Well, the past two weekends have been absolutely disastrous in terms of getting out competing. Last weekend I had every intention of doing an Elementary test with Ceaser to prepare us for our first affiliated event in a couple of weeks, but unfortunately a day before the competition I somehow managed to get the dreaded 48 hour sickness bug. So, whilst I should have been competing I was stuck in bed listening to others from the yard trotting past my window as they went out on a lovely hack. That knocked me out for a few days and after work and university it was suddenly Thursday and I hadn't had chance to ride once, which meant Ceaser had ended up having 10 days off - not something I wanted. After endless internet searching I found a local dressage competition that I could enter just to get him out and booked us in.
I knew he would be a little hyperactive when I went to get back on after his time off but little was an understatement! After five minutes of spooking, planting all four feet firmly on the floor and then spinning around at 5 o clock Thursday evening after a full day at university I accepted defeat, got off and went in search of someone to lunge him for me! I work Mondays and Tuesdays and then have university Thursdays and Fridays so if I want to ride those days it means I can't do so until 4/5 o clock when its pitch black and Ceaser thinks its dinner time, not work time.
Thankfully, a livery kindly offered to lunge him for 10 minutes for me on Friday so he would at least be a little more prepared for dressage on Sunday. Apparently he was as good as gold and didn't put a hoof out of line.
Saturday I had every intention of riding, then plaiting - until about 11am I got a text saying the dressage was cancelled due to predicted high winds. Just my luck, you can tell its winter again! So, I quickly popped down to the arena where our riding instructor was teaching some of our riding school clients and asked for a lesson. If Ceaser was going to be a pain like he had been recently then he may as well do it in front of a crowd!
Sharon, our instructor sussed Ceaser out instantly and why I have been having a few issues with him taking off and spooking a lot recently. Just 2 minutes in to trotting she noticed he is tending to over bend and locking his neck and taking hold of the bit when I'm asking for something, meaning that I have no control over what he is doing.
So for the first 10-15 minutes we spent time on getting him moving forward and working from behind a lot more. If he went behind the vertical and sped up without me asking then I was to half halt him whilst pushing him forward. It worked and after a little while he was working a lot better.
When Sharon asked me to canter on Ceaser wasn't as up-hill, which we have been having problems with in our dressage tests. She noticed that he is quite forward and referred to him as a "coil spring waiting to go pop!" which he definitely felt like! So we worked on getting my legs correct and pushing my bum into the saddle more to try and keep him up-hill so he couldn't take a hold of the bit and pull me forward out of my seat. It was definitely easier said than done as I was only riding in my snaffle bit but eventually after some leg-yielding in and out of a 20 meter circle on both reins he began to listen and respect my aids more.I always find that once we have a had a canter in a dressage test he clicks on and gets strong. Sharon said he definitely gives this impression and because of his thick set neck and shoulders he would be strong if he wanted. It was quite funny that within just a few minutes Sharon spotted exactly what Ceaser does to try and test me and make me work twice as hard - which makes me feel even more confident about her as an instructor. She gave me some homework of doing lots of transitions and keeping him busy so he doesn't get bored and have time to think about being a challenge. We need to work on keeping his brain ticking the whole time I am riding as if I switch off for a slight second he finds something to look at and spook at!
Obviously for an Elementary test where you need to do lots of collections and give the impression of being a lot more up-hill, so I have now ordered a double bridle to use to see if it makes a difference in getting him more up-hill and just that little bit less strong. He is simply too strong in the snaffle so we need to look at other options.
Overall I had a fantastic lesson and have already been practicing the pointers Sharon told me to work at today. It just goes to show that what she said to work at actually works as we only had one spook at some pheasants today despite it being very wet and windy. I have taken him off his electrolytes and cut his high energy feed down whilst he is spending more time stabled during the winter as I am pretty sure that is not helping matters!Hopefully we will get out competing soon, but if not I have a dressage clinic in two weeks so that will have to do! I hate winter, roll on summer!
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