Well, I promised I'd tell you how it went. Ri and I had our first clinic on Saturday. I think I had mentioned that my technique for stabilizing Ri's head was to drive him forward, forward, forward -- not a bad strategy but ultimately some finesse is needed. FVNC helped me with this, and the primary exercise we worked on is shown here. Ri was uncharacteristically unsteady in the contact for my trainer the previous day, and I wondered how my session would go. He was distracted but not completely oblivious. I think our work was okay to the left, but VERY fussy to the right to the point where he looks lame. To the right, the footage is the classical illustration of rein-lame.
I feel sad that I'm not further along with him, but did think that my upper body was slightly better in this footage than in previous rides.
This is the beginning of the ride (I lopped off the walk-work). I'll post more footage later. It's hard to upload more than about 5 minutes at a time from my home pc.
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Major Kudos! It takes a lot of courage to ride for a top trainer. You handled Riley's fussing very tactfully. Her commentary was very helpful. Thank you for posting!
ReplyDeleteSo good to see YOU riding your boy!!! Going to the right...could definitely see him coming into stride...rhythm was great and he was more accepting.
ReplyDeleteLOVE that he kept "talking" to someone everytime you hit the end of the arena:) His personality is just priceless! Oh - and the polo wraps in the terra cotta...TO DIE FOR:)
Love her comment at the end...."He's calling for the ASPCA." *LOL*
ReplyDeleteGood job of riding, there. It's tricky getting the contact just right when the horse tries to be unsteady. You have to be really quick with the corrections and as quick with the rewards.
The way things improved even in that short video clip, I'd say you were an excellent student and one pretty adept rider. Well done.
Well done Stacy! You really improved through the course of the video.
ReplyDeleteHilarious comment at the end - love this clinician. Thanks for posting :)
I think you're too hard on yourself! I'm impressed that you were brave enough to ride in the clinic, and I know you're working with contact but your legs looked great to me!
ReplyDeleteThere was a stretch down the long side toward the camera right at the end of the video here that looked terrific - you're getting bits of that regularly, which is a huge thing.
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm slowly working with my 16 year old OTTB on contact issues and the clinician's visual of "1/2 and 1/2" really hit home for me.
ReplyDeleteOh, I wish she gave clinics in the PNW!
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