One would think I have found the edge of the earth seeing as I haven't written a post since before Christmas!
I feel like the theme of 'The Edge' follows suit though as I continue to work through the teeter tottering of Solo's balance. While I have seen quite a bit of improvement over the weeks it is still clear how baby he still is.
As he tries to reach down, lift his back and stretch, he loses balance and falls behind the leg. Half halt to rebalance, leg on and we are off again.
I originally thought to add in more leg yield, shoulder fore/in etc. Yes, it does help to build the muscle and strength but it also kills our forward momentum and makes him tense if I play with it too much or try to perfect when he clearly isn't ready to go there. Instead I have opted with transitions before he loses his balance, for instance, trot to halt, back two steps, rest two seconds, pat (prevent tension), trot off or trot, walk, canter, walk. Any order but more drastic to keep him ready to use himself rather than getting too engrossed in the stretch and going into La La land.
It has been seeming to make the most difference along with long lines of trot poles, say 5-8 poles set at 5' apart, Solo has a big step already and I want him to keep reaching, no compression until he is stronger and more experienced.
This also helps him lift, stretch and be weary of where his feet fall.
On the other front around Christmas time we had a great deal of show, some two feet or so of fluffy, light stuff. Making for great riding and snow workouts along with be able to just simply get outside. Ahh.
I also dragged out the black plastic culvert that we used to use for event type fences.
The culvert was my end game for a couple days. Solid enough to make Solo aware and it will simply roll and won't break being industrial. It was also small enough to walk over, maybe 2'0-2'3, but big enough to warrant a small jump effort.
With P I used to circle close to the jump to give her a look, Solo, I feel like I can't let him get that close without going over. Something tells me he would see that as being his escape route later. In turn, I circled way before it, not really giving him time to look in my warm up and then during our walk break I rode the full ring and straight for it. I want him to have the time right now to see it, his low confidence screams for this, but also know over is the only option.
Solo is basically like a five year old kid, nothing scares him but he is scared of nothing.
He took a good baulk at the culvert at first, had to touch it of course, tried to 'ask' if he could go left or right to go around with a little sway in his balance, I pressed on and he walked calmy over.
Fireworks! ....yeah I always make a big deal. Babies are so fun yo! ... mostly.
I continued a couple times around in both directions, letting go the 'pressure' on the long side, applying pressure to go over until I picked up a trot, dropped back to walk about 10 strides before the culvert so not to overwhelm.
It only took one or two attempts until Solo was confidently jumping over until he got bored and the culvert only warranted trotting.
We then swapped to walk canter and canter halt transitions etc using the snow to get the extra lift effort and strengthen organically.
Solo also got a good week off during the -30°c temps, coming back into work this work with no prep required. Granted making a couple excuses to dirty eyeball something that had been moved around since last time, making me roll my own eyes in frustration until I realized he is three!
So easy to forget!
This morning the name of the game was a few prompt canter transitions after establishing the forward and sustaining, or rather regaining of balance quickly, then canter poles, which were once a total disaster and are suddenly pieces of cake.....or well today!
This is the name of baby games after all, we teeter the edge at all times.
