A Day Of Firsts...

[thecatsmother]

Up `til now in our flatwork we have been mostly working on getting Chocky's muscles and body (and brain of course!) mature and strong, and he pretty consistently works happily and calmly, forward, rhythmical and softly on the bit. When I ride him it's been all about transitions (lots and lots!), straightness (both in straight lines and on a circle) and  rhythm, with a bit of shoulder in and leg yield, rein back and TOF in the mix too. So now, it would seem, according to SueC, that it is time to take Chocky to the next stage, and get him using that big arse in some new ways and learn a little bit more about sideways  :lol:
 
So, Chocky and I did our first travers yesterday  

Not together though, I hasten to add (green horse green rider and all that). No, SueC taught Chocky, and SueC's horse Sunny taught me  :lol:

First, I rode Sunny. He's a complete star, so utterly responsive to weight aids that as soon as I did all of what Sue said (instead of getting one body part or other right but not all at once  :lol: ), he offered an almost audible sigh of relief and traversed his way nicely down the school. He also helped me improve my shoulder-in and leg yield, and we got some nice lengthened trot strides too   Didn't quite manage half pass, but then we did have an audience (which we would have been heading directly towards) which was somewhat distracting, and Sunny's been working on his canter with Sue recently and was by this stage repeatedly asking me if I wanted to canter too?    :lol: . But "getting" travers was good enough for me thanks  

Then Sue got on Sunny just to remind/reassure him that he wasn’t going completely doolally and that he could indeed do halfpass very nicely indeed, thanks

And then, after Sue gave Mark a short jumping lesson on Chocky (he's been back for 2 weeks hence me not having time to post much     ), she hopped on Chocky to teach him what Sunny had taught me. Watching Chocky learning new things with Sue was a lovely sight .  He was trying his heart out . It was like Chocky was asking "do you want me to put my bum here and then step like so? Aunty Sue" and Sue was with her riding saying "not quite, nearly,..too much,..just,..about,..there and then of course out loud it was "Good Boy" and a treat and a very proud looking horsey   (and owners too… )

It'll probably be a little while before Chocky and I are safe to be let loose on travers together though....      

[Heather]

Well done Lesha!

Sounds like Choccy is progressing nicely!

Heather

[pintopiaffe]

OH! VERY Big steps! For both!

I find Travers (haunches-in, right?) to be my absolute hardest movement.  So to me, this is an enormous event for you!!!

[cptrayes]

Well done Sue Chocky and Lesha. I have a long backed horse and for him travers is a doddle. But with a more well proportioned horse like Chocky and Sunny, it's harder to get, so well done all of you.

C.  

[SueC]

I find Travers (haunches-in, right?) to be my absolute hardest movement.

I was going to reply that I find travers/haunches-in left, much harder than right, it's one of my stickies....  Then I realised you meant to confirm that travers is haunches in!  :lol:  :lol:  Yep.

Lesha did really well, as did the chocks.  

Will need refining, obviously, but it was good fun and I'm really pleased to be able to start upping the ante a bit with Chocky now.   B)   The boy still goes haunches up (not bucking, croup high   ) from time to time as he's still growing and probably will for a little while longer yet, but he's in proportion at the moment, so I thought it worth a try to see how he goes.  He's getting lovely and springy in his steps now too.     I haven't ridden him since October IIRC, so it was good to feel the improvement and strength he has developed since then.  B)

Well done!

SueC