Progress

I decided to have a look how our boy-o has changed since a bit over a year, when we started with full force with the classical foundation training. That is, if I could see a difference in our boy's going in pictures. The difference is very clear - like night and day - to me personally as I ride and exercise him, but it may not come across especially via the blog pictures. From the videos one can see the difference as well, although it can also be a bit more obscure.

But here you have some series of stills from the videos.
I selected the best going from the first video (Submission 1; S1)... so, this is the best he looked then... ouch.. :(

You can see from the lunging that he wasn't really working with anything. He was just shuffling his feet a bit. You can see how much he used the underside of his neck and how big a dip there was behind the saddle, since he was not using any of his back.
Ridingwise he was again just shuffling along, short stride, and I had to work very hard to get him moving at all. You see me especially in the last frame leaning horribly forward in trying to push him on... Rising to the trot was like getting up from a ditch. Of course I didn't realise any of this back then. The contrast has become obvious with the progress he has made.

And here then from the second submission (S2), filmed perhaps just about one week later.

Slightly better, but you can see that not much has changed. Just that I was driving him forward a lot more, so that he was actually starting to move somewhere! And also introduced the chambon into the work. You can see that now the upper neck muscles are starting to work when I'm riding him. Stride length is marginally improved, and there is a bit better flexion in the hocks. Dip in the back is now clearly to be seen in these stills...

And then the last photos from just  a couple days ago. Only riding photos since I warmed up him from the saddle this time.

I do hope that it is clear what has happened...

In case it is not, I have taken a couple photos of each and drawn some lines over him. Ok, the lines may smooth out things inevitably, but I have tried to follow the true body form as well as possible. You can see the originals anyways above.

Hocks are in fact flexing more nowadays. And there is a bit of air now as well; he is pushing upwards with his stride. The dip in the back is filling up, and you can see the difference of his form when he is using his topline. He has also more upper neck muscle and the neck is more evenly arched. Stride length increase is very obvious. He is far more toned in his body.

And some recent lunging work from 6th September 2014. To see some of the change in that as well.

The differences as I ride him are that he has far more power in his going, I feel his back pushing me off the saddle, length of stride is much longer (I can feel that especially in walk), the movement has become easier, I can feel that now he is starting to have some spring in his going, he is not leaning on the bit but stretching into it while carrying himself and me at the same time. While I still have to push him on and ask him to stretch down, he reacts quick and can do it easily.

We still have a long way to go! As you can see, he is not yet stretching fully while ridden. Therefore I think that it is still important to lunge at least as much as ride, since he is stretching better on the lunge and thus building his muscles more efficiently. And the better the topline muscles are the better the riding will be. However, I think that the better stretch under saddle will come soon.

I also start to feel more comfortable with the idea of popping on the chambon for riding in the school (btw. Never put chambon on when you are going out on a hack! or if there is any chance of serious stumbling, watch Will's video on correct chambon usage) and that will always make him more concentrated on lowering his head properly. That is, he is slowly but surely starting to loose his stumbling and slipping in the school. I also have realised that when he is properly warmed up under saddle, he stops stumbling! :D Fantastic! This has been very clear the past couple times I have been riding with him. So, maybe next time I'll pop on the chambon - albeit really loose... always be careful with these things.