Whoops!!! ha ha.. Remember my conversation from Thursday? About how no one ever really canters for 5 minutes, so there's no need to time myself... ha! Doh!
This morning Dan and I went to the cavaletti clinic in Athens. We rolled up and I joked to Beth that Dan was a metaphor for my life.... he only had one bellboot on... his mane was a hot mess, he was filthy, and... he was making faces at everyone. Ha ha. At least we had a matching saddle pad and shirt. ;) We rode with Danielle, McKay and a nice lady named Barbi. And Dan was making faces at all the horses and we were all laughing at him. McKay's horse was being naughty and Dan was snarling and shaking his head at him. I told her that Dan disapproves! Ha. But he disapproves of everything. He's the bouncer! No one has fun but him. Ha ha.
The clinic was great though. She had set up three low cavaletti's on the rail around the short side... then a fan in the middle of one end... then a big giant x in a box in the middle.. then a cavaletti with two placing poles on the other short side. We started off just walking the fan. And, because we were walking... we were to stick towards the inside of the fan. Then we trotted and went more to the outside of the fan. She said it was our responsibility to pick and hold the path. But also that I had to keep Dan short! She said that he gets this nice big trot but he's just flinging himself around, not really sitting and pushing. And we talked about his neck and she said that shortening the stride doesn't mean I have to shorten his neck. In fact, she wants his neck long... but he can't be flinging. So.. shorten his stride by using my core, my tempo, and then encourage him to reach with his neck. However, she did say that I would do well to shorten my reins a hair, only because when they are too long, and he shortens and lifts I have to lift my hands so high to keep the contact, so.. shorten them a hair, and then keep my hands in front of me, rather than having to pull up and back.
After we did the fan, we came off the circle and went across the giant X. She said that they could take a more normal step through there but for me especially, to not enourage too much. Of course... everyone else had to push a little but I still had to "hold" Dan to a smaller step. Interesting. But he got quite fancy and bouncy when I did. After we did that a few times we then added a canter. She had us do the fan, to the big x, then pick up the canter and canter the three poles (two poles with cavaletti in the middle). Then back to the trot, through the big x and then back to the fan. That was harder but fun. The canter poles are hard. I feel like his canter gets too small... but maybe it's too strung out. We struggled with the canter a bit. His tongue came out a good bit too. Ugh. I mentioned that when we were cantering small and round, he felt like he couldn't pick up that right front as easily. Which... if he's flinging it forward instead of lifting it, makes sense. But she also pointed out that he was throwing me to the outside and if I rode with my inside leg and pushing him out, he had an easier time lifting up his right front. Okay.. valid.
We finished with a collected trot through the fan, then a canter over all 3 cavalettis on the short side... and then back to trot through the giant x, then the other canter lead over the placing pole and single cavaletti, then back to trot over the giant x and back to the fan. It was hard... it was hard for Dan especially and me. We struggled a bit but... we got some nice work. He was just getting tired at the end. But we managed to finish on a good note. I asked Beth about it and she said that she watched... and his tongue would come out when I first started insisting... but once he settled, it would go back in. So... she thought it was just because it was hard for him. So... okay... I can buy into that. This is hard work. And mentally taxing... and sometimes he sticks his tongue out when he's just anxious but we're just hacking. Although that hasn't happened in a long time. So... I guess we'll just see what happens.
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