I have been told by upper level Welsh Cob riders time and time again that they don't really develop a good medium until they've started the half steps. And while I'm not an expert in riding half steps, I am an expert in mediocre medium trots, so I know at least that half of it is true!
Last week I got a message from CGP with a video attached that said "Um so this happened!...🦄💓🥰"
It was a four minute video of Connor schooling half steps. Outside of two steps here and there with KPG and CGP, this is really his first time schooling them for real, so it was rough, but you could see so much progress happen over the course of the video as he fought so very hard to understand what she was asking.
He gave a lot of wrong answers in the beginning. You could almost hear him saying "So let me get this straight, you don't want me to go forward, but you do want my legs to keep moving?! Sorry that's impossible."
But a minute or two later, they were making progress.
Is it pretty, correct or finished? Absolutely not. But he learned to move his body in a new way, and that'll get refined slowly over time. This isn't something I need to access myself for a long time.
Then when she finally let him out into a collected trot, and then a medium trot, he was SO ready.
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| Am I ever going to get over seeing his trot stride be that big but his balance still be that good? Probably not. |
And to think my only goals for these four months of training were "an educated understanding of good contact" and "simple changes"!
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