Supple and round, ask for a transition (up or down), Milo hollows out, transition (up or down), put Milo back into frame.
The goal:
Supple and round, ask for transition (up or down), engage hindquarters to change continueing roundness, continue at new gait.
Doesnt seem to complicated, huh? Milo is getting confused.
To be supple, engaging the hindquarters and lifting his back, I ask Milo with a squeaze from my calves, when he come up into frame, I hold him with my hands (here is a problem tied to another issue-Milo balancing on my hands), than say, ask for a transtion to a trot whereby I "scoot" with my seat, squeaze with leg and cluck if necessay. Here is Milo's confusion, differenciating between a squeaze for collection or a squeaze for forward motion.
But how do I change what we know? My thoughts, are maybe, establish collection with my hands than when moving forward and soft, ask lightly with a spur bump to raise him belly and drive from the hind end, and save the "squeazing" aid for forward motion. And, maybe, this will help him to balance himself instead of me holding him up.
Another thought: for transitions ask for the transition over a pole, thereby raising his back into the new change.
I had a friend advise to use a german martingale to aid as a type of "barrier" whereby he physically cannot raise his head up in a transition. My concern is not having ever ridden in one, I dont want to "mess anything up" by not being knowldgeable with one.
Sorry for the scatterbrained post, kudos to you if you followed! I just feel like we are so close to being near solid in the snaffle, he moves great with it and is really coming along. I want to get the transitions fully solid before moving on.
2 comments:
Well I'm certainly not one to give training advice, especially regarding transitions, but there are a lot of pieces to your cue for Milo. I think my mare's head would explode. :)
We're still working on our transitions, so perhaps I could learn something from what you're doing, but I've been working a lot on circles and bending, so she learns to carry herself properly for extended periods of time. So a few strides before I ask for the transition, I make sure she is already collected and carrying herself properly. Once she's collected and engaged, I shift my weight and bump her side for the trot. For the canter cue, I slide my leg back and bump.
So I differentiate by squeezing for collection and bumping for transitions. She has a very sensitive go button, so she also thinks any leg contact means go faster. That's why I opted to go with the bump for transitions because I squeeze her for a lot of different things, but the bump is more a definitive cue. It seems to be helping her to understand the difference.
Milo is adorable, by the way. :)
Wow. That makes a lot of sense, thanks for the response. I will let you know how things go from trying it. Good luck on your mare's lameness!
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