So I have dug out the GoPro, and figured I would start trying out its many different attachments, to see what footage I could get. I realised my chest harness is fab for be able to see my hands and the horse in front of me.
Travis is the kind of horse that can look great in photos and videos, but honestly, never feels great to ride. He lures you into over riding and be over fussy with your hands, legs and even your body language. When you sit quietly you feel like nothing is happening, including nothing from him and it is easy to nag him every step. I am finding keeping my hands still hard, as he will chose to lean or use the inside rein for balance and will fall out of the outside shoulder without 100% consistency on the outside rein.
I will definitely use this video angle more often, it is interesting to see in the walk my hands are still and level, inside hand is slightly open with as little contact as possible to prevent leaning, in the trot my hands are still quiet, but I do allow the reins to get too long, I am able to maintain an OK contact, but this comes undone when I ask for the canter, as he comes up, my reins are too long and I lose my contact, throwing my reins at him, in that key moment I lose my communication in his weakest gait.
For comparison I have a video of how it looks from the floor, actually my hands don't look to bad or unsettled and my reins don't look like washing lines, but there is enough 'flapping' to lose that connection.
This has really made me concentrate on my hands for the moment and consider some key questions: What am I telling my horse? Am I helping my horse? Am I hindering my horse? Or am I confusing my horse?
I would love to be able to see my feet more closely, but i'm not sure how Travis would feel about a selfie stick attached to his breast plate!
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Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.