Exercise Suggestion?
Hello everyone!
A few of you may remember this big guy from a while ago, and we've come a LONG way. Gideon is a 13-14(?) y/o Oldenburg (?) gelding schooling 2nd level Dressage these days. However, due to the sweet woes of unemployment, I've had to move home away from my trainer temporarily, and quite frankly am too broke to take lessons.
The consistency is much better, and the suppleness improves every day. We can collect, work, and lengthen every gait and we're starting to work on lead changes again. He leg yields and half passes at the trot and we're starting some lateral canter work. The only "problem" I'm having is getting him to really lift the base of his neck and shoulder. Somehow I can create an uphill canter without him really raising his neck, but especially at the trot he seems to flatten out midway through his neck and to his shoulder. I'll attach a conformation picture and a picture of his canter so you can see that he can get uphill at the canter (with nice neck, and using his back and his butt), but the trot can't hold it. Any suggestions for exercises to help with developing this muscle a little better? Or maybe it just takes more time?
Thanks in advance
His before, from a year and half ago:
Conformation, so you can see his muscling:
And canter work (sorry, taken from a video):
A few of you may remember this big guy from a while ago, and we've come a LONG way. Gideon is a 13-14(?) y/o Oldenburg (?) gelding schooling 2nd level Dressage these days. However, due to the sweet woes of unemployment, I've had to move home away from my trainer temporarily, and quite frankly am too broke to take lessons.
The consistency is much better, and the suppleness improves every day. We can collect, work, and lengthen every gait and we're starting to work on lead changes again. He leg yields and half passes at the trot and we're starting some lateral canter work. The only "problem" I'm having is getting him to really lift the base of his neck and shoulder. Somehow I can create an uphill canter without him really raising his neck, but especially at the trot he seems to flatten out midway through his neck and to his shoulder. I'll attach a conformation picture and a picture of his canter so you can see that he can get uphill at the canter (with nice neck, and using his back and his butt), but the trot can't hold it. Any suggestions for exercises to help with developing this muscle a little better? Or maybe it just takes more time?
Thanks in advance
His before, from a year and half ago:
Conformation, so you can see his muscling:
And canter work (sorry, taken from a video):