Forward but not fast

Friday evening was Henry’s lesson with our amazing, patient coach. We headed up there after work and for the first time ever, Henry got off the float and ate grass straight away. He is getting so much more relaxed going places and travelling on his own.

Henry was more relaxed under saddle too, having been to a few lessons more recently. His transitions are solid now, so we got straight into working on the turn, and on getting him relaxed and moving forward.

Tense trot

In the walk my coach had me really soften my outside hand and open my inside hand to get Henry's head down. I had to have a big forward walk and focus on the rhythm.If he got tense and put his head up we had to circle. He settled quite quickly at the walk, so we took the same exercise into trot. His rhythm was a lot more varied, and he was far less relaxed at the faster pace, but I was very soft with the outside rein, clear with the inside and clear that we had to go forward.

Henry would run a few steps, then slow down and fall behind the leg, before rushing again. We got the metronome out and I focused on rising to the metronome set at 75bpm. It was clear that Henry was really struggling to maintain the correct forward trot without rushing but we just kept plugging away until he settled. We had to have a bit of a baby look in the middle when a horse came back from a ride. Henry heard them coming well before the humans did! He settled quickly once he saw the horse and we got straight back to work.

Relaxed trot

We took the same exercise into canter. I always start cantering in 2 point to allow Henry to use his back and settle into a rhythm before sitting. We cantered to the left first and I again opened my inside hand out and showed him the way down to where his head should be. He had a little moment in the canter but I kept my leg on and kept him turning and on my line and he worked out that he just has to get on with it!

Henry: Mum, I buck!

Mum: ummm, no!

The canter to the right was better, but I had to turn him more frequently to stop him falling in. We had a relaxed trot after and then cooled down in walk.

Henry: Fine!

I had an interesting conversation with my coach after our lesson. she is also bringing along a young OTTB who is a bit more expressive than Henry. She had been speaking to Craig, and several other high level riders who bring on young horses about how best to handle those moments of excitement. The resounding feedback was to lunge and have the discussion on the ground, especially in new places. Then hop on and ride when they are a bit tired, especially with OTTBs who are used to working. So this week we are practicing our lunging!

A circle later and he looked like this!