It’s been a while since I mentioned the horses, and the reason for that is that they’re all doing fine, and that’s not a very interesting blog to read. But I’ve gotten several emails from my readers, you darlings, you, wanting a report. So here it is!
Ella had her world rocked when Michael Barisone was here about a month ago and has been going like absolute gangbusters ever since. I have a whole new appreciation for the piaffe and how to ride it (sit heavy, not sit light; think about coiling a spring instead of about containing an explosion, because that’s how the transitions in and out look smooth instead of like the Titanic’s anchor being dropped off a Jetski).
She still goes better with a whip, which I’m using once, maybe twice a week, out of the three to four days I play with the piaffe-passage, but oh-my-God it’s so much better, and she’s continuing to improve without it. Best thing: if I pick it up, use it, and then put it down she stays terrific. Great, great news. She’s of pretty average intelligence, but she’s a savant—once she knows it, she KNOWS IT—so I know she’ll have the hang of things soon.
Trotwork is always gorgeous, though she’s pretty convinced there are bonus points for setting a new land speed record for the change of direction in the half-pass zigzag, which I’m trying to discourage. Canter’s good; been sweating the canter half-pass zigzag (WOW, 3-6-6-6-3 is SO much faster than the Brentina Cup and I2’s 4-8-8-4). Fun, fun, fun.
Midge is on the slow-and-steady progress route, which is less thrilling, but all good. He gets stronger in the passage very day, and I’m slowly churning out more ones. I’ve gotten eight a couple of times but not consistently; sometimes I can barely get two, so there’s miles to go before we sleep. He’ll get them.
What he IS getting are even better pirouettes and some perfectly acceptable canter half-pass zigzags. And hisleft half-pass at both gaits is improving, so perhaps one day it will match his stunning right one.
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Tres, my wonderful little sale horse, has decided that if he’s going to Florida with The Big Kids he’d better get his proverbial &(%! together and learn how to make nice transitions between piaffe and passage. I’ve even renewed my efforts on his ones, which I’d only tinkered with a little a few years back, and his pirouettes are really improving. He is Too Cute.
And last but not least, there’s little Fender. Poor little Fender felt like absolute crap about three weeks ago, and I couldn’t figure out why until one day, riding by my mirrors, I noticed a red spot in his mouth. Yikes! I stopped immediately, of course, and upon investigation, he’d popped a baby tooth. Ah-hah! A few days off, and he was back to normal, and when the dentist came out last week and said hey, let me pop the other one out for you, I suddenly found myself with a horse who TAKES THE BRIDLE like a grown up! Wow, do I feel like a schmuck!
He’s never been one of those horses who really TAKES you, but it’s so much better now I can’t even believe it. So I’m a chump, and he’s pretty great. He’s still quite convinced that the shoulder-in left is animal cruelty and that PETA should be involved, but whatev. He’ll get over it. He is finding a legitimate half-halt at canter, and the trotwork in general is much less like a food processor. Now it’s more of a hand-blender. I’ll take it.
T-minus 12 days to Florida!!!
