Big Progress!

 feel like this we've just come on leaps and bounds Erik and I! I am just so excited and proud of him in equal measure, here's why..

Having no doubt read in previous blogs and on my social media I have found Erik to be really quite heavy on the bit when I am on board schooling him. I am not entirely sure why that is but I have a feeling it's a few things.. Laziness, my riding and him taking advantage that I am a unschooled rider for some years now, him finding bits easy to lean on and finally that he might be a bit sore somewhere. 

I've been talking to close friends about this issue and lovely Charlotte recommended a few weeks back to try a Waterford Pelham. Stupid me did think this was a good idea but to try other Pelhams and Double bridles in the mean time.. A good friend of mine said I really should ride him in a double bridle, so that's what I did and he still leaned on that at home and in the ring! So in my final frustration after pessoa-ing Erik last week and him holding himself beautifully I decided I was going to put a facebook post out asking if anyone had the size Waterford pelham I needed. Luckily for me Georgie and I's friend Hetty said she did and I couldn't kindly borrow it. So this week came and I decided I was going to have our first session schooling in it and my goodness it made such a difference. 

Because the waterford style is that the 'body' of the bit is made from links of metal instead of a solid bar of metal which is advantageous for horses that lean because, with the links they cannot either grab a hold of the bar nor can then push down and rely on the rider to hold them up as the links won't feel comfortable in their mouth to do that..

Erik is the latter in that he likes to lean on the bit and me hold him there, or just lean with his nose out and I find it difficult to encourage him in once he's done that, but with the waterford he has to carry himself properly and have 'self carriage' which he seems to do a lot more with this bit in. I came away from Tuesdays school session grinning and felt like we'd had a bit of a breakthrough with schooling. I think it's because Erik feels like I am not his usual 'Mum' who can ride him up to elementary level in dressage and therefore not work at hard for me and I'd found for the last few weeks that I was really frustrated that he wouldn't do that with me.
Saying that, this experience has made me a lot more concious of the position that my hands are in and making sure they're 'up and bent' instead of low to his neck with straight arms; with straight arms the horse can definitely lean as there is no 'spring' like there is when elbow are bent like they should be. I try to take these negative situations and come up with a positive learning experience that I've had from that and once I've improved then see that with hard work comes good change!

I also did some trotting poles with Erik and because he was holding himself correctly he also was balanced so he positively pinged and stretched over the elevated poles which felt amazing and he was praised so highly from me for doing so that he puffed up about 2 inches with excitement!

I put him to bed Tuesday evening so pleased with our break through and he his yummy tea snuggled up in bed to rest!

Feeling more confident with our new found enthusiasm and wanting to get going with our progress I asked Georgie to give me a jumping lesson Wednesday evening which she very kindly agreed to. Since I've had Erik I've popped him over 1 cross pole which was about 1'6" and that was to see what he'd do so for our first proper lesson I was a little nervous how he'd react. I hadn't really needed to worry; after his lovely schooling the night before he felt pretty balanced so we started by getting him to go over the elevated trotting poles which he'd done the night before and after warming up and working on getting him nice and flexible he stretched over the poles well. Georgie then made a small cross pole and asked me to trot in to that and pop over it, which he did with ease. G put it up and we worked on my hands over the fence and the stride. E is a good chap and sees his own stride generally which was very reassuring for me. 

The fence then went up to a small straight bar upright which of course he popped over no problem and my approach and hands improved. Georgie advised me to keep looking at the direction I'd be turning once I'd landed to ensure that E landed and struck off on the correct canter lead. This was kinda hard for me as I was trying to maintain my 'bottle' and that meant not looking down at the fence (we all know the pony club rule of not looking down in the bottom of the fence as horses/ponies wonder what you're looking at from your weight shift and can therefore stop at the fence) so I was determined to look up but with the jump on a slight angle it was in the direction opposite of which I'd want when landing.

Any way, we continued going up in height slightly and Georgie soon put a blue empty barrel under the straight bar so when we approached this time E did notice something was different, sped up 2 strides out and did a big leap jumping and taking a stride out which did mean I was a little left behind (I slid my reins in a 'hunting jump style as not to jag him in the mouth' but in turn I did loose a stirrup gripping on so admittedly this did make me a bit nervous after. I asked Georgie to please take away the blue barrel as I did feel a little ambitious for our first lesson. Granted, Erik used to be a show jumper and could easily jump 1 m 20cm but that was over 5 years ago and I was still learning to jump together with him! We took the barrel out and put 1 side of the fence down as we were at the top of the plastic block and I wanted to keep my confidence going and he popped it beautifully so I am happy. I did unfortunately start getting in my own head and psyching myself out a bit so Georgie suggested that I finish by popping over a skinny in trot, but I felt more confortable in cancer and he popped it totally fine.

I then called time on the lesson wanting to finish on a positive good note so I came away feeling happy. I did have a little cry afterwards as I was a bit overwhelmed and was getting a bit chicken. 

Why that is is, I have broken my arm falling off a big horse before, and those memories aren't going to ever go away I just need to build trust and confidence in our ability!

Erik is such a sweet genuine horse that it seems he'd rather put in a 'big one' that chip in a short stride or stop so that does give me confidence too and watching the video afterwards he finds these small fences so easy, see below where one of his feet still hasn't left the ground and he's basically over the fence!

Must not stick me elbows in and set my hands! This was after psyching myself out though! 

Overall a really good positive week, I am so happy with him and I. We had a lovely physio Alex Greatorex come on Thursday and give Erik a good 'once over' and she released some tension and pain his sacroiliac which I am sure will make him feel better and be more 'free' in his hind end so he'll now have yesterday and today off from being ridden so he can adjust and we'll get riding again this weekend. I am excited to have another little school in his 'show bridle' and then have a nice hack out before we go to Ashwell Show on bank holiday Monday.

Hope everyone else's week has been positive too!

Sophie x