The Blahs
Dino has a case of the blahs.
After our fabulous ride on Friday, he has decided that dressage is Hard and Boring and that the end of the ring near the road is Weird and Scary and that he just does not want to participate in my activities of choice.
I did some jumping - a crossrail with a landing pole 9ft out - on Sunday, which piqued his interest and got him to flow forward and use himself, but yesterday for our flatwork he was just SO dead to my leg and crawling along that I didn't feel good about asking him to jump from an under-paced shuffle. He didn't give me much of an attitude, just slugged along and refused to give to the bit or bend or do anything but brace against me in every way possible.
Homeboy, you need to move forward before we can do fun things. Trust me on this.
Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate and things will start to dry up so I can take him out in the big fields down the road without tearing them up. I don't want to be that guy who rips up the neighbor's fields because I couldn't wait until they were dry. In the meantime, we'll try some lunging or round penning to mix things up a bit for the Dinosaurus, maybe even bust out the western tack for a change of pace.
Trail rides and XC schooling are so close I can taste them... hang in there, dude, it's almost time for the fun stuff!
Does he like poles? Maybe those would snap him out of boredom land? Also, this might be totally off base, but have you tried using poll flexions to get him to lighten up in front? With Pig, poll flexions are key to stopping him from using his neck against me and stiffening up. They keep him lighter in front, which makes it easier to boot him forward and through. All my reading of early Italian/French dressage development reminded me how useful this exercise can be!
ReplyDeleteHere, this is a pretty good article: http://www.artisticdressage.com/articles/flexions.html
DeletePoles are OK but not nearly as fun as jumps. Dino will do poles, but they require thinking about his feet, which is work, which is not fun. Jumping = Fun. He really would like to be trail riding/jumping all the time if it were up to him! I will definitely check out the article, you are always a deep well of dressage knowledge!
DeleteI have the blahs too Dino. Hang in there pony!
ReplyDeleteHold on Dino, life outside the ring (aka spring) is nearly here!
ReplyDeleteaww Dino! The fun things are so soon! You just have to wait a tiieeeny bit for them!
ReplyDeleteaww Dino i totally know the feeling!!
ReplyDeleteRies had the blahs too!
ReplyDelete