Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Where It All Goes Wrong

The past couple of posts included videos that showed Jet reaching for the contact, relatively straight, and pretty through in the three working gaits.  Not perfect, but pretty acceptable.

Now to show where it all goes wrong.  The first part of the video in canter left is fine and then we start the big trot serpentine.  Right around the first change of direction you see the problem.  Jet looks at something in the woods, raises his head, and I shorten my reins and put my elbows forward.  Notice that bulging in the wrong way neck?  The dropped back and behind the vertical frame?  Instead of shortening my reins I needed to ride him forward to the contact and have him reach into the bridle.  You know, stay connected from the hind legs, through the back, to a reaching contact.  Always.

I did correct myself pretty quickly, put my elbows by my sides, and pushed him forward onto a bit longer rein by the end of the clip, but this example of inversion gets to the root of our problems.  We must have consistent correct connection to start playing with collection and my elbows and core are two of the keys to the kingdom.

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