Lisa's Blog post # 59

Two more issues emerged these past few weeks – aaagh!   When will it end?!   I think I have them resolved, though.  Time will tell.

Cotton has always been a tripper.  It’s usually confined to the wide open field – that’s pretty understandable, right?  But within the last month he had some pretty significant trips in the sand arena – one nearly resulting in a somersault after a jump.  He actually did a complete face plant, scooping up a mouth full of sand.  I was so thankful he recovered!  

The other problem was that he brought his tendency to get BTV on the flat into our jump school for the first time.   He was trotting along with his eyes on the ground ignoring my efforts to get him to pay attention to the jump we were approaching.  He saw it in time to pop over it but knocked it and stumbled a little on the landing.

Cotton – you’re not helping me here, bud.

I, the Queen of Google, did some research online and discovered that long toes and saddle fit are the two most commonly mentioned reasons for equine clumsiness.  Our farrier assured me that his feet couldn’t be any better so I’ve given saddle fit the rap for that one – for now.  He hasn’t tripped again since I started using the extra pad my saddle fitter told me to use, but we’ll see.

We worked on his BTV problem today.  Since we’ve recently started doing course work for the first time in 2 years I think he’s still getting used to the fact that just because we finish a line of jumps doesn’t mean we aren’t going on to another line of jumps!  He’ll get back into the swing of things… until then, Lesley told me to leg him on and bump him up with one rein at the same time to get his attention.  She also recommended I follow the same bit of advice Ralph Hill gave her for Felix's problem and let him endure the consequences of his own inattentiveness - but that would make the phrase "die trying" a little too real to me.  I'll let her explain!

The more I thought about these problems, I deduced that his commitment to traveling on his forehand is a contributing factor to both of them.  I can tell a big difference in how he’s carrying himself now compared to a few months ago but he obviously still has a ways to go.  Cotton definitely mimics my posture so I’m sure the fact that my core strength has improved tremendously has helped.  Which also means that his tripping and going BTV is at least partially caused by my “dropping” him when I relax my core.  He needs me to stay solid.

This guy named Oswald Chambers said this in a context totally unrelated to horses, “… if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.” 

Enjoy your horse today!