Classical foundation training continued..

Our first aim in August was just to keep him going forward with good pace, long and low. This meant that we had to run with him quite often and touch his hind quarters with the whip. Training sessions were simple. If we lunged, then it was some 5-10min of walking, then 10-15min of trotting, change of rein and the same thing. We kept at various circle sizes; sometimes it was nearly the whole school (20x40m), mostly 20x20m, and occasionally smaller. We very rarely stood still in the middle of a circle, on the contrary, our style is to walk or run with the horse. This way it is also easy to vary the size of the lunging circle and avoid any extra stress to the horse's feet that staying always in a small circle could bring about. If we rode, we always lunged first to warm him up. It was a shorter repeat of the above, first walking then trotting on both hands. Aim to keep the pace and ask him to stretch. Then when riding, it was just as simple: first walking for at least 10min changing rein every now and then, and then trotting for at least 25-30min changing rein at times. Aim again was to stretch long and low, and keep the pace, nothing else. We also stayed in a big oval in the school neverminding the corners. No transitions or stops, just pure walk or pure trot.

This actually improved him relatively quickly. We had to encourage him to move quite a lot at first, but gradually we did less and less. By mid September I was in tears one day when, after 3 days of only lunging, I rode and suddenly felt a new power in his stride. What happened was that he lifted his back for the first time when I was riding. Now that was a revelation! By that time I had sent a third submission to Will for evaluation of our lunging with chambon. The message from that was to keep on mainly lunging, and I agreed. I had just gotten a taster of how much better our boy was going with just 3 days of pure lunging in a row… So, there, in mid September, started our more coordinated training. We were now lunging the week and riding in the weekends. This became our standard for the coming months. (he did have a day off per week as well! And some easier lunge days in only a head collar... ;) 

Lunging became as intricate as riding, demanding the same amount of concentration, observation, timing, and actions. I kept on watching his footfalls, urging him on if he did not overtrack in walk or nearly track up in trot. If he did not start to work over his back in due time, I would bring him in a slightly smaller circle pushing him on, and when he responded with a good stretch I would release the pressure and walk him into a bigger circle.

October went in similar style, and we felt his power grow every week. Next submission to Will was a compilation of ourwork in October. The improvement was very clear alright.

In November we started to include other work into our training. This was some leg yielding while riding, pole work and the occasional canter work-out. I adopted Will’s advice to leg yielding since it was so very logical. And it did work. Our Teddybear now had enough muscle that he could yield with much more ease than he had before. And since I also had a different attitude to it, it became an easy task. By no means were the yields perfect, but they were a lot nicer than what we had done before. I kept concentrating on the pace, rhythm, maintaining stretch, and my position. And it was a bonus, if our boyo floated off sideways.

With pole work, I would set one pole down and then first walk him over it and then trot over it. Again concentrating on pace, rhythm, stretch. And of course aiming in the middle of the pole. And canter work as Will presented it; short canters, and returning to a good working trot with a stretch in between. Thus making sure that the trot works perfectly before asking for another canter transition. 

Photo from video (27th Oct). Clear difference to the preivous ones.
He uses his back more, bellymuscles are in use, lower neck muscles relaxed,
and he is stretching his neck a lot better from the shoulder.
In short, he has a lot more topline here already.