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| Did I mention he loves outside? |
His only real issue is that he's got the "warmblood spook" and needs more desensitization exercises. Really windy days in the ring, or when something in the indoor changes, seem to all be excuses for him to be very look-y and potentially spooky. So I need to add more desensitization training to his routine. Otherwise, he's mostly very consistent and doing well both on the flat and over fences. I have to remember that he's still young and green (will turn six in a couple of weeks!), so he's entitled to his baby antics from time to time. For a young horse he is generally very easy and I'm thankful for that.
On the flat, we're working on slowly shortening and raising his outline. We had a lesson with our dressage trainer a couple weeks ago and she loves where Sig is at and feels like we can as him to shorten up a little bit more, while maintaining the throughness and keeping his back up. This will be a slow progression, but even now I'm feeling like he's getting it, and it's just a matter of building his strength slowly.
We're also confirming/cleaning up his shoulder-in (tracking right is great, tracking left is hit/miss) and have introduced the haunches-in (travers). He's very smart and is picking up on these lateral movements very well, so I try to school them a little bit a couple times a week. He's so quick that doing the exercises too much quickly leads to him anticipating or getting upset, so it's a very fine balance. I'm also thrilled with how his canter is coming along on the flat as well - also focusing on him pushing forward from behind and stretching into the contact. That mentality has helped develop a very soft, adjustable canter that is way farther ahead than I thought we'd be there. I want to start doing some canter loops and eventually some counter-canter this spring, and start focusing on flying changes later this year. He has done a couple flying changes in the past, but we've tried to keep it to simple changes for now until we got more strength and balance in the canter.
Here's a video and some screenshots of that February dressage lesson. This was at the end of a pretty challenging lesson, so we lack some of the energy and push we had been enjoying earlier in the ride. I think it does show that he's very soft and elastic, and overall I am getting so excited about how he feels on the flat. Such a cool horse!
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| Asking for a little more elevation in the poll while maintaining push from behind |
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| Starting the stretch... |
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| ...stretching... |
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On the jumping side, nothing mind blowing to report. We're still trying to focus on keeping him soft and slow to the fences, as he jumps so much nicer from that. He has a tendency to rush and not necessarily be fast, but getting him to really "think" slow to/from the fence helps his jump so much, and he's so unbelievably simple to ride in that mindset. It really is like a switch flips in his brain (usually after he rushes through an exercise once or twice...) and then he sets himself back and gets soft and slow. Then he really is just a point and shoot ride. Here are some recent clips:
From Dec/Jan timeframe:
So, finally some video proof that Siggers is doing fantastic. I'm really looking forward to seeing how far we can develop him. He is just too damn cool.
I'm supposed to go TDY in May for two months, so if that is still happening amidst the COVID-19 stuff, then Sig will go back into full training with Ashley from May-June and I'll pick back up in July. I need to get back into decent shape, I've already put on noticeable weight with the quarantine and I'm not liking how I feel in the saddle. Blah.
Just to leave on a cute note...HOW ADORABLE IS HE???
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