Lacey's Evaluation Videos

I have a new mare in for training, her name is Lacey and she arrived here from California almost a month ago.  She is an extremely well bred Hanoverian warmblood (but has the thoroughbred brain which we love) and is a stunning athlete.  She was purchased to be a broodmare because of her athleticism and bloodlines, but the buyer/current owner wants her broodmares to also be trained so that if for some reason they need to be sold they have a future as riding horses.  So Lacey is here in training for a while as preparation for breed inspections as well as to determine her training level.

When I did her evaluation ride I did notice that she can get heavy on the forehand, which is very typical for a warmblood.  Smaller circles and transitions help her to rebalance and get off her forehand.  It's also critical that I keep a very soft feel of the reins - if the rider braces she does as well and gets heavier and heavier as well as faster and faster.  As long as she knows I'm not going to pull on her or allow her to pull on me she is a lovely ride!  Because of this I'm also only riding her in a very gentle eggbutt snaffle bit so that she doesn't have any reason to be tense or brace on the metal in her mouth.

Here is the first video, "1 Flatting"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuSdPf8YmAg&t=217s

In this we do a little walk/trot/canter, and towards the end of the video I start warming her up over crossrails and she's pretty relaxed.  I stop her after each jump, this is to help her stay calm and quiet, as well as rebalance herself.  In the video you can hear me talking to her and sighing loudly.  The loud exhales are to teach her "breathing halts" so that she begins to cue better off of my weight shifts and breathing.  Once she knows these, the reins and bit become more fashion than function.  I want her to get the idea that she can slow down and relax while jumping so there are some long pauses for praise and cookies.

The second one is "2 Begin Xrails"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq5_H04xVoc

In this video of the same ride she gets a little bit rushy through the line of small jumps, but she comes around well and listens to me when I direct her to try again in a more civilized manner.  Throughout the ride I flat her first, then take her over small crossrails, then I go down to ground poles and just focus on getting her to relax and think through it.  

The last video is "3 Finish Ground Poles" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmLwdHiV8d8

As the ride goes on, Lacey is expecting the jumps to get bigger and faster.  To combat this, I'm totally changing it up from what she expects by making the tasks smaller and easier as the ride progresses.  This gets her to think through the questions rather than just expecting the ride to follow a pattern of "progressively bigger and faster". By the end she is really thinking and you can see that she visibly relaxes and slows down when I loosen the reins in the gymnastic.

 

 

These videos were taken a couple weeks ago, and Lacey has made some great progress since then.  Others watching her say that during her rides you can almost see her brain kick in, and then she starts to say, "OH!  You mean I just have to relax, slow down, and do these tiny jumps?  I don't have to work so hard?  I can do THAT!"

 

This coming week we'll be getting more current video of her riding, free jumping, and conformation photos.  She's a fun mare and a pleasure to have around!