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.