Stiff Pony

I could figure eight over the trot set or else do
circles the size of half of the arena

Today Walker and I worked on a combination of things.  I wanted to practice cantering a pole again so I put one on the short end of the arena and really worked at keeping him in the corners without any poles to block off his approach.  But before I got to that, I set up a trot set in the middle of the arena and practiced going over them in small circles and figure eights to really get him bending and picking up his feet.

Turning/bending is our biggest problem by far.  To be honest, it is the foundation of almost all of our problems.  He is not a horse that turns easily, and when he does, he does not like to bend into it.  This makes circles difficult, corners difficult, approaching jumps difficult, etc. It drives me crazy, and unfortunately I find that I am required to use more rein than I think I should be using.  I know it's not 100% his fault, but I think we share the fault pretty evenly.  He is stiff, but in Western Pleasure, you really don't do a lot of circles, bending, etc.  On Wednesday, my instructor had us all do circles that spiraled in smaller and smaller until we were practically walking a circle only a few feet in diameter.  I was able to get Walker to do this pretty well surprisingly, but my instructor was definitely getting frustrated with the performance of one of the other Western-trained horses.  As she says (in her biased opinion, no doubt!), "Western horses: ask them to walk in a circle and they'll just give you a turn on the haunches."  Very true.  Yet, I have no doubt that some of the problem is simply that I need to use even more leg to push him around.

When we were cantering the pole, I had the same problem.  He just wasn't bending enough and some of the corners were a little dicey for us - as in, I feared for the safety of my knees.  On a better note, I was pretty impressed with the nice pace he picked up at the canter - dare I say, a hunter pace...  He did that on Wednesday too, and my instructor really wants me to get used to it.  I'm not adverse to speed, but speed can be a problem when turning is a problem.  I found that we were coming so fast at the pole, and Walker was already so stiff about turning that we simply couldn't do it cleanly.  Oh well.  He felt a little off yesterday and a bit today as well, so it's possible that he's just extra stiff these days.

After that, I set up a crossrail on the long end and left the pole on the short end for approach and exit from the jump.  I figured that it would be a good guideline - something to trot over going in or canter over going out.  His stiffness especially showed up during the jump portion of our ride because I found him almost entirely unwilling to even consider going around the corner.  As in, he wanted to jump, go straight (towards the wall) and stop.  I was literally pulling and kicking to encourage him to keep at it.  He's usually not like that, and I find when he's that defiant, he resists me by turning to the outside or at least not letting me pull him around.  So that confirmed my theory a little more that he was feeling a bit off.

"You didn't need this, did you?"

Despite that, I was pretty happy with him today.  I did a lot of bending exercises throughout the week, and it's more than possible that he's just stiff and sore from all that work.  But not to leave it on that note, I was feeling semi-ambitious after the crossrail, so I put up a vertical (!) of about 1'6".  This might not seem very high to you jumpers out there, but it's only about 6" less than where Walker is expected to cap out (according to my barn owner).  I have only ever trotted a vertical once, and I think I put it up to maybe 1', 1'3" at the max.  When I asked him to trot it, he picked up a nice brisk canter so I said what the hell, and let him do it the first time at the pace.  He was really good about it.  He didn't even nick the pole, but I made him trot it the second time just so that I didn't get him sour on verticals.  I fought my very will power not to make him do it several more times, but I'm trying to be obedient and listen to my instructor who wants me to take things slow with Walker and the jumping.  So far he actually seems to be enjoying it but I could see where he might get sour especially if we go too fast.

After I cooled him off, I hopped down to get a picture of him in front of the vertical for proof that we in fact had a vertical.  When we're done our ride, Walker likes to follow me like a puppy, but instead of walking around the jump, he decided to show me how he could go over it.  Make life difficult for yourself, Walker!

"Look mom, no hands"

All in all, a good day's work.  I will take it easy on him tomorrow and Sunday just in case he is still feeling off.  I don't want him to end up sore on me!