Walk To Trot

Art would have been trotting and galloping months ago had we gone on with him. As the horse failed to grow there were questions of physical maturity vis a vis rider size and also whether we'd persevere with the very small horse.

But, Art grew and he's trotting now for the third day. With the sporadic breaking Art was resisting the trot, and so after the Woodland's ended I told Nob I wanted a trot asap, and when it failed to happen after three tack sessions in a row where the horse was still fretting at everything unusual after the two month tack layoff we resorted to THE BOOK featured last post. Helps to review occasionally how it's really done.

Here is what the book said referencing the transition walk to trot:
1. The horse should be be walking forwards actively and attentively before the rider asks for the trot (instead of slopping along as Nob had been.).
2. The rider keeps contact with the horse's mouth without actually restricting him. (Ok!).
3. The rider's legs are in contact with the horse's sides but not being used actively. (We were kind of doing that.)
4. Here's a big one we tend to overlook: By keeping BOTH the legs and hands in contact with the horse in this way you will be keeping open your lines of communication to the horse.
5. To ask for more the rider squeezes both legs actively against the horse's sides and softens the hands forwards to that the horse feels free to increase the pace and go forwards into the trot.

Nob tried all this by the book the next day voila the horse was trotting. Nob said key was the sudden leg squeeze--Art spurted forward and combined with the softening forwards of the hands and a touch of the whip they were off.

The last three days the horse is all over the place at the trot, but, I'll expect to see better form tonight.

Training:
11/2/07 Friday: Riderless w/u + 2 x 1 mile 90% speed. 10 min walk-trot under tack. tough w/o.
11/3/07 Sat. Rest.
11/4/07 Sun.: Riderless w/u + 1 x 1.5 miles slow gallop + one mile trot under tack.