Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Runaway Train

Finally got back out for a lesson last night.  Licorice was not happy to have his dinner interrupted and tried to hide in the corner of his stall with his head buried in hay.  I found him anyway.

We did lots of good trot work, trying to maintain even contact in both reins.  It's nice that he's going forward.  BUT (there's always a but isn't there?) Licorice has a new trick up his sleeve.

When Licorice canters, he likes to go along the rail  in a long, flat frame.  His canter has no jump and he doesn't do much in the way of steering.  At the clinic, we started working on getting more jump and making sure I'm steering.

At my lesson, we were trying to do some spiral in using the outside rein and leg at the canter.  Licorice was barreling around the circle while I ineffectively tried to half halt using my outside rein.  There were two other horses in my lesson AND a young horse being lunged.  Our arena is NOT big (70x120) and Licorice is not balanced or very adjustable at the canter.  So at one point, there was no way for us to continue trying to circle so we headed down the long side.

Licorice felt like this would be a good time to show me his racing skills.  He barreled down the long side like he was headed towards a cross country jump.  He took the bit firmly and went for it.  It wasn't scary, just flat and fast.  I tried to half halt by sitting up straight and engaging my core.  He flew around the corner and headed to the next long side.  It wasn't a complete runaway, but he was large and in charge.  I sat deep and used a strong half halt on my outside rein.  Instead of slowing his canter, he fell into his speediest trot complete with hollow back and dragging hind legs.  Ugh.

I relaxed my arms and took a few deep breaths and within a few strides we were back to a lovely working trot.  Then it was back to canter.  We managed to get a reasonable few strides in canter on the circle, but again, it suddenly got crowded and I had to take the long side.  It was like a racehorse seeing the finish line.  For Licorice, the long side on the rail smelled like freedom and he was going to go for it.  This time, my half halt got him into his awful trot much faster.

We weren't able to completely work out the problem.  Though I was able to consistently bring him back to a trot and I got much quicker about getting him back to a good trot, I was not able to get his canter back to me.  I know a big problem is that my insides turn to marshmallow when we canter.  I'm trying so hard not to be stiff in my legs and butt that I just sort of slump there.

Today, I'm going to try to find the happy medium between relaxed and effective and useful.

Licorice was steaming and dripping sweat when we were done, but that was perfect because I got to try on his new cooler!  He's so handsome.




7 comments:

  1. Hmmm... Maybe more leg with the half-halt? Jane Savoie like to call them "Half-Go's". It sounds like he had the "slow the front end" part, but needed a litle more "keep going with the back end" part. But look how much you're doing!! You are cantering round and round and round!! =D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can I pass some hard earned advice?

    When your horse ignores the half halt, you need to halt immediately. No ifs, ands or buts. If you half halt and they say...mm maybe - you say - no, HALT. Repeat as necessary. Allowing him to trot on is not teaching him the aid. It is teaching him the aid means nothing. I guarantee you one or two rides with this exercise and there will be no more running away with you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, yes!!
      Thanks for that wonderful reminder!
      Fancy Pony and I have been doing this - even in the middle of jump lines! At one point, she knew the bending line, and wanted to blow right through my half-halt. So, when she ignored me, I made her stright and asked her to halt. She wanted to blow me off, so we just continued going stright. Right to the rail. No turn. If you want to ignore the halt, you can run face first into the wall! I had to do it 3 times in the same line that day (only had to go all the way to the wall that first time), and by the end, she was nice and soft and adjustable - and we had enough elasticity to jump a skinny corner really well!! :)

      Delete
    2. I'm going to try this next time for sure! Thanks for the reminder that it is NEVER okay for him to blow off my aids.

      Delete
  3. Sounds like my SP :) Canter? Oh, you mean flat out & hollow? No? Well then you must mean uber fast trotting because there is NOTHING ELSE.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we had no in between at all. It was ugly. Really ugly.

      Delete