Thursday, September 6, 2012

Cross training - adding gymnastics and cavaletti

I’ve been ‘lusting’ after the Blok system for years – Finally a sale! Yay! Nothing to stop me (and my credit card) now. I am sure Remy will enjoy the cavaletti work. We have already started with ground poles and he tackles them with gusto. Our training is modeled after Ingrid Klimke’s (who I absolutely admire) cross training system. The idea behind is to keep the training varied to prevent boredom to set in, and also to work different muscle groups. Take for example dressage horses, most of them only know stall – indoor - stall. If they are lucky they get worked in an outdoor arena from time to time. That’s it – and the same applies of course to all the other specialists, too, jumpers, equitation horses, breed exhibits, etc.

By coincidence the other day I ran into Michele at the tack shop. She was our ‘short-lived’ jumping instructor years ago. While Saumur’s natural jumping style is impeccable (knees almost over his ears, round bascule) his bolting after the jumps did not endear him to Michele.  Good thing though that we didn’t scare her away altogether – she actually offered to come to our place to help us with the gymnastics exercises for Remy and Chambord. Saumur is off the hook!

While Remy will be like a kid on a trampoline, I predict Chambord doing the equivalent of shrugging his shoulders, as if to say “Oh-Kay.. let’s get it over with.. and you better up the ante on the treats for this!”

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