Day 226: Learning to see

Schooling one of the youngsters today; lovely mare, backed this year and a pleasure to work with. Some re-training to do from previous showing home though...

For a couple of hours today I re-watch the footage of one of my Wednesday riders because it bugs me that I didn't spot an issue that I felt the minute I sat in the saddle. So I watch and re-watch and slow-mo all the videos I have of the pair to date until I start seeing what I felt. It is potentially border line obsessive but hey ho, I don't mind making mistakes but not keen on repeating them ;)

Every training problem shows in rider's body and horse's body. Sometimes it is very simple and obvious to identify the core issue, and sometimes the rider fools me. When I watch the footage, I look for any movement that will tell me how the chain reaction begins and then I have a mammoth task of coming up with an idea of how to teach a different motion pattern. It's not just about leg here, hand there.

It might be disappointing to not have done something well but there is always a learning opportunity there.

Today's riders have an almost constant drizzle to contend with but at 23C and high humidity it doesn't feel cold - a bit of a tropical rainforest kind of vibe ;) Everybody copes well, even my tiny riders who somehow manage to avoid the rain in a rare hour of a clouds only window.

Oscar goes well again, there is a big party on the golf course which is across the road from the arena and loud cheers distract him so he isn't as amazingly focused on me as he was on Tuesday but it's ok. His trot work is about 70% where I want it to be before I ask any more of him and I am pleased with how his suppleness improves slowly.
Good day all round :)

Wx