On Wednesday my new saddle arrived. I managed to get a second hand Parelli natural performer of the same size as the one we rode Filly in at James Roberts, so knew it would fit. Second hand saved both money and a 3 month or more wait.
On Thursday I therefore had no more excuses. It was time to ride Filly at Manor Farm. I admit to being a little apprehensive, but with the "plan to ride" that James has instilled in me over the last few years I also had a tool kit to cope. And thank God for that tool kit, it was needed !
When we got to the outdoor school it was clear that Filly was in a very hyper state. Rather than just try and shut it down I decided to use that energy and, remembering the clinic with Michael Grohman, we had some really high energy play for a while. She obviously loved the idea that I wanted to play "properly" and we were soon both running around the school with many twists and turns. My common theme in these situations is to make her think to her feet. To achieve this involved lots of hind quarter yields, fore quarter yields, backup. Anything that involved complicated leg manoeuvres and not just straight forward gaits.
After around 5 or 10 minutes of this (time has little meaning when playing in this fashion !) she settled down and stood still. I could then start the familiar pre-ride pattern of Touch All Over, Place Feet Down etc. Of course saddling took some time as it was a new saddle and we had to adjust the girth lengths and the stirrup length. She stood very calmly and we soon got to mount with savvy. A perfect mount, except the stirrups were too long. This was odd as the literature on the saddle suggested my leg length was the maximum allowed. Two adjustments of the stirrups later and I felt comfortable on the 8th hole up !
Once I started to move she was a little upset, and very forward going. With Ritchie shouting advice we worked through the problems which involved lots of circles and straight and my first canter on her. Not asked for but as it turned out very comfortable. At one point I asked her to canter towards the corner of the school. She was not slowing even slightly as we approached, so, scared that she might jump out, we made a quick turn. Note to self, don't try to bluff Filly into stopping, she'll call the bluff. I had markers down in the school and used those to give me focus and work on weave patterns and circles as I calmed her down.
My major fault was to pull back on the rein (just one) to slow her down a little. As Ritchie kept reminding me the trick was to lift it up vertically.
After the excitement she settled right down and now we had rhythm and relaxation at walk we could move onto straightness on the circle. Forwards is rarely a problem for Filly. Again I had markers to help visualise a 10m circle and spent a long time using inside leg isolations and my focus to try and get a round circle out of her. Not easy without touching the reins. Towards the end we did get a few but not of good quality. I felt that this exercise was not engaging her mind enough, so used the same markers to go onto the Stacey Westfall clover leave pattern. That worked like a charm. She now had lots to think about as we did indirect reins around the outer markers and direct reins around the middle marker. She became mentally much more engaged and made a much greater effort to listen to my focus, hips and legs. We actually mannaged an entire clover leaf with the reins draped over her neck. I was not even holding them !!
On dismounting she was so calm and very very cuddly. She seems to really enjoy our time together and after a taxing session nearly always becomes very soft in her mental state.
All in all a very good session. Nervy to start but left me with a real confidence to progress next time.
On Thursday I therefore had no more excuses. It was time to ride Filly at Manor Farm. I admit to being a little apprehensive, but with the "plan to ride" that James has instilled in me over the last few years I also had a tool kit to cope. And thank God for that tool kit, it was needed !
When we got to the outdoor school it was clear that Filly was in a very hyper state. Rather than just try and shut it down I decided to use that energy and, remembering the clinic with Michael Grohman, we had some really high energy play for a while. She obviously loved the idea that I wanted to play "properly" and we were soon both running around the school with many twists and turns. My common theme in these situations is to make her think to her feet. To achieve this involved lots of hind quarter yields, fore quarter yields, backup. Anything that involved complicated leg manoeuvres and not just straight forward gaits.
After around 5 or 10 minutes of this (time has little meaning when playing in this fashion !) she settled down and stood still. I could then start the familiar pre-ride pattern of Touch All Over, Place Feet Down etc. Of course saddling took some time as it was a new saddle and we had to adjust the girth lengths and the stirrup length. She stood very calmly and we soon got to mount with savvy. A perfect mount, except the stirrups were too long. This was odd as the literature on the saddle suggested my leg length was the maximum allowed. Two adjustments of the stirrups later and I felt comfortable on the 8th hole up !
Once I started to move she was a little upset, and very forward going. With Ritchie shouting advice we worked through the problems which involved lots of circles and straight and my first canter on her. Not asked for but as it turned out very comfortable. At one point I asked her to canter towards the corner of the school. She was not slowing even slightly as we approached, so, scared that she might jump out, we made a quick turn. Note to self, don't try to bluff Filly into stopping, she'll call the bluff. I had markers down in the school and used those to give me focus and work on weave patterns and circles as I calmed her down.
My major fault was to pull back on the rein (just one) to slow her down a little. As Ritchie kept reminding me the trick was to lift it up vertically.
After the excitement she settled right down and now we had rhythm and relaxation at walk we could move onto straightness on the circle. Forwards is rarely a problem for Filly. Again I had markers to help visualise a 10m circle and spent a long time using inside leg isolations and my focus to try and get a round circle out of her. Not easy without touching the reins. Towards the end we did get a few but not of good quality. I felt that this exercise was not engaging her mind enough, so used the same markers to go onto the Stacey Westfall clover leave pattern. That worked like a charm. She now had lots to think about as we did indirect reins around the outer markers and direct reins around the middle marker. She became mentally much more engaged and made a much greater effort to listen to my focus, hips and legs. We actually mannaged an entire clover leaf with the reins draped over her neck. I was not even holding them !!
On dismounting she was so calm and very very cuddly. She seems to really enjoy our time together and after a taxing session nearly always becomes very soft in her mental state.
All in all a very good session. Nervy to start but left me with a real confidence to progress next time.
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