Lately Remy has been the poster child for showing just what patience and hard work can produce. He’s taking big steps, literally at times, towards being a solid third level horse. He’s had the lateral work for a while now, he finds half pass effortless, and his changes are starting to look more and more dressage-y and less track-y. That left only the extended gaits. I’ve known there is a TON of trot in this horse for a while, but getting the trot I wanted has been an area that I’ve felt needed improvement. For third level he needs to show both a medium and an extended trot, and being the perfectionist that I am, I’ve been working to show a clear difference between the two, to actually have two different trots both available on demand.
In the process, I’ve discovered that there are actually a multitude of trots in this horse, some with longer strides, and some more “up” with more suspension and less ground cover, and I’m starting to be able to control both the stride length and the suspension to get just the trot I want, instead of just unleashing whatever sort of “big trot” happened on a given day. (And did you know when you over-half-halt the “suspension” trot you get something that feels rather passage-y? Who knew?!)
Luckily, as I was playing with my different trots the other day, Sarah was watching with her phone in hand and grabbed a few pictures for me. It felt pretty good when I was riding it, we were flying along but it felt almost slow-motion as he covered the ground in long easy strides, but then I went home and saw Remy and couldn’t believe my eyes! I think he really has an extension now! Now I just have to get strong enough to ride this trot so that Remy can go out and show the world what an OTTB can do!
TB at X 