Riley has been using evasive tactics when my trainer attempts cavaletti. It's sort of funny but I wonder why he's doing this now. Hopefully just antics? Anyone have any ideas?
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Cavaletti is not an Italian dessert
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Did he used to do them well?
ReplyDeleteThose are set up at a distance so they're a challenge for him and really make him work. He's not the most... energetic horse a lot of the time. He's probably a little boy figuring out how best to avoid work. :)
Also, though, I wasn't surprised when the good go was from the opposite direction. He's not straight on approach in any of the clips besides the final one, and that allows him more space to evade, and more reason to as well - it's harder to work and lift and push for a horse who isn't straight. It just appears the direction of the final approach allows him to get straighter.
Personally, I think your trainer handles him capably and wouldn't be concerned, as she gets the job done even if he is being a bit goofy. And as far as goofy goes, that's not so bad!
It looks to me like he's just not sure what to do or where to put his feet - he may need the exercise to be broken down into smaller units - starting with one pole, then adding two far apart, then two close together, etc., you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they're not spaced right for his normal trot stride? It almost looks like he's having to "suspend" to get through them.
ReplyDeleteI think they look a little far apart. Maybe raising the poles a bit at a comfortable distance for him would help him shift his weight back and gain a sense of lift in front. This would still make the exercise challenging, just in a different way.
ReplyDeleteHe is still pretty when he's hopping around!
I agree with the comment about straightness. The first two attempts it looks like he's bulging out through his right shoulder through the turn and then can't figure out where to put his feet. Might help to just give him two at a time until he's doing that without any issue, then add the third. Either way though, I think a lot of repetition will fix it. He's a pretty smart cookie, he'll figure it out.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with most comments here. Looks to me as if he just isn't quite sure how to place his feet.
ReplyDeleteThe timing of his first stride sets the rest of the steps. He might be hitting the first stride at the wrong moment and then is just "saving" himself. Like any skill, it just takes some practice.
I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point in his "career."
Sidenote: I would call those ground poles and think of cavaletti as being raised off the ground (specifically those little fixed "jumps" that can be rotated so that they are between approx. 3" to 18" off the ground). Am I alone in this? Maybe it's an Ontario thing.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I'm not at all trying to be critical, just genuinely curious about different uses of this term. Riley looks beautiful as always. You must be so proud of yourself for believing in him through some very dark days.
Sarah -
ReplyDeleteWhen I was riding with hunter/jumper folks, that was always considered a ground pole, with what you described cavaletti. In purely dressage barns, I almost always hear those called cavaletti. With my eventing/dressage trainer, they're more often called ground poles, but depends if it's someone from a more jumping or more dressage background. So I think it depends on discipline, and probably is regional as well. Funny the things we do to our language (or how we steal words from other languages!)
-Net, who blogger just decided needs to post anonymously
I call these ground poles too, as would most of the people I've worked with over the years. But my guess was they are being used as the first step into cavaletti work so from that perspective it made sense.
ReplyDeleteThanks Net, I'm a dressage rider now but it looks like you can take the girl out of the hunter ring but you can't take the hunter ring out of the girl :)
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree that those are technically ground poles, but tons of dressage riders call them cavaletti and if you use cavaletti on the lowest setting it's basically the same thing as a ground pole so who really cares, lol. It's like a hunter rider calling a dressage whip a crop, not a big deal and everyone still knows what you're talking about.
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