SAVANNAH
SESSION 15 – LITTLE AND BIG
In this session, Claire works on 'little' and 'big' in both groundwork and ridden work. In the groundwork in walk, Claire has to get Savannah to push from behind rather than poking her nose forward. Claire also continues to work on moving the hindquarters towards the handler.
In ridden work, Ali gets Claire to think about 'knees back' in addition to 'squeezing the balls behind her knees'. This gets the whole of Claire's legs in the correct position but Claire does find it difficult to maintain this position and keep her hands up!
Savannah finds it easy to lengthen her stride but would prefer to go on the forehand rather than shift her weight back. Practicing 'little' and 'big' in walk and trot gets Savannah to shift her weight back and gets a much better working trot. Ali gets Claire to focus on Savannah's hind legs in the trot-canter and canter-trot transitions. This helps prevent Claire from leaning forward which joins in with Savannah running on to the forehand.
COMMENTS & QUESTIONS
If you have any comments on this session, please use the comments section below. If you have any questions, please use the Real Life Riders forum (link above) so that we can respond.
Please note that discussions relating to the earlier Claire & Savannah sessions can be found in the From Green to Great forum. The 'From Green to Great' and 'Retraining the Horse & Rider' series were merged to form 'Real Life Riders'.