Like a pony, struttin’ for the very first time… Like a poooony….
It is with great sadness that I share this news with you. Ro is no longer a pony.
We sticked her this spring and she was 14.3ish. My heart breaks.
As if to make up for her technical horsey-ness, Ro has been spending this spring channeling her inner pony.
Unfortunately, that means she’s been giving me the proverbial short, choppy pony gaits.
But let’s be realistic. No matter how much I long for a pony, her pony gaits are not a function of her size. She only has them when any horse would have them: when she’s tense, hollow, and not coming from behind. Voila: insta-pony gaits.
All resolved naturally by really making her come from behind.
Which is the interesting catch-22 of riding, right? When you have a horse who is not quite balanced and through, if you push forward, they’re likely to rush and collapse on the front end. Instead of short, choppy strides, you get fast short, choppy strides. But if you slow them down to balance, you lose the energy and impulsion and have to build that back up somehow. Which means you have slow short, choppy strides.
Or, if not “you,” Ro and I. It’s the story of our lives. Or rides, if you like.
So, Ro and I have gone into boot camp. We’re going to go forward and straight if it kills us, and we’re going to find the trot that I know she has in her.
I can already feel a difference in her. I used to get on and it seemed like I spent most of the ride trying to get her to balance and connect, and now we have something to work with almost from the start. We’re still early in this boot camp, so strength is a major issue right now, but I’ve noticed that even when she falls out a bit, she’s still much more free in her trot than before, and it’s easier to ask her to reconnect. There’s definite progress.
And it shows on the lunge, too. She’s starting out in a trot that I would have been happy to end on last fall, and she’s really starting to figure out how to push from behind and open up in front. I actually stopped and texted a friend today, because I couldn’t believe the trot I saw—not only forward and balanced, but also really lifted at the withers for the first time and extending her shoulder up as well as out.
She has decent gaits on her, but that was a trot we could take into the ring and be very competitive with.
So - building, building, building. Forward, straight, strength. I can make peace with no longer owning a pony if this is the alternative, because this shows signs of turning into something pretty awesome.
Jane says 1 June 2011
I’m going to share what my trainer said to me one day, watching her arabian that I usually rode, float across the arena in huge, lifting, gorgeous strides. Riderless, of course.
“If you can see it, that means it’s in there, and you can get that under saddle.”
I had the issue you’re describing: short-choppy eventually becoming the conclusion to all aides. She finally told me to forget it, and get a good from-behind canter first. Once I had that (easy) she had me drop down into a trot…it was long, floaty, full of drive and suspension…for at least 3 strides.
She sighed and said “we’ll build on it”.
Don’t know if that will help with Ro, but canter-first opened the door for me to amazing trot work.
Noooooo….she’s not a pony anymore? That’s okay. She’s a dynamite HORSE.