No new Media.... Lots to be grateful for

Trying to figure out winter hay with a new (BIG) horse is fun...

Due to Lewis-based shenanigans, my right hand has been a bit down for the count.  That doesn't mean that I wanted to miss out on our lesson.  So I hopped on, warmed-up walk trot, then picked out a small course of 4 verticals to jump out of trot to show Trainer what we do at home. Cue pony so perfect we also jump and oxer and bigger gate. 

Old media same feels

Then I handed over the reins.  Trainer worked a LOT on transitions, so many transitions.  She was having him load his hind end going into transitions by asking for 2 - 3 steps of lateral work: Hauched in, turn on the forehand, ect then IMMEDIATELY going into the transition.  She also focused on slowing the transitions down.  Uno tries so hard that he can get abrupt easily. Slowing the transitions down and making them last longer keeps him from dumping on the fore-hand.  This is almost directly opposite to what worked jumping.

Shocking that this horse wants to be on his forehand I know...

Then she started jumping him and was shocked at how much leg he wanted at the base.  He was moving slowly at the jump then shooting off after - if she tried to work him back to balance slowly Uno would get tighter and tighter until he bucked.  She decided to change her ride a bit and put him back together immediately then released and left him alone, and the bucking stopped.  Some of this is not soft or smooth - if Uno gets anxious he dumps on the forehand, leans, and rushes.  Half halting when he is like that just pulls his head in - it doesn't actually effect his balance the way it should. 

It is harder to explain HOW she addressed the rushing.  She would half halt, he would ignore and curl, she would sit down on his butt and immediately trot, if he was still rushing, she would move into turn on the forehand until he softened, then right back up into canter.  It only took a few repetitions for him to get it, and then she went and jumped 20 or so jumps, changing leads and rolling back to catch one right after the other.  Uno was SO GOOD!!!

Then I got on to jump one or two jumps - AND IT FELT SO GOOD!! I WAS ABLE TO DO ALL THE SAME WORK!!!  I left BUZZING!!!  Uno was so so good.

Someday we will get back to this - but for the moment, life is good.