I've only ridden Magic once since my last post due to more snow. We only messed about in a field and he got very very excited but did work nicely for a little bit although he did refuse to lead with his left leg in canter until he'd settled down a bit. Even though getting him to round was a little difficult he had plenty of impulsion.


Today I lunged him as he's been kept in for a while due to the snow as I thought he might have a little too much energy. I was right. Magic spent the first 5 minutes cantering then the next few minutes bouncing around before settling down to do some really really nice work in his pessoa (which was fitted after his broncing session). As soon as it was fitted he relaxed and worked properly with no fighting and even did some nice stretching on both reins which is showing that his back and neck muscles are getting stronger. The imbalance of his muscles can be clearly seen when he's lunged in the pessoa. There is a lot of muscle definition on the right side of his neck but next to none on his left. Hopefully with regular pessoa sessions that will start to even up.

I've hardly ridden over the last week which means Magic is enjoying a bit of a holiday. It's either been raining, too icy or I've been busy with one thing or another. I think I've schooled him once and lunged once. He's going very nicely when lunged, holding himself constantly and working over his back and he seems to be getting more even on both reins now which is good. I think the stretches I've been doing with him in his stable have helped a fair bit. Plus he enjoys doing them as he gets treats. Ridden work is still a bit off. Mostly trot work, walk and canter are improving all the time. He's progressed to being able to do a 10 metre half circle to the middle of the school, do a few strides of trot then pick up canter again to change the rein while getting the correct leads. We also tried walk to canter but we aren't quite there yet. He's still doing about 5 or 6 strides of trot before cantering and he's running a little but the canter he does do after isn't too bad and definitely not rushed or flat. We only tried walk to canter for about 10 minutes as I could tell he was getting a little stressed at not being able to do what I asked. The ears were going back and he was swishing his tail a fair bit so I left it and let him stretch in trot to cool off. The main thing is that he tries hard.

Magic has been very happy in his field the last couple of days. The two herds have merged while the drainage is improved in the lower field so he has a few new friends to play with. Yesterday he went out like a rocket, galloped up to his field gate and got bored when he had to wait for me to catch up so did a nice extended trot up and down the fence with a bit of bouncy canter and a few bucks added in for good measure. When I got to the gate he bounced around me before waiting patiently while I opened it wide enough for his to get through then galloped off flat out while throwing in enormous fly bucks just because he can. It's actually quite worrying seeing how big he can buck.

Today he was a little more sedate until his field mates joined him. Then he had a good rug pulling and rearing session with his friends and when they got bored he reared and bounced around on the spot for a while before settling down to eat. What's really nice to see is him actually cantering when he plays now rather than just extending his trot to keep up. Also his canter is now roughly the same pace as the other horses so he can canter along with them rather than trotting. It made me happy to watch him.

Before I start any more serious work with him again I'll be getting his saddle looked at and most likely reflocked as he's developed a hard lump on the left side of his back about half an inch away from his spine. He sometimes gets similar lumps when ridden in the summer due to him getting a little hot under his saddle pad but that hasn't been happening recently.

Can't or won't do it?

Finally got back on board today after around a week off. Just 20 minutes in a still partly frozen arena but better than nothing. Did roughly the same warm up as the last time I rode Magic but included more rein back as he was argumentative about it. Tried a few walk pirouettes as he could do them in the summer but then forgot how when he learn't to turn on the forehand both ways. Pretty typical of Magic to unlearn one thing when he learns something new. He's always been like that, doesn't usually take him long to remember he can do something.

Today he forgot to work in an outline in trot, or he was refusing to. I'm still not sure which but no matter how much I asked or in what way I asked he said no 90% of the time. I did get a few strides of trot in an outline but nothing compared to what he was giving me a couple of months ago. It could be down to a few things, he's either tweaked something in his back again, he's fighting against his drop noseband (even though it's not tight) or it's because the last two nights he's been fed from a haynet as someone else has been looking after him over the weekend which would involve him using the huge muscles under his neck that I've been working to get rid of for months. He can still work in an outline when working in his Pessoa so I'm not convinced that he's tweaked something. I thought it may be that his back isn't strong enough to lift with me on board but he's worked well with me riding before so I don't think that's the reason. Next time I ride I'll put his crank noseband on without the flash to see if he'll relax more.

I'm praying it's not a saddle issue too, my current saddle was/is my birthday/early Christmas present and it's the saddle I've wanted for Magic for the last 3 years. His newly improved canter work and almost consistent walk outline makes me think it isn't saddle related though.

Today Magic's canter was even better than the last time we schooled. It seemed to be even more relaxed, balanced and much slower. I've watched some old videos and it feels like it would look a thousand times better if I videoed it now.

Touch wood his bending to the left has improved slightly too.

Snow

Well Magic and me spent our whole week either lunging or schooling so we'd improved by the time it came to doing our dressage tests on the Sunday. We ended up not going. It had been -8°C over night and the diesel in the lorry had frozen so it wouldn't start. At least it gives us more time to work on things before the next competition in January.

We had the best canter we've had yet (in the area) on the Saturday though. We were sharing the area with another horse so schooled on a circle to stay out of the way. Magic's outline was a bit hit and miss but he was really forward going which was nice. Warmed up doing rein back, turn on the forehand, loads of transitions and squares where I'd collect him in the corners get him really stepping under. Asked for canter after doing this in walk and trot and he just popped into it. He was much more balanced and steady than the day before, not quite sure what had changed since then but hopefully it's a permanent change.

Unfortunately we've had a fair bit of snow and the temperature hasn't risen to more than 1°C or 2°C in the day so we can't hack out and the school is pretty solid too. Something always manages to happen when we've made a bit of progress!

Where to start... We've had some fairly terrible schooling sessions lately during which Magic totally forgot he could bend left and also seemed incapable of working in an outline in trot even for a few seconds. Canter on the other hand has improved quite a lot so I can't really complain.

I've been riding Magic in an almost constant long and low frame even when hacking to help build his top line muscles. He finds it very very easy in walk but he's not quite strong enough to work long and low in trot just yet and his first reaction when going in to trot is to stick his head in the air. I can get him to lower it again but only if I almost totally drop the contact for a bit and ask again. He's pretty much the same when lunged. He'll work in a fairly low frame in trot but if he gets his head up I have to bring him back to walk and ask for trot again when he's relaxed his neck. He finds it much easier on the right rein than the left.

I have 3 days left to prepare for dressage on Sunday. A walk and trot (that I still can't remember) and prelim 7. Magic still needs his mane thinned out and more importantly I need to make sure I can plait. Also his legs are only clipped to his knees and hocks as he hates being clipped so I'm hoping that my tiny trimmers will take some more hair off so I can just leave his feather to make him look more presentable.

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and that Magic doesn't buck or rear and I can remember both tests by then and that I don't forget them while we're in the arena!

Dressage in the dark

So it seems the key to a well behaved, forward going pony is schooling in the dark.

I'm very lucky that there is a floodlit school at the yard as Magic seems to go best when the fields are so dark that he can no longer see what's going on.

After a quite frustrating half hour last week where all he wanted to do was canter at speed and scary angles around corners it was nice to have a calm pony. I rode in spurs for the first time in almost a year (apart from 5 minutes when we first moved home where he clearly wasn't happy with them that day) and he accepted that I was wearing them and after a few swishes of his tail listened to exactly what I was saying.

I asked for lots of rein back, turn on the forehand and leg yield as a warm up again and then asked him to work round almost straight away. If I let him have his head to start with he thinks he can go the whole half hour with his head in the air. We had some lovely trot work and probably the best medium we've had in the school so far. He's usually not thinking forward enough or using himself enough so it's something we've been working on while hacking where he's naturally forward going. Sometimes his transition to medium is so powerful I momentarily get left behind.

After lots of rein back his canter tends to improve a fair bit and slows down enough that he's not motorbiking around corners in the school. He's still better on his left rein than his right but that's understandable as he went months not being able to canter on the right lead due to tight muscle in his back. He's still a lot weaker that side which also shows up as not being able to hold himself on the left rein while bending so his nose pokes a little but he's improving all the time.

I've also been working a lot on our canter while hacking and We've been making the most of the softer ground and having lots of long canters around the outside of big fields. There are a couple within ten minutes ride from the yard and they are doing wonders for Magic's fitness.

I have noticed that I'm going to need to give him his third clip in as many months by about mid November. He was very very sweaty by the time we got back to the yard and he hasn't even regrown much of his full clip yet!

I've mostly hacked Magic out since our lesson, in fact I think he's only set foot in the school maybe 5 times since then and I think only two of those sessions were proper flat work sessions. I've lunged him in his fake Pessoa a couple of times and we had a short jumping session (in a borrowed saddle) where he didn't get excited and didn't pull me into the jumps, cue me worrying. He always pulls me into jumps even if he's going to stop when he gets to them.

We did a hunter trial the day after which I didn't need to worry about, there was no sign of bucking or rearing. The only problem was that he still wasn't pulling me into jumps and when we do cross country this is totally unlike Magic. I always have no breaks and I like it that way. Instead he was looking at every single jump when he got to it, again really unlike him. He always looks at the first two or three than realises what he's supposed to do and then tanks off round the course. He's fairly fit so that wasn't the problem either.

I upped his feed the day after and so far he seems a little more awake when working.

Our last flat work session was interesting. I haven't schooled him properly for a few weeks and he seemed to have forgotten a lot of what he knew before. With Magic this means he's trying to find out what he can get away with not doing. Picked up my schooling whip and he was instantly more willing for forwards without even touching him with it. He even felt the need to do laps of the school at a very fast canter while i had no breaks so I decided to do some rein back and turn on the forehand to get him focused. After that we did some nice collected and medium trot work before having a much steadier canter on each rein.

He does seem to have forgotten that he can bend to the left but hopefully it won't be too long before he realises he can do it. His back is due for a check up so I'll be asking why he finds it hard to relax his neck on that rein both ridden and on and lunge.

Lastly here is a video still of Magic doing extended trot. Just need to find the right buttons so i can ask for it now!

The lesson

I've got mixed feelings on how it went.

On video it doesn't look half as bad as it felt. Magic had it set in his mind that he wasn't going to work well right from the start and it wasn't until the day after that i knew why. When the instructor adjusted his tack at the start she raised the bit in his mouth by one hole on the left side and two holes on the right side, no idea why, must have been a mistake. She also tightened his noseband and flash. Magic is the sort of pony that is really sensitive about his tack. He also likes to be able to open his mouth a little even with a flash fitted. After the first 5 minutes he was resisting so she suggested i used draw reins loosely for the lesson.

We worked mostly on his trot, getting him to keep a good rhythm, bend through his body and leg yield. I found that she had us working quicker in trot than I had been doing with him and because of this he found it difficult to bend properly when normally he doesn't. The exercises we did for leg yielding were good and Magic seemed to improve a fair bit. She also complimented his trot which I was happy about as she has a yard full of warmbloods.

I've just hacked him the last two days as he worked hard in the lesson. After dropping his bit back down to where he likes it he's willingly softened in walk and trot.

Nothing exciting

Not really anything to update on, I've only hacked since my last update and as I've sold my saddle and can't afford to replace it as Magic needs hay for the winter I'm not sure how often I'll update until I can eventually get another one. Magic will still be lunged in his pessoa, free schooled and loose jumped to keep him ticking over and maybe schooled bareback every now and then but as I nearly slip off the side in anything other than walk I'm not sure how often that will happen.

I was planning on doing a one day event at the start of October but doubt I'll have a new saddle by then. Luckily I can post my current saddle after Sunday so hopefully I can still have a dressage lesson with everyone else that day.

I managed to give him his first clip of this winter yesterday and it actually went quite well. Still needs sedaline and a huge haynet as a distraction but he's getting better every time. Managed to do his whole body and most of his legs which is a massive improvement on snapping the bailer twine/lead rope as soon as I turn the clippers on.

A bit of a catch up

So I got a bit lazy yet again and didn't do an update on Magic.

In the last month we've both moved home which means he's back at the yard we both love. He settled straight away which meant I could crack on with his schooling on a decent surface for the first time in nearly 2 years.

Our first session was a few days after we arrived with another horse being ridden in the school. He managed to concentrate and do some nice work with a fairly consistent outline but as usual when someone is watching my riding went to pieces which meant canter was a bit of a rushed mess.

The second schooling session was in my parents back garden, it's only big enough to do smallish circles but it was good to get him working nicely somewhere new with things to distract him.

We then had another schooling session in the school which went a bit wrong. I used my spurs to help get him to canter as soon as I asked but he took offence to them and just got faster and faster which meant he motorbiked the corners and we both got annoyed.

After that he had his one and only pessoa session since we moved. He really surprised me with how balanced his canter looked compared to a few months ago and he even worked round over his back instead of holding himself up with the muscles under his neck.

Today we had the best schooling session we've ever had. After seeing how nicely he can canter without me on board i wanted to concentrate on getting him to strike off when I ask and I wanted to work on how I ask, mainly to stop myself getting tense because I'm causing him to rush by trying to hard to keep him in canter. Today i went for the 'quality not quantity' approach and by the end of the session he was cantering much more balanced and steady without falling in on corners or motorbiking around them. He even softened a little towards the end. I finally felt like we've gotten somewhere.

Also jumped for the first time in months in preparation for a mini one day event at the start of October. Hopefully he can keep himself under control so we have no bucking.

Oops... sort of forgot to update this over the last few weeks.

Magic and me have had some awful schooling sessions which started after i started using a new style wintec dressage saddle on him. It really looked like it fit him nicely unlike the old style wintecs and the Isabell but cleary he just has something against them and just will not relax in them. I think it's to do with how wide the head of the tree is on them, he only likes trees with a super wide head. That added to not liking bits with a mouth piece bigger than 12mm and only accepting double ended elastic girths i have a very picky pony.

I schooling him in his jumping saddle a few days ago and he went lovely, so much more relaxed and stretched down to take the contact when i had loose reins. The last two days he's been lunged in his pessoa.

Good and bad week

Schooling has been a bit hit and miss lately. Magic works really well with loose draw reins and can be almost as good without but he also has days where he doesn't want to work properly at all. We had two horses being lunged while in the school one day which he found quite distracting but still did some nice work. Another day we had another horse being ridden while he was lunged in his pessoa, he wasn't so distracted that day and worked nicely.

Yesterday we had a terrible session caused by 5 days off and my bad mood. This resulted in a stressed pony that i shouldn't have tried to school in the first place. A better option would have been free schooling or taking him for a hack. Won't be making that mistake again.

"I don't want to be a dressage pony!"

After having many good sessions using the pessoa Magic decided today that all he wanted to do was canter round with his head in the air. Rather than argue with him and put him off working in it totally i took it off and let him loose to have a play in the school instead.

The first thing he did was take himself over the two jumps set up along one side of the school. He did this several times on both reins even when i put one of the jumps up. I think someone had swapped him today. Usually when i try to get him to loose jump he'd rather run out then buck giving me a good view of his back feet.

He also let me bath him today. Every other time i've tried i've ended up wetter than him.

History of Magic's schooling...

... or lack of.

When i first bought Magic i was told he'd done pony club activities but soon realised he hadn't even seen a pole on the ground before not that it bothered me, i'd never had a riding lesson before. I'd probably ridden 15 times from the time i was 4 until i bought Magic. Bit silly really but i had the money and i'd spent years reading up on everything i could about horse care so even if i couldn't ride very well at least i knew how to look after one.

After a few months i had a couple of awful, pointless lessons on him which consisted mainly of me trying to pull him away from the gate of the school. I haven't had one since although at some point i would like to have some lessons on him.

I didn't canter him for almost a year and when i was finally brave enough and it was a bit of a disaster at first. I'm pretty sure all four legs were doing anything but canter. He then mastered cantering with his front legs while still trotting with his back legs. It was probably another year and a half before i could actually ask him to canter and get it without having to have another horse in front. At this point he still wouldn't canter while being ridden in a school or while lunged. Even when playing in the field he'd extend his trot rather than canter even when other horses were galloping.

He can canter on the lunge ok now, he's still unbalanced and he's better on the left rein than the right. Ridden is pretty much the same. He struggles with right lead canter too. When lunging in his pessoa he finds it easier to stretch over his back and work low on the right rein but after a long warm up he will relax and work over his back on the left rein too. Since using the pessoa he can work long and low pretty consistantly in walk while ridden, trot is more difficult for him. He's spent the last 4 years with his back tensed and his head in the air supported by the huge muscles that are on the underside of his neck. He's a lot better than he was and has moments where he'll work nicely.