Columbus's Training Diary

For those of you who wonder why Wiola isn't writing any updates let me tell you, this is all because of Roise! My Connemara friend has landed herself some sort of lameness and is hiding the problem so well that she has to go the vet clinic (scary!) for further investigations.
As Wiola comes to my yard to teach My Feed Provider on Roise and one other servant who works for a friend of mine (the chestnut in nearby field), my schooling is somewhat put on hold. Not that I am complaining too much really ;)

Our today's session was very successful and I must say I am impressed with his improvement. I wouldn't say he is the cleverest of horses but he does try to understand and you can almost hear his brain cells working!

Getting ready: hmm, I think I spotted an unattended polo...



After the ride: all tired :)



I rode with some classical music in my ears today and it worked wonders. I seem to focus more when riding with music. It's almost as if the creative/feeling part of my brain gets switched off with double power.
We worked a lot on bending today and I asked him to flex his neck a lot both ways without drifting from the straight lines. He definitely improved on this since last time and didn't try to turn even once. His stiffer right side still need a lot more work than the left side.

Transitions were generally better too with more quality to downwards ones than at last session. I challenged him today with plenty of changes of rein across diagonals and half circles in trot and worked on him taking the outside contact.

He strongly evades me on the right rein which unfortunately is my weaker side and I don't progress there as much as I would wish. He still felt easier today than a fortnight ago so some messages must be getting through!

And some more pictures from today, all thanks to Helen who arrived just a minute before I was due to finish and snapped us coming back from the field :)








And this is what Columbus always does after I spend some time sponging him down:

Columbus felt a little stronger today than a fortnight ago and his winter coat is almost completely gone.
He was argumentative to start with but settled very quickly. I worked a lot on stretching his very stiff left side (unusually!). His left rein work is reasonably soft in comparison to the right rein work.
He coped well with 45 minutes workload and I will be increasing the amount of trot and canter we do as we go along.
For now, it is very much down to basics with major focus on suppleness and acceptance of the outside rein. There is a lot of horse to ride when you are on him and balancing his body around the corners and circles is a mega challenge!

It was great to see Helen and Columbus again today! The Big Man has rather substantial fatty deposits but is now back into systematic fitness regime and who knows we might even have a play with some local unaffiliated dressage tests once he muscles up and gets fitter.

He had a bit of a strop to start with but once over, he remembered everything we worked on last year and I was really pleased with him. He makes me work mega hard as he is so wide that he virtually eats the whole of the length of my legs (not that there is much to it anyway!) but after riding him any other horse seems narrow and easy ;) Riding Columbus feels like being sat on the top of a mountain!


We worked a lot on flexions and softeness in his mouth and I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how much he remembered and how well he coped with the workload. I am looking forward to the next schooling session in a fortnight.

Columbus seemed rather proud of himself and hopefuly enjoyed meeting his Personal Trainer again ;)))

There is a big chance Columbus and I will meet again very soon! He is now being put back into work after winter off and Helen is starting to walk him.
Stay tuned!