A week ago I had a private lesson with Sarah Lorenz. At the beginning of the ride I described Zoe's new habit - picking up this hoppy-trot thing after about 10 minutes - and that I was pushing Zoe through it to smooth her gait out. Sarah watched and decided that really what I needed to do was a) keep Zoe mentally engaged during the whole ride, and b) slow her down rather than push her through the moment. Slow down? Not so easy to do!
Sarah's take on the behavior is that Zoe gets bored and fed up with trotting, so she tries to take off into a canter. I, being the rider, need to take control (Huh, where have I heard that before?) and make Zoe go at the pace I set.
So we did lots of 20m circles at a s-l-o-w trot (almost a Western jog) and whenever she tried to take off, I just kept it slow, slow, slow and made her bend to the inside. Part of the exercise was to spiral in and then side-pass back out to the larger circle, all while maintaining her bend.
Gradually, over the past week, Zoe and I have had better and better rides. On Thursday she only tried her hoppy-thing twice! My mare may be stubborn, but in the end I have more perseverance. :)
Monte update: His new owner, Laurie, is conditioning him for a 25 mile endurance ride that is taking place in October. He seems to be thriving and enjoying his new life. It is her goal to redeem his reputation and show everyone what a great little guy he is. I couldn't be happier.
No comments:
Post a Comment