Hehe...been there, showed that, got our own collection of ribbons! If Spyder had been born after the Sport Horse division was created for Arabians I have little doubt he would have been a big name National Champion and I would never have met him.targetsmom said:(FYI, Show Hack is suitability for dressage, and requires collected, normal and extended walk, trot and canter, plus hand gallop. Yes, that is ten gaits, each way of the ring).
I hope you plan to soon!RhineStone said:(I can't post the real photo because I don't own it.)
He has to drop his head a little in order to round up into the next gait so yes, technically preventing that will keep him in trot. That's why the Standardbred folks use overchecks! What I saw in some of those other photos though is that he doesn't seem to be getting enough rein support at that moment of greatest extension so he's falling forward and probably feels that he has to canter to "keep up" with himself. They also break because the work has become hard and he's definitely attempting something that represents the ultimate in physical effort so again, support him! Support, support, support. You don't want to block his energy or get hard on his mouth but consider the energy running through him to be like water in a dam- it is flowing very hard at that point and takes a strong wall to contain it and send it cycling back through the body instead of spilling out.RhineStone said:We are getting much better at extension (but only when HE decides to "turn it on") He had a really good pass in front of the judge in Turnout, but there were times during the other classes and esp. Town & Country that he wanted to pop a shoulder into a canter so I had to bring him down. Chad noticed that he drops his head before he does that, so maybe if I work on getting his head up (which is something I want to do anyway), we can forego the cantering, esp. when I don't want it.
I'm thinking particularly of what I see in this series of three photos, starting with 0992 and ending with 0994. There's a lot of energy and thrust there and he's pushing off his hind end very powerfully but that energy isn't being collected and balanced in his upper body. I like your fire hose analogy- I couldn't quite think of the right words to describe what I was picturing!RhineStone said:Thanks Leia, I'll have to go back and look at other photos and analyze that when I have more time to see what you are seeing. It's good to have another pair of eyes, especially when this is something I really want to master.
I hope he can do better than that!RhineStone said:Last year at Hickory Knoll, he got fifth gear for Chad in the Marathon. Alax did his first K in 4:35!
I think I see what you are seeing. I haven't collected him here, just let him trot on. I couldn't do that course at fifth gear because the show manangement decided to measure each vehicle and make the cones 35 cm wider than the widest vehicle in the division. For a Scurry course, they were a whole lot closer than when I walked them!I'm thinking particularly of what I see in this series of three photos, starting with 0992 and ending with 0994. There's a lot of energy and thrust there and he's pushing off his hind end very powerfully but that energy isn't being collected and balanced in his upper body.
Thanks. I don't know about the upper-level dressage horseMyrna great picture of your horse, he looks like an upper level dressage horse.
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