Columbus's Training Diary

It was such a beautiful, quiet day that I decided to ride Columbus throughout entire session on work on some issues his owner has with him.
We started with 15 minutes walk and frequent transitions walk to halt. He was playing with the bit and snatching on it as he did with the owner so I told him off for that and immediately put a leg on to keep him occupied. After a few times he barely opened his jaws.
The most difficult part with Columbus is to make him bend and flex and so we went through many, many circles and changes of rein through half a circle and after 10 minutes or so he really softened and felt nice in the end of the reins.
The entire session was mainly concentrated on transitions and he found it quite tiring. I was pleased with his responses though, especially in the middle of the session, when he came rounder and very good off the leg. We managed some decent canter work with frequent canter to trot and back to canter transitions. Columbus finds it difficult to balance himself well in canter within dressage arena patterns and as a result it is quite difficult to ride him. I insisted he tried though as if we don't practise he will never get better.
After the canter work I again worked on walk to halt transitions as he can be quite bargey and stubborn in them. Canter usually makes him significantly heavier on the forehand but transitions bring him back and lighter again.
I was quite impressed by some of the middle session trot work when he really worked forward and into the bit, round and soft. If only I could make him go like that for 40 minutes instead of 10! I can't expect too much from him though as he only gets 2-3 hours of exercise a week.
Having said that his form is considerably better than in the beginning of the summer and although he was tired in the end he still felt happy and walked briskly.