Lisa and I have decided to keep Roanie's feet firmly planted on the ground until next year. No jumping for us, Roanie gets too hot and tense and we lose valuable days of dressage trying to calm her down again and get her focused. At first it was a hard decision to make, because honestly, jumping is too much fun. However, after two weeks of just doing dressage with Roanie, I know without a doubt that it was the best decision I could have made. She has made so much progress in such little time that I frequently feel the need to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Every week she spends a few days on the lunge line, with side reins set to a consistent contact, just so that she can become more comfortable and confident with my hands being there. This is making a world of difference with Roanie accepting the contact and becoming steady in the bridle. It has tremendously improved her ability to stretch downward too. Without the extra weight of a rider on her back she is much more willing to really stretch her topline. We have now installed buttons on her so that she understands when my inside leg is on her head should be down. It's so exciting!
We're becoming consistent.
Our next big training challenge is having her keep the contact during a downward transition. To begin addressing this problem, I've started to ask her to come down to a walk on a 20 meter circle, if her head comes up, I close my inside leg and ask her to go forward again. It's like an exaggerated half halt. When I gently push her forward with my inside leg she reengages her hind end, re balances herself, and puts her head down. Then I gently ask for walk again, only allowing the walk if she does it softly in the bridle. Every day she makes improvements, every day it takes less and less attempts to get her into the walk properly. It's also extremely exciting to see her lips get frothy and know that she is enjoying her job and keeping her jaw relaxed and chewing.
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