It wasn't smooth and it wasn't consistent, but we tried. I was coaching myself on Sharade again. Coaching myself wasn't an unusual event since Molly and her daughters sold their farm and moved to Florida nearly 2 years earlier. I used the excuse that affording regular lessons with someone I felt was worth my time and money was not in my budget, leaving me to continue on my own.
Sharade's attempt at a canter left much to be desired. At the walk and trot she was fun and could make anyone who knew how to post look good. Her canter on the other hand was an example of why many people believe the myth that Standardbreds can't canter. To this day I believe that this myth exists because of a combination of one of Sharade's ancestors and a trainer who finally threw their hands up in the air and said "I give up". Sharade can canter, but she does not canter very well.
I let out a deep sigh. "Let's try this again. Sit up, deep breath, leg on, keep contact, ride through, ride through, ride through." And there we had it, a decent canter for three and a half strides before it fell apart and turned into her pacey scramble.
"See you can canter like a normal horse, when we are working together on it," I laughed. Those three and a half strides were exhausting. It was so much work for not much canter. We worked on the canter for awhile longer and ending on a good note, a whole four strides, I put Sharade away for the night.
The following day, a student of mine, Rachel wanted to ride Sharade for her lesson. I agreed knowing that Rachel knew that if she rode Sharade it would only be a walk/trot lesson.
It was a good lesson and towards the end I allowed myself to get talked into letting them do some work over cross rails, which Sharade enjoyed and did fairly well at despite not having a nice canter. Rachel got into her two point position and guided Sharade down the center line towards the 18" cross rail I had set up. Sharade popped over it and continued trotting down the center line until Rachel gradually guided her to the right and back up the rail.
They went back down the center line and back over the cross rail. This time Sharade acted as though she wanted to canter away from the jump, but as instructed, Rachel kept her at a trot and turned her to the left and up the rail.
"Can I let her canter away from the next one?" Rachel asked. Usually I would have said no, but today something made me say "We can give it a try."
Rachel steered Sharade down the center line, preparing for the cross rail and Sharade's God awful canter. I remember almost changing my mind before they got there, then Sharade picked up her canter two strides before the cross rail. It was a decent canter with two equal strides and a good jump and then Rachel rode her away from the jump at the canter; One, two, three, four, five, six, seven strides and they transitioned to the trot without a single stride of awkward canter nor a single stride being paced.
Rachel had shown me up. She could get Sharade to canter and she could get Sharade to transition to the trot with no pacing in between. I had yet to accomplish this with Sharade.
Proud of my student, but shocked and a bit embarrassed, I emailed Pam at Hoof Pix Farm and asked when Babette Lena would be back. I would have to find a way to work regular lessons back into my budget.
Sincerely,
Melissa Beckwith
No comments:
Post a Comment