Paddy Muir

Wake up Call for Paddy Muir!

So far this season things have gone fairly well - until Chatsworth that is!!!  A very poor Dressage mark and a cricket score showjumping made me really sit up and address some niggely issues which have been plaguing Stanley Brown's results all season.  A fabulous cross country round over a very tricky course and a real improvement in his fitness thanks to Dengies' Area Manager Anne, did give me some hope though.  Stan always has a tendency to get on his shoulders when tense, starting from a lock in the poll, this then leads to him becoming disengaged and difficult to ride forward through the hand - making his dressage inactive and making it almost impossible to ride a fence with rhythm and energy.  We have managed to get away with this over the smaller courses at Intermediate level but at advanced we are struggling.  At home when relaxed we have no problems with the height and width of fences but the problems start with the tension.

I made the trip to Markington for a lesson with Chris Bartle who was a huge help to me years ago.  He picked up on the problem immediately, the tension in the poll put him so heavy on his shoulders and he couldn't use his back or hocks correctly - making his paces very short and heavy.  He had me work him in shoulder in on a circle and lots of very "big" leg yielding exercises, using the shoulder in through transitions to walk and any time he became heavy on his shoulders.  Also gentle counter flexing of the poll (to the outside) on a circle in canter made him very soft in the hand and much more in self carriage.  Very quickly his stride lengthened and he became much softer to ride woth loads of energy.  His canter changes became very secure and correct and he felt like a different horse to ride in the canter.

I put this theory to work when jumping the following day, working very much on the softness in canter before trying to ride it more forward.  Stan became much more stable in the canter to his fences and I could maintain the rhythm of the canter hardly using the hand which kept him relaxed and able to use himself in a better way.  With two weeks to go until Bramham I have a lot of ground to cover but have something very concrete to work on.

Fitness wise, an uninterrupted canter program and a new diet of Alfa-A Oil, Dengie Natural Vitality Performance Vits & Mins, some Naked Oats and limited haylage have worked wonders.  Stan is carrying a lot less weight and doesn't look so heavy "topped".  He covers the ground across country with ease and recovers in no time.  He will do more fast work and gallops over the next two weeks leading up to Bramham and work at the hottest time of the day if possible to get him used to the weather he may experience at the event.

Overall I think Chatsworth was a wake up call and I think there is no substitute for having a professional view on your progress which is something I have very much neglected and I am looking forward to putting the new training methods to the test!

Until next time,

Paddy