and wisely so I can manage his energy and get the job done.  

For now, I’d like to focus more on his canter and get that under wraps before the fall chill hits – I have about 4 months!