Pinto Photos (warning, Lots Of)

[Casey76]

Well, decided to try something new today

Sorry the photos aren't brill, but I can't take photos of me riding lol

Here goes:

Pretty pony:



Getting our bearings:




Trotting:


Time for some laughs... western stylee


Smiley happy people!

[Casey76]

Oh... and a series of B and Pinto with his normal canter:

[Ali jo]

Good to see you and Pinto enjoying yourselves.    I can see why his canter is rather speedy.  I ride a horse who runs off like that and the thing that has helped is transitions in and out of canter.  Now his blance has begun to imporve and we manage nice steady canters but we still have days with no breaks.  Does the girl who rides him do lots of transitions? I think it might help him so that he slows up and balances.  I've been reading your recent posts and I think your doing  very well and seeing those canter photos I understand why your feeling apprehensive about it.  I was the same with the horse I ride and I'm lucky as I've had loads of one to one tuition and we are now getting there, but not without going through the wobbly legs and  feeling sick before riding him  phase.  Sorry very long post.   :unsure:    

[jvt]

Crickey!  I can totally see why you are nervous of cantering him! He looks like a bullet!  :unsure:

I'd agree transitions, and also try on a large circle so he doesn't have the longside to gallop up.  He also looks to be running and leaning on the hand, and that won't help your confidence as no brakes is scary... try to work on obedient downward transitions as when you see these working -even with someone else riding, they will help your confidence in knowing he can and will stop when you ask him to.  

What does he do on the lunge in canter?

I think you are doing really well and in the pictures you look like you are really enjoying yourself!  

 

[Casey76]

Thank you

We did have fun today.  We were trying my friends Dr Cook bridle, and he went ever so well.

B got on first to make sure we had steering and breaks then I got on for a pootle. I have to admit both breaks and steering were much improved compared to his normal bridle.  We mainly just played with changes of direction and halt/walk/trot/walk/halt transitions.

After my cameragirl left we were doing 8m circles and changing the rein in all manner of ways with only seat/leg and a twitch of the fingers.

Pinto is the type that get very jazzy when lots of transitions are incorprated into schooling.  We've always had "issues" with downward transitions, not bad ones, but they tend to be "spongy" rather than "snappy", and after a canter he will race around in trot and take ages to settle again.

Breaks in canter have never been a problem either - I pull on the reins :blush: and he slows down, he just goes so blooming quickly, and it is all or nothing.

We don't canter on the lunge, at all, ever.  Every time we try it just gets worse and worse.  Yesterday I tried lunging for the first time in ages, I asked him to move on a bit from a slow trot to something more active, we had 2 strides of canter them...whumpf... bogs off down the other end of the arena.  When I lunge I wear deerskin roping gloves (what ranch workers wear when roping steers), because they have special reinforcement around the baseof the fingers and around the thumb.  It is now wearing very thin due to the amount of times that lunge rope has been torn through my grip. And this happens if I'm lunging in a headcollar, bridle, cavesson with or without side reins, chambon, elsatique etc. :bash:  It's a nightmare. Then to top it all off, when he does bog off he wont be caught again, so bribes are essential, and I have often had to be rescued by a friend or other rider wanting to use the manege    

[Linda Baia]

gosh what a scary canter! I would not canter on him either      B is very brave!

For the lungeing same here with Morgan, he bolts at the canter, and last time I lunged him he feel because I did not let go of the lunge. TBH, I am not expert enough to correct him.

It sounds that Pinto is worst than Morgan !!! Gosh!

Great for you if the Dr Cook works for the trot and walk ... but I would not canter him in Dr Cook!

Great pics of you riding him   :thup:  

[Casey76]

Thanks Muriel

Actually since the brakes were better in the Dr. Cook, I probably wont be too bothered about that when it comes to cantering in it!  B didn't have any problems with stopping at all.

I just need to learn ow to canter again, on a nice safe (slow!) school horse first.

As I was saying to C earlier today, Pinto could do anything at trot and it wouldn't bother me a bit, and we do all of the school figures, but his canter is just so darn fast, I find it really unseating - and this fear o falling is eroding my confidence.

I know in my other post the other day I sounded dreadfully fed up, but I love Pinto so much, and I know he would never do anything malicious, or deliberately try to dump me.  Any problems he's got are due to old training (or none at all).  And I have every confience that he will improve in time.  As I keep reminding myself, you can't wipe out 7 years bad habits/bad training in a few months - well, perhaps you could if I was working him intensively every day, but I'm still learning howtoride myself!

[jvt]

Here here, I totally agree with you. Far better to be softly softly catchee monkee!

I'm not surprised his canter is kamekaze on the lunge too... a shame though.

I'm sure as you develop the walk and trot the canter will start to get more balanced, and from your point of view far better to practice your canter on something that gives you a nice feeling, or pinto will pick up on your nerves and you won't get very far.

I think you are being very sensible in what sounds like quite a difficult position in regards tuition etc.

Keep up the good work!  And at the end of the day, you love Pinto, you enjoy riding in walk and trot, so do that!! No one should dictate what you do with your horse, and you are in the position of allowing him to do more wild stuff with B anyway.... perfect!!!

[luckyrider]

Ooh what a lovely post!  And crikey he really goes for it in canter.  What a deceptive-looking monkey he is!  It is all making sense now... your tendency to panic in canter is completely understandable.  Plus your major nerves before hacking out in groups when you're not sure whether the group will be cantering... you are right to be avoiding these situations for the moment.

And yes, it will feel great for you to have some lovely canters on a school horse.  Can Katia ride Pinto for you, once or twice, to try and get him more balanced and sensible in canter???  

In time, you will see, it will all come right.  As you say he is not nasty... "he's just drawn that way" (said in the voice of that saucy cartoon character in Roger Rabbit).

 

[Casey76]

Hi Stephanie, yep he really does go for it  :blink: A lot of people think that because he is cobby, and has such a sweet nature, that he must be a complete plod.

A few people got a surprise last Wed when in the mise en selle every 10 mins they swapped horses.  All things considered Pinto did really well, but a few more peoplenow realise Pinto is not such an easy ride as he can appear

Since it has got to this stage, and although he is improving with B, it is very slow; normally I would ask Katia to school him a time or two, but she is pregnant, and not riding at the moment.

Perhaps if things haven't improved significantly by the time she is riding again I'll ask then.  Katia is a wonderful rider, and has a beautiful seat - though Pinto isn't her type of horse  

[Claire]

the dr cook can be used lunging as well, with or without side reins .. i use it a lot for that ..  

[em-merrie]

Just a suggestion longrein him instead of lunging as then you should have more control of him and you can vary it from circles to straight lines. And you should be able to do that in the Dr Cooks BB.

Which I found to I have better steering and brake control in the BB. And I hardly have to touch the reins now either!

This maybe just me but the saddle looks a little too far foreward on him, which may mean it will be harder to stay balanced on him as you are not in his center of balance and I can see B looks like she struggles to sit to it too!

I am really pleased that you had a good day.  

[drummers mum]

Wow, doesn't he shift :blink: I wouldn't fancy that corner when he gets there!  :lol:

I used a BB for a year, it really helped my confidence but I reverted back to the bit (after some persusion from my instrutor ) as Drummer was leaning on my hands and using the wrong muscles.

[Casey76]

Heh! yep, corners can be a bit um intersting!  It's one of the reasons that I don't like catnering him too much.  He really motorbikes, and at the moment I'm not balanced enough myself to balance him around the corners - I'm still at the 'hang on and hope for the best' stage  :blush:

It's actually nearly 2 years since I last tried to canter anything other than a full arena, and the last time I treid a 20m circle the school horse deciced to do a quick 180, he went left I went right and I ended up splitting my helmet on the ridge at the bottom of the kick boards in the manege.

People wonder why I don't like canering or jumping - it's because all my falls have been either at canter or when jumping (except when I once bounced off Pinto in sitting trot with no stirrups lol)

[chapsi]

He really rushes in canter... it would be enough to put me off riding!   So, give yourself a huge credit.

Until he got more balanced and responsive, I wouldn't canter him much like that. As the others said, transitions and circles.
My trainer did lots of counter-canter exercises with my horse to get him more balanced in canter. It worked, but I couldn't have done it, as I am not experienced enough to do that kind of schooling.