April has been a good month for riding. I've been able to work Camaro 4-5 days a week this month. At the beginning of the month was Spring Break for the school DD1 teaches at, which meant I wasn't needed to care for Faline in the afternoons. Translation: I had absolutely no timetable I had to work within for five whole days, and I spent my mornings leisurely grooming and riding Camaro. It was a fantastic week, we had great rides, and I cantered him (something I had only touched on once last spring, shortly before he had his laminitis episode) two separate days, as well as rode him outside for the first times this year.
Backing up a bit, I should probably explain that last fall, the county drain commission came through the farm that I board Camaro at and tore up the two biggest pastures while replacing a large section of the drain that runs through the property. Losing her two best winter pastures meant the farm owner had to some shuffling of horses for turnout, and that the mare group ended up claiming the outdoor arena as their new turnout. Where they still are, since the destroyed pastures have to be stayed off of until the grass (seeded in December, and then again in late March) that the drain commission planted there once the project was completed, regrows. So outdoor riding hasn't really been an option, but as the ground has firmed up after the thaw, we can lightly ride on the 'lawn' around the front of the barn and between one side of the barn and the pastures near it.
So, anyway, after doing most of our daily ride in the indoor arena, Camaro and I moseyed around on the lawn for the 5-10 minutes of cooling out each day during that first part of the month. Since then, however, there has either been crappy weather--wet and/or cold and/or windy--and the big door on the end of the indoor arena has been latched shut again, so we haven't been back outside to ride.
When I cantered Camaro early this month, I noticed that he got really tense when he felt me go from posting trot to sitting trot in preparation for giving him the canter aid. And on the right side, he just wanted to fling himself on the forehand and run (ie trot faster and faster) into the canter. On the left, he was tense, but not so inclined to totally lose his frame and just speed up. Either way, I was left with some questions about his past.
I all ready knew that he'd been started and shown as a youngster in Arabian Hunter Pleasure, and had a history of being ridden strongly in draw reins. I knew that the lady I had bought him from hadn't been a good match for him, her being an anxious kind of rider (and, I suspected, one that balanced on her reins and yanked them upward when frightened). I knew that when I first began riding him, having contact with his mouth made him throw his head and drop his back, and that he was rather timid under saddle. We'd worked slowly through the contact and timidity issues. He's gotten much bolder and less apt to shy and spook since I began working him again once his feet issues went away. So, I suspected this falling apart when asked to canter was residual tenseness (flashbacks, if you will) to how he'd been ridden prior to me.
I asked my friend, who'd worked with him and his previous owner, about his history with the canter, and she pretty much confirmed my suspicions. He'd always gotten tense about the canter transition, and rather discombobulated at the canter.
This info led me to decide to drop, for now, the canter under saddle. Instead, I have only cantered him on the longe line. And when asking for canter departs on the longe, I first make sure he's balanced in the trot before asking for the transition. If he tries to run into the canter, we go back down into trot until he's balanced again. The departs are getting a lot better. A balanced depart has led to less scrambling once he's in the canter. And less scrambling has enabled us to work on having balance in the canter with canter bounds that are both rhythmic and upward. I'm very happy with that, and hoping that soon we'll try cantering under saddle again.
Meanwhile, in the saddle, there's been a focus on teaching him to remain relaxed if I'm sitting the trot instead of posting it. We've spent lots of trotting time with me going from rising trot to sitting trot and back again. I've also focused on transitions within the trot, asking for working trot, slightly collected trot, and slightly extended trot. All while maintaining the connection with the bit, and staying balanced no matter if I'm rising or sitting. No tensing, no rushing, no throwing his head up and dropping his back. In a way, it feels like we've regressed, going back to all this work on connection and relaxation that we had no problems with at the beginning of the month. Yet, I know from past experience that this is actually going forward. Because every time you raise the bar, and move up in skill and difficulty in riding, a step or two backwards seems to immediately follow the first step in gaining prowess. To get better, first we fall apart a little. Sitting trot is our bar raise for now.
I'm looking forward to working on canter under saddle, and willing to spend this 'falling apart' time of rebuilding in order to have calm and instant canter transitions this summer.
Another cool thing this month, is that on Friday mornings, I get to ride in a pseudo dressage ring! The barn owner has some students who are thinking of showing in Western Dressage classes this summer, and so once a week she sets up cones and letters in the indoor so they can practice test riding during their lesson. For me, I'm in dressage queen heaven once a week, riding in the sandbox with the alphabet! Camaro thinks that M stands for MONSTERS!!, and so every Friday we have to work through him being totally suspicious of that corner of the arena, but he's coming around and it's just so much fun for me to have my letters as guides again. I hadn't realized how much I missed being in a dressage barn with a dressage arena until the first morning I led him into the arena for our session and I just got totally giddy when I spotted the cones and letters all set up.
