Since last week everything has started to get better once again. Vallu's foot is fine, after one scary "OMG is he lame?!" ride on Sunday night there's been no signs of it affecting him at all, and his mouth feels great as well! Right now we're just plodding along quite happily until 11th Feb when the dentist is coming out again to do some more extensive work.
On Wednesday evening I got ride indoors in a double bridle for the first time in a couple of weeks and managed to do some proper training. After tons of canter walk transitions Vallu started working brilliantly well and I'm very very happy with how he felt. By doing walk-canter-walk transitions for ten to fifteen minutes the trot work afterwards felt great!! :) By being able to manage to engage his hind legs then the trot work became much easier! (Surprise surprise...)
 |
| Sunday night at 10pm after riding... |
It's great to be able to ride indoors two or three times a week, firstly because it's nice and warm and dry, and secondly because of the mirros which allow me to see how we look. Vallu has always had a better canter than a trot, and so it's easier for him to collect in the canter and to shorten his neck, thus whenever I've tried to collect and shorten his trot Vallu has become tight through his back and strong in his neck and mouth, but not anymore!! On Wednesday he was soft and light and easy to work with. He looked great in the mirror so there's hope for the future ;)
 |
| Vallu's favourite toy, my precious Magic Brush |
One of the main things I focused on during yesterday's training session was keeping my wrists soft. Does anyone else struggle with this? I know a lot of trainers will tell you to keep your hands soft, but even if my hands and fingers may be soft my wraits can be tense? And what a surprise (not) that when I managed to keep my fingers, hands and wrists soft and relaxed then Vallu was soft and relaxed from head to hooves! Will have to keep thinking about this when I'm riding to see how much I tense my wrists even when I'm feeling pretty relaxed...
No comments:
Post a Comment