My first lesson

I had my first lesson today 12th February with the lovely Trudi.

I have been having loads of problems with Endy which just seemed to be getting worse and it was getting that I really wasnt enjoying riding anymore unless we were with someone else and he was misbehaving. If we went out on a ride with other horses he would be silly and fizzy. Constantly cantering on the spot, going sideways, bucking and leaping about. By the time I got back from any of these rides my arms were aching and I was shattered and so was he!

In the manege he was a different horse. He was sluggish, slow, sleepy and just painful to ride. I couldnt get any forward movement and had to constantly nag away with my legs which he was obviously ignoring. I then resorted to my schooling whip but this then turned into the same problem as he was ignoring the taps from that too. I hated to ride him in the manege or out on a hack on my own as it was downright hard work and to be honest too hard.

I had posted about my problems on EOL and lots of people had come up with ideas for re-energising him. Most were for keeping his energy up by doing some faster work in between to get the blood flowing. I had tried this and it did work but it did not address the problems of his head carriage.
I had a kind of catch 22 situation. If I made a contact with the bit then he would slow down or stop and also raise his head. If I kicked hard with my legs to keep him moving whilst keeping a contact then he would raise his head even higher.

Damien had suggested the hot potato thing with constantly jiggling the bit on each side alternately an whilst this did work after a while it was still a constant battle to keep him going and his head was getting higher and higher.

In the end Trudi very kindly offered to come over and have a look at us and give us a verdict