Chopin turns 3! time to start working... or not! lol

[ukica]

Just had a thought....how are Chopin's teeth?  Santi is the same age and is just changing the lateral incisors and i am sure that is playing a big part in the weight thing???  Recently he just had his wolf teeth out and some molar caps too!  Something to have a look at maybe.

[Belbe]

Just had a thought....how are Chopin's teeth?  Santi is the same age and is just changing the lateral incisors and i am sure that is playing a big part in the weight thing???  Recently he just had his wolf teeth out and some molar caps too!  Something to have a look at maybe.

good question. I've been aiming to teach him to stand still and allow me to place a mouth opener and eventualy a rasp without sedatives like I did to my mare but he's a bit less compliant in such matters so I still haven't found the courage. Will work on that soon, promised!
I've been lookin at him in a new view since I started watching endurance, and he's actually not that bad. He still has nice muscle covering the spine and huge preety quarters. The neck and chest have been lousy since he was a baby so no change there, it's just the ribs that are stickin out but he's also gaining muscle over them so maybe I'm overreacting a little.

Oh, I just found the groom was giving 2kg of PureEasy to both horses, not each, so basically he was on straw, a lil hay and 1kg of food for easydoers when he's a working horse now. Couldn't expect miracles  Still, he now loves to trot and offers a slow tempo, good suspension trot whenever i let him (I only ask for walk), so I really don think he's lacking any energy.  He actually got used to the heat already and is willing to go any time of the day!

[Belbe]

photos for u ukika =D
the kid's been off duty just playing with other horses and 2x10 mins sessions of lungeing+in-hand for the past week and a half.
Today I had a cousin over who hasn't been in the island for 16 years and hasn't ridden for over 20! So Chopin and Tornado, the bomb proof pair where summoned for a veeeeeeeeeeery slooooooooooow hack as she wouldn't dare trot at all, mahn, I could swear a snail passed us by...  

gotta love that mane

...and those adoooorable ears!


good thing horses are large enough not to mind my nutcracker hugz

[ukica]

  he is stunning, such a beautiful colour.  thanks for piccies.  

He looks perfectly healthy....i think he has had a growing spurt.  

[Belbe]

the imaginary lead rope. 
(God works in misterious ways! He KNOWS I so suck with stuff in my hands and decided to save me and my horse the torture...)

Chopin short inhand session

(should take a wile to finish processing still)

[ukica]

Thanks for posting i love watching Chopin   

[renta]

Very nice. thanks for posting

[shoveltrash]

love the new photos Belbe!  my net connection is too slow right now to view video , but i look forward to seeing Chopin in action

[Belbe]

just started the renvers today! well, he did a no-bend fake half-pass and then walked backwards... I either have to explain the reins better or use no reins. He's still hyper sensitive to them so when I maintain contact on one but then tell him he's not suposed to turn, he slows down, halts or reins back, no matter how little contact and how much I tell him forward. He still believes reins are for turning and slowing down only. He already understands the leg as either forward or sideways but not the reins.
I'll try with no reins first then. Maybe I'll use a word like I did with shoulder-in... I'll let you know how it goes. At least after the first complaint (oh no! she's tlking giberish again!!) he seemed quite focused and keen on understanding wa the hell I was talking about. Gotta thank my coach again! before she touched him he never passed the (oh no!) phase...

Btw, now that I think he's not gonna kick me anymore (it's been nearly 3 years since last time) I've started to jump free too (yes, I know, I'm VERY slow to trust). I'll try to get someone to video it next time 

[ukica]

 Definitely need some vid 

Are you going to ride him in a bit?  Or stay bitless?

Am starting some free jumping this week with mine too hopefully this week, if it stops raining 

[Belbe]

Definitely need some vid 

Are you going to ride him in a bit?  Or stay bitless?

Am starting some free jumping this week with mine too hopefully this week, if it stops raining 

def need some videos of u too! it's so much more fun when you don have to worry about ropes getting stuck on pole supports or horse legs or my own for that matter 

I've worked him free with an apple snaffle twice. He destroyed a new one each time. Then did the usual rein aids in-hand with a german silver full-cheek and then rode him on it as well. He thinks it's chewing gum or something. He understands the comands but is so absorbed in chewing it that becomes less attentive and hence less sensitive to the aids so I'll stay bitless till he's fully trained in all the basics and lateral work and then I'll try to get him used to a bit again, but not because I'm to ride him in it, it's just cos i whant him prepared for everything should anythin happen to me (God forbid!). I'll teach him to pull pony carts as well. 

[Belbe]

kay, been playing with some more screenshots. Don have enough material to make another video yet, Chopin was a tad tuned out cos my mare is in heat.
Today we started trying to work on a straight line (along the wall). I suck, so the end result is 3-4 decent steps max. We did 3-4 steps of half-pass and 2-3 steps of travers. That was nice to see. I'll try to build on that. Show you some vids when we stabilize our comunication.
Bottom line is, I feel like Chopin has nothing to learn! whenever I manage to comunicate properly he performs like a pro! I never met a horse so sure of his own feet... Even towards his stiff side, he like, falls onto me with his shoulder for the first 2 steps, I correct him, and off he goes like he didn't have a stiff side anymore... For someone who's been watching and riding stiff horses all her life this is so straaange... Oh how I wish I could be light as a feather and have a decent seat so he could move like that under saddle 

I also noticed a curious thing of late! at the walk, when I sit on him, he increases his hindleg reach even further than usual to go underneath me! it's like he already knows what to do to carry my fat arss! 

[renta]

Hi guy! I have more often than once read in your posts that you have not a decent seat. You can train the one. You are flexible. There is plenty of help: Heathers vids, books and simulator, Sally Swift-system, lunging like in SRS and so on. Get to work 

[ukica]

You may not be flexible but your horse is   

Lovely photos...

here are 2 short VERY vids of mine for you as requested:

jump

walk

[Belbe]

nyaw!!! so cute!!! and all laid back and cool like chopin! mahn, I love it when horses are sure of themselves and completely trust us as well

and yeah, my cousin (the only other rider at the yard) keeps drooling over hoow flexible Chopin is! and really, the first times i lunged him free he was completely stiff and turned outwards! as though and tense as a bow string! I have never seen a horse gain flexibilty so fast! might it be because he's a child or is it just genetics? I sure remmeber that at gymnastic lessons I learnt to splay my legs 180º in no time at all when I was a kid. These days I've been training for 5 months and still miles from it!  (kindda reminds of my mare that lost all her flexibility tween my teacher's departure and the time I bought her, then I worked her for a year and she gained very little of it and then I broke my arm and now she's all stif again... oldies...  )