Decent weather and Improved Canter Sets
May. 15th, 2019 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThe point of canter sets, at least in my world, is to develop balance, strength, and steadiness in canter for the Bird and for me. Also more fitness. Better two-point. Better cantering. So, we can't just level off at the "three circuits of the copse" thing once it's easy.
Regular readers will recall that we started canter sets with a 350 meter circuit of the copse of trees, said circuit with a bit of trotting in it because of Very Lumpy Tree Roots in the wooded bits. After about a month worth of once-weekly efforts along with other, regular riding, that's gotten to be a snooze for Bird (both as "level of effort" and as "level of concern about the proceedings") and not-so-terrifying for me. I'm also more stable in the saddle and a bit fitter than when we started.
Given the current state of affairs, it's time to level up our canter sets. Today, I started with that. Since it was new and different and bigger, I figured we should trot the route twice (more of a jog than a spanking trot) to Look At The Things and to Warm Up. (This was after our fifteen minute hill-march warmup.)
Sights seen and muscles warmed up, we cantered it twice in each direction, with a big walk break in the middle (after two and before two).
The new route is pictured below. It incorporates most of the around the copse route I've been doing all along and then expands to do more things. For all of this, I ride at the edge of the hayfield, where the hay doesn't grow well b/c of tree cover. (Stay outta that hay is both a song lyric from Down on the Farm by Tim McGraw and also a sensible directive for my canter sets. I could pretend like I am not the sort of person who knows the words to this fucking song, but that would be a lie. *sigh* I am also exactly the sort of person who can complete the couplet in Blake Shelton's offering "Hillbilly Bone" that starts out "You ain't gotta be born back in the sticks with an F-150 and a *..." on first hearing because there is exactly one thing that fits correctly in there for meter, rhyme, and cultural cred. But anyway, we were on for a picture of the improved canter sets, right?)
This route is ridden in both directions. It's about 470 meters long (recall our previous effort was about 350 meters and had some small trot parts) and has no trot parts. It is further more difficult than our previous canter set route because it contains small, gentle elements of counter-canter. (For the non-horsey set, counter-canter is when one is cantering on the lead OPPOSITE of the appropriate lead. The canter is a three-beat gait with the following footfall order: hind foot on OUTSIDE of turn, diagonal (outside-front & inside-back) pair, and then front foot on the inside of the turn. If you are doing the opposite of that (hind foot on inside of turn, diagonal pair, then front foot on OUTSIDE of turn) you are counter-cantering. Counter-cantering is harder for your horse because he has to be more balanced and stronger to not play BROKEN TOY** in counter-canter than in regular canter.
Being able to do the gentle, broad turns of the new canter set route in counter-canter and staying upright and bending... this is harder than our old canter set route. A lot harder. And it's about 120 meters longer than the old route, too.
Because of the greater difficulty and the longer sustained length, we only did two tries each way with a long walk break between them. (So, we did 1.17 miles today, which was slightly less than we'd been doing on the old-style canter sets -- those were about 1.3 miles total but the old route had trotty bits in them and no counter-canter stuff. I didn't want to overface him with the new route.) They went so well. It was lovely. Horse was great, relaxed and sensible. He was such a trooper.
We may yet conquer the near field and it's Terrain of Death. (Waiting until after The First Cutting to start working on this so that I can brushhog the route especially near that one tree where I suspect groundhog holes may be lurking.)
* thirty aught six is the end of the lyric, but you knew that, right? It's a kind of rifle.
** Broken Toy is when your horse is furiously cantering on the wrong lead, bent almost in a 90-degree angle at the outside shoulder. It's horrible. Nick was an expert at Broken Toy and neither of us ever enjoyed it.
Regular readers will recall that we started canter sets with a 350 meter circuit of the copse of trees, said circuit with a bit of trotting in it because of Very Lumpy Tree Roots in the wooded bits. After about a month worth of once-weekly efforts along with other, regular riding, that's gotten to be a snooze for Bird (both as "level of effort" and as "level of concern about the proceedings") and not-so-terrifying for me. I'm also more stable in the saddle and a bit fitter than when we started.
Given the current state of affairs, it's time to level up our canter sets. Today, I started with that. Since it was new and different and bigger, I figured we should trot the route twice (more of a jog than a spanking trot) to Look At The Things and to Warm Up. (This was after our fifteen minute hill-march warmup.)
Sights seen and muscles warmed up, we cantered it twice in each direction, with a big walk break in the middle (after two and before two).
The new route is pictured below. It incorporates most of the around the copse route I've been doing all along and then expands to do more things. For all of this, I ride at the edge of the hayfield, where the hay doesn't grow well b/c of tree cover. (Stay outta that hay is both a song lyric from Down on the Farm by Tim McGraw and also a sensible directive for my canter sets. I could pretend like I am not the sort of person who knows the words to this fucking song, but that would be a lie. *sigh* I am also exactly the sort of person who can complete the couplet in Blake Shelton's offering "Hillbilly Bone" that starts out "You ain't gotta be born back in the sticks with an F-150 and a *..." on first hearing because there is exactly one thing that fits correctly in there for meter, rhyme, and cultural cred. But anyway, we were on for a picture of the improved canter sets, right?)
This route is ridden in both directions. It's about 470 meters long (recall our previous effort was about 350 meters and had some small trot parts) and has no trot parts. It is further more difficult than our previous canter set route because it contains small, gentle elements of counter-canter. (For the non-horsey set, counter-canter is when one is cantering on the lead OPPOSITE of the appropriate lead. The canter is a three-beat gait with the following footfall order: hind foot on OUTSIDE of turn, diagonal (outside-front & inside-back) pair, and then front foot on the inside of the turn. If you are doing the opposite of that (hind foot on inside of turn, diagonal pair, then front foot on OUTSIDE of turn) you are counter-cantering. Counter-cantering is harder for your horse because he has to be more balanced and stronger to not play BROKEN TOY** in counter-canter than in regular canter.
Being able to do the gentle, broad turns of the new canter set route in counter-canter and staying upright and bending... this is harder than our old canter set route. A lot harder. And it's about 120 meters longer than the old route, too.
Because of the greater difficulty and the longer sustained length, we only did two tries each way with a long walk break between them. (So, we did 1.17 miles today, which was slightly less than we'd been doing on the old-style canter sets -- those were about 1.3 miles total but the old route had trotty bits in them and no counter-canter stuff. I didn't want to overface him with the new route.) They went so well. It was lovely. Horse was great, relaxed and sensible. He was such a trooper.
We may yet conquer the near field and it's Terrain of Death. (Waiting until after The First Cutting to start working on this so that I can brushhog the route especially near that one tree where I suspect groundhog holes may be lurking.)
* thirty aught six is the end of the lyric, but you knew that, right? It's a kind of rifle.
** Broken Toy is when your horse is furiously cantering on the wrong lead, bent almost in a 90-degree angle at the outside shoulder. It's horrible. Nick was an expert at Broken Toy and neither of us ever enjoyed it.
