I still wasn't feeling very well yesterday so I didn't ride. However I did lunge him, and his manners couldn't have been better, but I think he was probably still a little tired from all his travelling as he was quite hard to keep moving. After about 20 mins on the lunge we worked for about another 20 mins in hand. This went much better than my previous attempts to work him in hand where he clearly had no idea what I was going on about. This time we managed to go in beautiful straight lines, some very nice shoulder in and leg yielding. However I was still having great trouble to get him to circle with quarters out. This is strange as I can do it easily when on board and I can get shoulder in on the ground. I could get him to yield his quarters on a very small circle but with anything bigger than about 10 meters I simply couldn't get them out. I'm going to have to think about this one. We then moved onto spanish walk and as ever this was very good, I don't think it was as impressive or as athletic as when Freddie did it with him but not bad for a start.
I was feeling a bit better so rode!! YAY! I arrived at the yard and he looked so calm and settled it was lovely to see. Apparently he'd been kicking the stable door rather a lot yesterday but had been quiet today. He and Clover have the biggest stables I have ever seen. They are a beautiful pair of foaling boxes. Actually the yard generally is beautiful and so well run. The horses all seem very calm and happy. Here's a link with lots of pics for those who'd like to see what it's like there - Hurston Dressage and Eventing
Here's his view from the stable of the lovely big school, so he's got things to look at all day, including some rather impressive dressage horses so I hope he's paying attention.
Xaile really is a dream horse. I lunged him for about 5 mins before I got on. Then off we went. It started well because I could get on. This may sound silly, but I have very stiff knees and my hunter, Clover, is 16.3hh and that is a long way up. Xaile is nearer 15.3hh and it is such a relief to get on without a struggle. I thought I'd have a go riding him in his portuguese pelham as I have been riding him in a double bridle so far and have noticed that he's not terribly keen on the snaffle rein. He seemed much happier in this- his head was much stiller and less tilted so I think I'll alternate between this and a plain snaffle for a few days till he's settled with my hands in a snaffle and then back to the double bridle. I know that I don't carry my hands as well as Freddie and I expect that I'm not very good at differentiating between the two reins.
Anyway he was beautifully straight on the right rein today. I was really concentrating on keeping my weight even, if you look back a few posts to the videos of the pdd you'll see that my weight is very badly to the left, this is since I broke my right leg last year and I got into the habit of putting too much weight in my left stirrup when hunting as my right leg really hurt. It doesn't hurt any more and it's just habit. I concentrated really hard on this today and I think as a result Xaile found it easier to go straight. In fact I think I may have gone a too far the other way as the quarters came in occasionally on the left rein! We did lots of trot canter trot transitions as I think I need to get my aids quieter as he tends to do a bit of a leap into canter at the moment, but after a few transitions I was beginning to work out what was required.
After about half an hour I was coughing and spluttering a bit so I decided to get off and do a little in hand and today the spanish walk was really spectacular and much smoother, I manged about 3 steps without stopping which is the most I've managed on my own so far. The next thing I need to work out is how to get both legs going together- I think it may require more manual dexterity that I have, but we'll see.
I'm so excited about learning more about this remarkable little horse.
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