July 04, 2009

Kody gets Advertised

Went down to the arena today so that Nick would have a fiddle with the new camera (got ourselves a Canon EOS 450D, as the poor pink sony camera really is on it's last legs). This is our first DSLR though - and it is taking a bit of learning! So Nick was snapping away trying to learn about all the different settings and whatnot today.
I have listed Kody for sale today. It's a bit gutting, as I had hoped to have him for a bit longer and do a bit more (especially take advantage of his super jump) - but I guess sometimes this is just the way the cookie crumbles. Hopefully we can find an awesome home for him which will make it all a bit easier.
His jumping is coming along really great.. he is feeling so confident in himself and is happy to meet the fences from any kind of stride (forward or bouncy). The work we're doing on the flat to get him bending around my legs is helping our "between fences" in the jumping too - much easier to adjust our strides and ride the corners nicely. I'm really happy with how he is going.
Coco is still a bit nappy about going away from the other horses. I really need to get stuck into that behaviour as it is not something I want her to make a habit of (and it is one of my pet peeves!). But she was coping really well today and handled people walking towards her on the gravel surface which has previously scared her quite a bit.
Got some much better canter work out of her - she is keeping her canter going nicely now. Next step (apart from fixing that napping) is to drive her forward more. Now that she is fit she has no excuse to avoid working - so there will be no more overbent nose! She tends to tuck in to get out of doing any real work. But when I get her going forward she really does look and feel so much better.
Gem was a dude today! Only a few pics as the small memory card that came with the camera got all filled up pretty quickly. But wow - Gem is really loving being a jumping horse. Today I did heaps (and I mean heaps) of crossbards. Mostly from a trot, just letting her sort out those legs.. and occasionally popping over an upright. It feels like she is bringing her forelegs together a bit better. And she is so soft at the moment. No flash strap on her noseband needed!
Neo did a similar workout to Gem... lots and lots of trotting over crossbars to get him settled. It took a while for him to stop leaping over them and just to pop over them kindly (hardly breaking out of a trot stride). But once he got there I was really impressed. After doing that for long enough for the both of us to get a bit bored I popped him over a few bigger fences again just from a trot and he really used himself. I do need to put in more flatwork though.. he tends to lean against my leg rather than move away from it, which makes developing a good corner into fences a bit hit and miss. I hope if I can put the effort into some groundwork to improve his response to my legs that perhaps we can clean up some of those rails in our showjumping rounds. He certainly doesn't lack the talent - but it's all about the bits between the jumps at the end of the day.

2 comments:

Beckz said...

There is an award for yo on my blog, come pick it up :)

Jennynz said...

Look at wee Kody jumping like a big boy! What a shame you have to sell him so soon.