Showing posts with label Marijke de jong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marijke de jong. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

Windy weather

Not ridden in a few days, but back in the School with Remy this morning.
It's been windy for a few days too and today was no different. It's not the best weather to school a youngster (or any horse for that matter), but Remy, apart from wanting to keep his eye on the little wood, was pretty attentive.
I started with a little lunge session, I've been doing this recently just to warm him up and get him bending and relaxing. It's an M de J kind of session, first at walk asking for relaxation and even bend and then at trot trying to keep the same looseness and relaxation. There's not much power there, in fact it's quite a slow, underpowered trot, but it's working for Remy as he's starting to stretch and let go.
When I got on he was soft in his mouth immediately and we did some walk work including shoulder-in to counter shoulder-in on the circle, shoulder-in down the long side, a little travers and some reinback.
We then worked on trot transitions, some were good, some not so good, but all were responsive and we're heading in the right direction.
I've  also been thinking about his saddle. I'm using it with a high wither suber pad, ensuring distribution of weight and that it won't cause him any problem, but I would really like to have a good saddle fitter to come and assess him. That may be easier said than done here in france, but I'll look into it.  Having high withers and a curvy back will, I think, make him tricky to fit and I want to get it right.
I'm quite tempted by the new Heather Moffett flexible tree saddle, I'd just like to be able to try one first.