Pacha - august 23, 2009

Glad to reconnect with Pacha after three weeks of interruption. Hot weather, small outdoor arena, alone. We applied the programme I had suggested in the previous post. I had had news in the mean time from his owner, which indicated that this programme had been useful, but that Pacha had bucked a few times at canter strike. I kept this in mind, and was decided to test it, and prevent Pacha to take such bad manners...
Walk session was fine. Some good jaw flexions with elevated neck.I noticed that Pacha stumbled a few times and wondered whether working him low and far ahead put him on the shoulders. At trot, I observed the same issue, with a case where he almost tripped. This worried me; I phoned his owner who told me that his re-shoeing deadline had been slightly exceeded due to lack of farrier's availability at this time of the year. Maybe this was the cause of his stumbling - this will be checked as soon as possible with the farrier.
Then came the canter test. I took great care to offload his back by lifting myself on the stirrups. The canter strike was fine. No signs of bucking at both leads. We went outside in the large outdoor arena when the temperature had cooled down and I asked more significant canter work, on circles. Progressively, I sat deeper and deeper. Pacha's cadence remained steady, and canter kept regular and not rushing. After a few minutes, he had his nose down, and I could feel his back going up. He was relaxed at canter - nice! We ended this good accomplishment with a good shower, grooming and a pleasant rest on the grass.
I suspect that the buckings experienced by his owner were due to want of patience in getting him sufficiently relaxed and calm before asking canter.