I have some lovely pictures for you all today!
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| This is Harry's beautiful jaquima! |
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| Sleepy Harry is sleepy. |
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| A close up of the shank of his bit...I should've taken a picture of the port, but I forgot. Notices the double reins! |
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| Our very first saddle. It's from Colombia and is perfect for training. |
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| Harry wondering why I'm taking a picture of his butt. This is the so-called "fruit basket" a.k.a rear end collector |
So as you can tell, I did in fact use the training saddle and the fruit basket on Harry today, hoping that it would get him a little more collected and remind him that he can't just string out like a Quarter Horse (nothing against them, though!) This is the first time that Harry has been very energetic at a longe in a while, since he's pretty pokey, which is okay with me because I'm not getting pulled around. But he was actually very good and responsive.
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| My brother and Nina exploring. |
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| Brie peeking between the fence while she's eating. |
He was a little stiff in this direction, but we worked at it the entire ride and he eventually loosened up.
Look at that adorable sashay!
Now here you can see that he is really collected. He ended up working very nicely. I was able to keep a loose rein on him after the warm up and he was happily snorting along. He stayed pretty collected the entire ride, but he tap danced a little. We didn't work on largo, since we're trying to collect the corto before we can extend the largo at the same time. He was a very good boy and really gave me all he had today. He was definitely listening to me, as his hears were facing towards me the entire ride. He was responding well to my leg and to my reins and while he tried to get away a little bit with his head, after a few quick corrections he settled back like a charm.
Afterwards, we went out exploring without the fruit basket. Once he walked over that little ditch he calmed right down.
We even got to walk near the pond again! So proud of him. Now for some adorable shots of Brie in between bursts of partaking in her favorite activity: eating.
Afterward we came inside, I rode Taco really quickly because he kept pulling towards the door for Jane, so after he calmed down and was able to walk past the doors without wanting to run out back to his stall, I got off and let him go into the stable. Then everybody got a nice, thorough bath and tail scrubbing. Of course, everyone was dirty within 5 minutes, but what can you do.
This is the first time ever I see that "fruit basket" -thing.. Is it common to use those and what does it actually do?
ReplyDeleteHa I think only my close circle of friends call it a fruit basket because of a joke one of our friends made about it a while back. It's actually called a rear end collector. It basically just lays on their butts to remind them that they are supposed to be engaging their rear end and remind them that they aren't supposed to be all stretched out and loose, but rather collected and as they get used to being collected (with or without the basket) they get more relaxed and it becomes second nature. We've only used this on Harry and Nina because not every Paso will go through the lengthened out lazy stage of training, so it's definitely not for everyone, but it is extremely helpful. Thanks for the great question!
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