Today Katie was visiting and I managed to get Jack to ride as well as another horse called Carling owned by Sarah on my yard. Carling is a 16hh coloured gelding and is looks like a sports horse although I’m not too sure what breed he is. Katie and I were excited to ride him as we had shared the school with him before and he was moving beautifully, so hopefully he was going to be something a little different from Jack, as Jack is sweet but he’s also an arse when he wants to be!

So we got Jack and Carling up from the paddocks and got them ready. We weren’t able to do a full groom completely as the owners didn’t have complete grooming kits however we did try our best to get the loose hair and grease out of their coats. We then tacked up and got in the school, I got on Carling first and Katie was on Jack. It was actually rather nice to get on a horse that would stand still, as Jack always moves around and tries to stop you from getting on, and I’ve gradually become used to it which has now put me in the bad habit of becoming nervous whenever I get on a horse, but I am hoping lessons at Ingestre shall sort that out.

Carling at first was rather slow to get going. I wanted to be able to achieve something together in our session and so began warming him in with lots of turns and transitions. The problem then arose that Carling is not all that flexible naturally, as he would turn his head but then wouldn’t follow through with the rest of his body and was not that responsive to the lower leg when you wrapped it around him to turn. I then began some trot work in order to get him more active which worked nicely, however all the energy gained in the trot we would then completely lose again in the walk which was hard work! Meanwhile Katie and Jack were also working on transitions and warming him up nicely doing lots of bend to get him loose as he has been rather stiff lately from all the galloping around stubble fields!

Carling and I then tried for a canter, which was difficult as we didn’t get it perfect the first time which then makes me wonder what I am doing as a rider to block the canter transition. Katie then told me to not let Carling just trot faster, and to use the whip as a backup to my aids. I did this and after a few goes we had a nice canter transition which was nice to sit to, although Carling did need some encouragement to keep going! It was also nice to know that I could use the whip without the risk of being bucked as I would normally on Jack, as not even Katie wanted to canter him as she could sense when he was about to buck.

After 30 mins we then swapped horses so Katie was on Carling and myself on Jack. I had a tricky time getting on as Jack wouldn’t stand still at all but after a battle we were okay. Then I just practiced a little more no-stirrup work to continue to work on myself as Katie had warmed him up nicely. I too decided not to try and canter as I could feel it in Jack’s trot a little the thought of him bucking, as I just have a feeling the next one will have me off. I know that falling off is not the worst thing in the world, however I would still like to try and avoid it, the only thing is that I am now putting Jack into bad habits as he now knows as soon as he bucks I won’t make him canter. But he is 22 now so I guess its not the worst thing in the world when it is only myself and Katie that school him.

Katie then found that Carling wasn’t going forward as he was too preoccupied with his bit. He was in a pelham and he was fighting against it instead of focusing on the work he was being asked to do. Katie then took off the chain from the pelham which improved him immensely as he was more relaxed and focusing on what he was doing, however it was clear it was hard to get him going as nicely as we saw him a few weeks ago.

As a result I have come to the conclusion that in the future I am just going to hack Jack now instead of schooling him. It has certainly been a blast doing all my dressage competitions on him last summer and using him to help with my position, but now I feel as though his habits and nature is only going to compromise my riding and put me into more bad habits as riding him has gradually made me more nervous. Carling’s owner said I could ride him whenever I liked so I might try him in a snaffle next time as that is what he is hacked in and see if there is a difference. But I am going back to university in just over a week so I won’t have as many chances to ride Jack once I’m back, so just hacking out and enjoying the countryside will be good to do with the time I have left here.