Twiggy back in work

Well Twiggy actually came back into work a while ago, I'm just slightly slow to update this blog, but nevertheless. Twiggy's been back in work about a month. Shes been doing lots of Dressage and long road walks. a little bit of jumping but the ground is still so muddy so i avoid jumping at the moment - And Twiggy is barefoot still.

Twiggy tried hard but i don't think she will ever be a top dressage horse! she will never master the essential "calmness" needed for dressage!

But she is being very soft, and often takes the rein and works long and low, you can see in the above photo shes on a loose rein, a year or so ago Twiggy would never trot nicely on a loose rein. so she has improved. slowly. but its still progress for Twiggy

Yes i am doing Dressage in a Jumping saddle too - with jumping length stirrups...

So Twiggy's jumping is pretty good for being muddy and barefoot. Theses photos are taken from her first day jumping since being back in work. so keeping keeping it low in the winter conditions. I'm happy with how shes going. I've also noticed shes become snappier with her front end too. Wearing Open fronts on her I've found shes a little more careful when she jumps. i think she got used to having closed XC boots all the time and wasn't bothered when she knocked a rail as it would never hurt her. now that she can feel the rails i think shes being more careful.

I have set up a down hill jump which leads into a small dip with water (from rain and flooding) I've had this set up a while and shes become very confident jumping big heights into water. Even though she often over-jumps it and launches herself into it. its better than timidly "climbing" down it how she used too.

Twiggy also made a huge improvement when it comes to combinations. She has never been the most confident horse jumping over on strides and other related distance combinations. and bounces she has always seemed to fail at hugely. preferring to go "through" them rather than concentrate and go "over". so setting a a small bounce a few days ago i wasn't expecting much of Twiggy. But to my surprise she went over the small 50cm Bounce perfectly. to make sure it wasn't a fluke that she left the poles up. i did it a couple More times, fro the other direction too. and again, she did it faultlessly. so up wen the poles to 70cm - and again shes jumped them with perfection, not tipping the rails once. So i put them up to nearly 1m - and popped through it once again without hesitation. I Stopped while i was ahead and ended on a happy note. Twiggy is getting much better and focus on more than one jump.

Twiggy impresses me sometimes.