2/18/09 Danny, the wonderfully willing TB

Danny is a saint in a furry bay TB body. I love this boy! I'll have to beg for some pics from Joe soon to add to this....

He's a younger gelding, around 6 years old, and needs strengthening in his stifles to improve his canter. His owner had to have surgery, so he's going to be working with me a couple times a month to start learning what he has to do to advance his movement, musculature, and training.

Danny did very well last night. I spent almost 2 hours with him, actually. We started with longing, and I longed him with side reins to help him engage his hindquarter. We worked on walk and trot on a nice, loose tempo-filled gait with impulsion and proper topline. Canter was not bad overall--the sidereins make a marked difference on how well he can hold his canter and the overall quality of it! The transitions in and out were not as explosive as the first time I longed him (improvement!) but I was also careful to prepare him and not rush the transition. I got small releases and "head drops" in the canter, but nothing as marked as the walk/trot. That takes time. I did work him a good bit on the longe working to train in the cue for him to drop his head and release his jaw, stretch his neck and work into the bridle. Walk/trot he was there, canter he was not. I settled for at least softening his poll and bending his neck a little into me.

In hand, we worked on moving the hindquarters (a lightbulb went off), then went to shoulder-in, travers, leg yeild and a tiny bit of halfpass.

Physically, he was tired, so I got on him and worked him in walk advancing his lateral work. We worked on shoulder in (he got it going counterclockwise, but anything clockwise, where he had to stretch across the left side and step up forward with his left hind (like he would in canter on a right lead) he fell apart a bit and his stifles got "sticky". I worked on him really understanding that when I put leg on, it meant YIELD and MOVE AWAY, and had him do 45 degree head to the wall counterclockwise (to improve the clockwise shoulder in). Unlike his last training session, though, his significant improvement was the understanding that in shoulder-in he responded to the half-halt of the inside seat/thigh/rein connection so that he didn't wander into the middle of the ring. Not so good clockwise, but after the 45 degree head to the wall work where I defined the step sequence and the aids, he was better.

I did some leg yielding under saddle--he really has a hard time picking up either stifle and stepping under, so this will just do him a ton of good. He gets his hinds "stuck" on the ground and in a position where he doesn't pick them up for the crossover (hence the 45 degree head to the wall work and in-hand work too). I tried for a little travers/halfpass but he need much more work on what a half-halted rein means and how to lift a shoulder before he'll respect that aid.

Then, since I could feel his stifles fatigueing, and he has done a ton of collected work, albeit in walk, I trotted him out and just finished up with some simple bending exercises where he had to support himself in serpentines, pay attention to balance, and change his bend. Asked him to stop and back a few times, and refused to get off of him until he gave me a couple snappier walk/halt/walk transitions vs stroll, eventually grind to a halt, stroll.

I was shocked to find he had a clue about a driving seatbone. I put mine down and asked for more reach/extension in the trot and he moved right off! Yeah! That's a hard concept to teach a horse, esp one that's not very forward and has a great capacity to ignore a whip (Danny says "lalalalalalalalala I can't HEAR you!") So, it was a good button to find.

Of course, I completely expect Danny to pretend not to know ANY of this when his owner sees him on Sunday!