This year really hasn’t been our year. What with my injury, followed by Scottie’s injury we haven’t achieved many of the things I had hoped to. However, now that we are starting to get back on track, I think I have found our silver lining!
I have noticed now that I am back in the saddle, that Scottie has made some improvements despite all of the hiccups.
- Firstly, he seems stronger in his self carriage. He is more willing to accept and work towards the contact in walk and trot.
- Scottie is also more forwards. I don’t know how long this will last, as it might be because we haven’t cantered or done anything exciting since July! But he is more forwards and producing a better quality walk and trot.
- More responsive to my aids. I think this is a mixture of him being more forwards and me being stricter with myself to stop nagging him. But he is more responsive to my aids. Not always in a positive way, sometimes he throws his head in the air in protest, but it is a still a response
- We have also been doing a lot of lateral work, after all, there’s only so much you can do in walk! Because of this Scottie’s lateral work has really improved and he is really starting to listen to my legs and respond.
However, with this time off we have also lost some things too:
- We have lost a bit of bend and reverted to being a bit of a left banana… meaning that we have bend to the left nearly constantly, but very little bend to the right. So this is what I am starting to work on now.
- We have also lost some of the quality of our transitions. I can’t quite put my finger on what has changed exactly, but they don’t feel quite as smooth. So again this is something we will be working on.
All being well, we will finally be back to competing with EquiMind this month! It is intro B this month, so I am hoping to film that next weekend and then be back in the prelims next month. Fingers crossed!
Last Updated on 07/08/2018
