Wow, it seems ages since I blogged about Ceaser and how we are doing, but in reality it really wasn't that long ago at all!I don't know if you remember, but the last time I blogged about him was after I had a dressage lesson with our new instructor. I must say I ached so much for a few days after so I must have worked hard.
As a recap, Sharon said she could see exactly why I was being told Ceaser wasn't uphill enough and what he was doing to avoid giving me all of his attention. I have been having a few problems with him spooking a lot lately and generally being very fizzy, so I also wanted Sharon to tell me what he was doing when spooking and taking off!
She told me he was very cheeky and when he spooked at something he was locking his (very thick!) neck and taking a hold of the bit so I had absolutely no chance of stopping him doing what the hell he liked. To overcome this I had to push him on a lot using my legs to stop him over bending but stop him from rushing with both my seat and hands. That didn't mean pull him back and yank on his mouth like a child, but half halt every so often to remind him "excuse me, I am here!".
We also made the decision that for Elementary tests he isn't sitting back on his hocks enough and allowing me to collect him as much as I need to in order to get the higher scores. Sharon thought this was going to be almost impossible in a snaffle bit as he just wasn't listening to me. Which isn't entirely his fault, but he is shown in a Pelham and ridden everyday on the second ring of a gag, so a snaffle to him must feel like nothing! So, I went trawling on ebay for a weymouth, bradoon and a double bridle to try and thankfully I managed to pick it all up for less than £7! Bargain!
This week we tried it on him, not knowing whether he would take to it or not as some horses simply just do not like the feel of a double in their mouth. Of course Ceaser was out of to surprise and took to it like a duck to water, probably wondering what all the fuss was about. I walked around for 10 minutes with it on and after absolutely no problems got off feeling quite smug it had all gone fine!
Sharon also noted that he looked a lot better in the double for dressage as it just finished the picture of nicely. Despite only being 14.1hh Ceaser has a very horse type head and I have been told before he rides like a horse. The double suites him a lot better than the snaffle and also will give me that bit of extra control to ask him to sit back a bit more and use his back end when doing a test.Our first real go in the double is this weekend for a dressage clinic. I am hoping to do Elementary 50 as it has a lot of tricky movements in so the bridle will be put to the test straight away. That's if the weather doesn't stop play anyway!
I'll let you all know how it goes - wish us luck!
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