pictures are taken in our new dressage ring 20m x 60m
Cantering online is a whole new experience for my little girl. The only time she cantered so far was in the pasture and my guess is that it´s not cantering more galopping like maniacs with her pasturebodies.
I tried cantering a few times before but it always ended with her flying a few meters above me and pulling the 22 foot rope out of my hands.
So this weekend I did alots of friendly game with the 45 foot rope. Got her used to walk on the end of the rope in big circles - which is kind of hard for her because she loves being close to me and sometimes she looses her confidence being so far away from me.
But after a while it worked out fine so we started to do some change of direction. I then asked her to trott. The first rounds of trotting are more like a jog. It looks super comfortable and I know some people don´t agree with me but I love it when she trotts so slow and you shouldn´t ask a lbi in the beginning to go faster anyway until they are more motivated and offer it.
And right she did offer a "real" trott after a few rounds. I just can say "Oh my goodness what movements!" I think it´s easier for her to trott on the 45 foot line cause she has such big steps in trott - it looks like she is floating over the ground.
So because everything was working out fine I asked her to canter and flying dragonmilva was back. Who could have thought that a lbi is putting so much effort in bucking and flying above the ground. I have to get that on camera as well otherwise no one believes me. I can say so much - those bucks are impossible to sit and as it looks right now I won´t be cantering her under the saddle for quite a while.
On saturday I just waited for her to finish - usually it ends with her bucking towards me and stopping in front of me, but still looking relaxed and happy. I asked her to canter again and did get 4 laps of kind of a calm canter on the left lead. There were still some bucks involved - mostly in front of me, but they were not very high and nothing in compare to those from before. The bucks in the beginning were for sure a few meters above the ground. First she is jumping with all four legs up in the air and then she starts bucking - while she is up in the air.
On the right lead I just get a few steps of canter but that´s ok in the beginning. I know that the right lead is harder for her.
On sunday I blew her up. It was the same circusshow she put on again. Leaping and flying around. So I thought - you wanna run, let me help you with that. But now afterwards I can see that wasn´t such a good idea after all. I blew her up completely. She got very right brain and putting more pressure on her didn´t work at all. I don´t know if I should have waited longer or put even more pressure on her?
So what I did was asking her in and she came flying right up to me. Standing next to me, the head high and tensed and you could see the white around her eyes - very rb, I thought. The nice thing was though that she was standing next to me and didn´t want to leave. So I waited until she calmed down and started to sigh and lick her lips. I reassured her that everything was fine, asked her to back up again and to walk and trott again. I looked for any tension but she looked fine so I asked her very, very softly to canter again and got 6 nice steps before she came in again. That´s were I stopped and went grazing with her.
Maybe I asked her with a too high phase to canter before? I think I have to be more aware of how I ask her - even though I thought I asked her nicely, maybe it was still too much for sensitive her.
Another thing is that she is really not used to much pressure because I never put much pressure on her because when I do she blows up. Milva and I have some kind of agreement - I ask her nicely and soft with phase 1 or less and she does it. She hates any kind of pressure - I guess that´s why she doesn´t like the ferrier either. Sigh. And she also hates it when she is wrong so if she offers something I go with it and ask her for whatever I wanted later again.
Well, I don´t know if I´m doing the right thing or not. Sofie is coming down tomorrow and I will ask her to have a look and see what she is thinking.
Maybe I´m reading the whole situation wrong and instead of being right brain she is behaving like a leftbrain punk?
Questions, questions so many questions.
I say LB punk, not RB. When she acts like this, make it very uncomfortable for her and stop her in her pattern (stop her, make her back up) and send her again but as lightly as possible, don't push her into it. She shouldn't be allowed to act like a punk or else she's going to be hard work when you start riding her and ask her to canter (she'll buck, kick out, rear, to get away from pressure just like she thinks she can do on the ground and you really don't want that).
ReplyDeleteSophie x