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Post by slidingstop on Jul 16, 2012 9:28:56 GMT -3
Not much more to update, he keeps progressing with his turns and side passing, and quite enjoys it! Holly made a comment before that he seems to like to move his shoulders and that he does, he's always looking for the turn now. The last time i rode i got excellent stops out of him, if only he had sliders on! he's still off and on in his hind end though, Trevor will be coming in on the 26th to check him out, fingers crossed its nothing serious but I'm almost 100% sure it's windgall. This far I've just been cold hosing it 15 mins every day and caking blue lotion on them to help out.
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Post by slidingstop on Sept 17, 2012 20:08:51 GMT -3
Well it has been a while, I guess I'll start with updating on his lameness status. Trevor diagnosed him with arthritis in his left hind hock for sure so we had him on bute for 2 weeks with no issues and then started treating that with Adequan IM injections right away and I'm very happy to say that he has no more ouchies.
I've barely ridden for a month before last week but now we are back at it. Myself and one of my coaches have been riding him english for the past week, working on getting him working more forward off his hind end, into a frame and today I definitely felt the progress hes been making. Today we worked on our cow horse pattern and jog-lope transitions on a large circle. Those have been getting rusty so I just did constant few strides lope, few strides jog, few strides lope, etc... when he got a few great transitions in a row I broke it up a bit with doing a lap around the arena at a lope to work on keeping the same pace and then did some simple lead changes to practice for our pattern.
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Post by slidingstop on Sept 19, 2012 21:22:34 GMT -3
HELLOOO
yesterday I rode in english tack, he was great for frame work, however at times he tried to be a bit slow at the trot because I didn't wear spurs, he also WOULD NOT pick up his right lead going down the long end. He just does not like the english tack haha. It may have something to do with me feeling like a big lump of turd on him because I feel like there is nothing beneath me when riding, I can't believe how different it feels from him and reuben, and then him in western and english tack :s
today I went back to my dear bob, we worked on our pattern some more, which is jog long side on the right rein, pick up the canter to a circle, then lead change to another circle, come back onto the long side on the left rein, stop, 180 turn, jog out back on the right rein, pick up the canter in the corner, do a tight turn to the center of the ring, stop, back up 6 steps... some times he had it spot on, while others there were times where he didn't get a real nice change or nice stop.. then i realized that I was riding with a completely LOOSE cinch. once I tightened it up he was like a dream boat. We worked on nice simple lead changes and stops too.
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Post by slidingstop on Sept 23, 2012 12:47:44 GMT -3
So we are back from our last show of the season at CNHP and I am very pleased with him! out of 8 classes we came back with 5 ribbons even though the footing was horrible because we had a rainy few days.
senior english equitation 4th out of 14?
senior english pleasure 6th out of 14
green pleasure 1st out of 6
western horsemanship 5th out of 8
western cow horse pattern 5th out of 7
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Post by slidingstop on Oct 9, 2012 20:55:23 GMT -3
JUST 20 MORE DAYS TILL SUMAC! I'm so excited/nervous/excited, hopefully Travis will have fun with him.
Today we worked on spins, stops, back ups, did a bit of a bunch of stuff and he was good! His spins (espically to the right) are getting much faster I just find hes such a lazy horse ugh lol. Hopefully Travis will ride that out of him haha.
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Post by slidingstop on Nov 3, 2012 13:24:20 GMT -3
Benson went to Sumac on Thursday! He didn't even care one bit about being in a new place, while I on the other hand was having some attachment issues lol. The update I got on Travis's first ride was "no serious issues, just need to work on making him softer" LOL I'm hoping he wasnt sugar-coating it.
I get to go ride him tomorrow! so haapppyyyyyy
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Post by charismatic on Nov 3, 2012 20:58:28 GMT -3
Have fun. Travis was here two weeks ago test riding a pony.. Hopefully said POny makes it to Sumac soon..
Travis is a good head..
How long do you have him there?
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Post by slidingstop on Nov 4, 2012 18:28:35 GMT -3
Hes there for a month of training charismatic.
Sometimes I have such love for my horse that it (almost) hurts. He surprises me and amazes me and I'm so proud of how far we both have come, and this is just the beginning-the learning never ends. I feel that I am truly lucky to have found a partnership so kind and patient.
We had a wonderful little ride today, probably the most relaxing and easy going ride I've had on him yet. It was just plain fun, he stayed low and collected on a loose rein the entire time, yet was very forward when he needed to be, I didn't have to use my spurs not once. We worked on bending circles again-this time at the lope and he was fantastic! He even topped it off with giving me some nice flying changes.
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Post by slidingstop on Nov 8, 2012 0:00:07 GMT -3
Travis has ridden Benson just 3 times and the change in him is astonishing, I mean hes been supple before but wow-he just looks for it now. He is also much more responsive to my leg, turns and back ups are almost twice as fast. My lazy po po is gonzo!
I haven't gotten to watch him ride yet but today I had my first lesson, we didn't do a lot of different things, today we just did a lot of pick up and release at all gaits, trying to get me fine tuned to the exact moments when to do so. We did a bit of bending circles and no rein circles at the lope and ended off the lesson with working on keeping him supple when backing up. I think he just tried to get a feel of my abilities as a rider this far, hes a very quiet guy but explains things really well!
I'm very pleased with B's progress so far !
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Post by slidingstop on Nov 13, 2012 21:43:26 GMT -3
Had another good lesson today! We started off the lesson with steering circles at the lope on a loose rein with softening and releasing in both directions, that only took a little bit because there wasn't much to actually work on. Then we moved on to two tracking at the walk in both directions up the diagonal in which he did really well, when we moved on to the jog he did well to the left but found that to the right he would stick his shoulder out and when I would pick up the right rein to straighten him he broke down to the walk, which is not much of a surprise because that's his hard side. Once we were satisfied with his effort we moved on to stops and softening back ups, which didn't take much work either! he puts so much effort into them now  We ended off the lesson with softening small circles into the spin, which took more attention on my behalf to be able to keep him straight, soft/bending, moving forward while having him move his shoulder over. Going out again on Thursday to watch Travis work him! I'll get lots of pictures |
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Post by slidingstop on Nov 21, 2012 19:09:59 GMT -3
Another lesson report, Yesterday we started with getting him moving his shoulder over while staying soft and straight through the neck, Travis had already been working on this with him so it was just about getting me used to feeling him doing it correctly. Then we started with two tracking in both directions again, this time started at the jog and he was amazing, it didn't take much to keep him straight and he stayed soft through the bit the whole time. We did that a few times. Then we went back to keeping him straight through the neck while loping circles, moving off the shoulder loping tight turns by cutting across the circle. Once we got him going consistent we added speed to the mix which was quite fun! Kind of thought I was going to die for the first bit as unless I had to pick him up to soften him I wasn't allowed to pick up my rein at all lol. I may sound like an idiot but I never really realized just how much control you can get out of a horse! Benson feels amazing to ride now, though I thought he was before training the change is just incredible and I'm loving all the learning Benson comes home on Tuesday! Travis has been riding him on the weekends because hes leaving before the end of the month to go to the futurity in Oklahoma. I cannot complain! Can't wait to have my boy back. Myself and a friend are going out tomorrow to watch Travis ride again and get some nice pictures. |
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Post by charismatic on Nov 21, 2012 20:51:33 GMT -3
Snap one of the new Pally gelding Travis got in on Sat.
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We ended off the lesson with softening small circles into the spin, which took more attention on my behalf to be able to keep him straight, soft/bending, moving forward while having him move his shoulder over.