Somewhere along the way, our turns on the haunches got really broken. Or maybe they were never good to begin with. Either way, it's a movement I've been struggling with for a while now.
For the non-Dressage people out there, TOH is a movement introduced at Second Level that allows a little more flexibility in terms of hind leg placement than its cousin, the walk pirouette, which is introduced at Fourth Level and requires the hind legs to step and down on the spot. TOH allows for the hind legs to describe an arc of up to 1m.
You can ride the TOH smaller and not get penalized, but you cannot ride it larger. And uh, my comments on the last test were "more like 1/2 circle" for the TOH.
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| This is bad, lol |
The hard part for me has been working on this without any way to see what's going on, since my Pivo wasn't compatible with my phone from January until last week, and we don't have mirrors. And being new to this movement, I don't know what it's supposed to feel like. When I finally did get to see video for the first time last week, I was like oh, those look like s***, lol.
In my virtual lesson last week, GP trainer said our biggest problem with it is him not respecting my aids. She said he was running through me, mostly forward (hence the 1/2 circle comment) and had me ask him for a single step sideways, then a single step backward, rinse and repeat until he wasn't barreling through me anymore. She's adamant we get this one right, calling it a "diagnostic movement" - if this isn't right, the basics aren't there.
He was very upset at not getting to race through me anymore, and we made progress that night, but it wasn't until my schooling ride the next day that we really started to put it together.
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| From a schooling ride after that lesson.You can see that he DESPERATELY wants to move the right hind forward, but he thought better of it in the moment. |
In my rides since then, I've had a lot more control over the movement, and you can tell he's actually thinking about shifting his weight back rather than plowing forward. Is it an 8.0 movement? Absolutely not, there's a LOT to improve here. But it's definitely going in the right direction.
The TOH I'm familiar with are reining spins, LOL. But I had to comment that your pony looks SO good! I'm obsessed with cobs now and pretty sure I need one. :)
ReplyDeleteI can hook you up! Follow Castleberry Welsh Cobs and Sporthorses on Facebook, the 2021 babies have just started hitting the ground.
DeleteWhat a difference from 1st gif to last!
ReplyDeleteHaha, and those two videos were shot less than a week apart. Virtual lessons work, I'm telling you.
DeleteHuge improvement! Our TOH are mostly reserved for equitation classes (and rare to be called), but I like to use them to get my horse off his front end during warmup. That being said, I am not that great at them and have lots to improve on.
ReplyDeleteThank you! They are definitely useful for getting him off his front end. I like to throw them in at random points just to keep him on his toes.
DeleteLike Lauren mentioned, we use TOH to show off in our equitation on the flat classes. If they ask to change directions at the walk, you can get some bonus points if you do it through a TOH. But also, we probably aren't getting it is correct as you would for dressage. Eros does it nicely (I do think he can do a walk pirouette, but I don't know where those buttons are. He does have a dressage background which helps).
ReplyDeleteThe difference from your first gif to the last is HUGE! Nice work!
Thank you! That's interesting about the "bonus points". Sure wish hunters actually showed you the scorecard so you could see your bonus points!
DeleteThese are my nemesis. Groan!! Love the difference shown from the first gif to the last!
ReplyDeleteUgh, yeah, they are getting that way with me too. All we can do is keep working on them!
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