OHSF 2011 Prize 3

"The Training of Fizz"

Haha. Well done =femalefred in winning your class at the Oak Hollow Summer Fayre 2011. Here's Ellie Step training BH Bodyclock up for you under the watchful eyes of Marion...oo-er!

The story is little snippets to go with the pictures...I couldn't think of a nice fluent way to tie them in really

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Ellie had had a couple of rides on Fizz now. Once she got over the fact she was being eyeballed by his owner the entire time, a fact she should really be used to by now what with the youngsters that came and went through Oak Hollow for backing, she settled into her way of doing things. In most cases, the horse she was riding settled with her. Not this thing.

Fizz had given her all the opposites of what she wanted and made her look like a total novice. He hadn't tried to get her off or anything - that wasn't really in his nature - but he had carted her about the cross-country course like a toy rather than ten stone of human, and in the dressage arena had gone around with his nose in the air doing his best grey giraffe impression while Marcus schooled Cobweb annoyingly well at the other end of the arena. Infuriating, really.

But, as usual, she had a plan. As loud and boisterous as Ellie could be, beneath the newly-died-electric-black hair hid a cool and calculating brain, and that's what gave her the edge. In her hands she held a bridle and a spare bit - already in the bridle was a copper ball-jointed loose ring snaffle, spare was a sweet iron french link loose ring snaffle. One was a lovely glossy orange and the other a neglected-looking black.

"So you don't like stainless steel?" Ellie asked conversationally as she let herself into Fizz's stall. The big stallion looked down his shiny white nose at her, curious. "Fair do's, I wouldn't really like it in my mouth either. But most horses deal with it." Ellie laid the sweet iron to one side and slipped the bridle on Fizz's head. Immediately the youngster started chewing and licking at the new sensation, upper lip curling and dropping as he fiddled with the bit.

Ellie gave him some time to fiddle with the bit in his mouth before taking the bridle off and changing the bits. It wasn't like proper bitting, where she'd leave him for a good half hour - she just wanted to see his reaction to the two new tastes. Both were supposed to encourage horses to chew and salivate over the bit and hopefully accept it easier. If it worked, half the battle might be won for Ellie.

She bridled Fizz back up again, his large ears twitching at the strangeness of being fiddled with like this, and this time Fizz licked only a few times before settling down, almost immediately. Ellie gave him a few more minutes, listening to the stallion calmly playing with the bit in his mouth.

"I say we give this one a try first." Ellie suggested, patting Fizz's large grey neck. "Shall we try cross-country again, you nutter?"

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Boundless patience. It's a nice sentiment, but a total load of bull, Ellie thought drily as she cantered Fizz in yet another serpentine.

At first, Ellie had been thrilled to see the stallion dropping his nose to the contact. Now she knew it was just a clever ploy. Fizz had cottoned on quickly to her circling-before-a-fence method and pretended to meekly accept the contact and become distracted, then when Ellie turned for the fence he bunched up and sprang at it, covering the ground in far too few strides and always giving the fences far too much room.

"No more missus nice girl, horse." Ellie growled, keep the canter collected. She smiled slyly to herself; she was pretty sure Fizz hadn't noticed the fact she'd been slowly circling them close to a hanging log fence. Her plan was to give him a stride to it and not let him stop. Despite being warned about the dirty stop habit, so far she hadn't seen much evidence of it, that, or she hadn't given him the chance to even consider it.

Speaking of not considering, Ellie asked for a sharper turn as she completed one more circle. Fizz's head flew up, confused, and all of a sudden there was a fence there, and there were legs around him telling him to keep going, but he wasn't sure - a crack on his flank and he was leaping over the fence.

Was that it? Ellie could feel him thinking as he cantered away uber-bouncily from the excessive circling. "Nope!" She replied, asking him to turn on a sixpence and head back towards the jump, making use of the collected canter to perform otherwise ridiculous moves. This time Fizz was ready, but Ellie had cracked him - he didn't have time to flatten and haul at the bit, and approached the hanging log in a lovely canter, taking the jump big but far more controlled.

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Ellie's Notes:
Fizz definitely benefits from a lot of circling. He's clever; he knows the circling will lead to a jump, but because of this he doesn't get bored. He's trying to lull the rider into a false sense of security by obliging them these circles, so once you come off you have to be ready. Come off a stride early, maybe two. The run up to the fence doesn't matter - he can easily clear anything up to three feet with a minimal approach.

More exercises that may help are pulling up directly after a fence so he doesn't get obsessed with charging for the next thing, or trotting up to them. With grids, it helped that I made him walk over anything 2' 3" and under, before I put them up and started cantering him. I think he's slowly getting the message that he doesn't have to overdo all the jumps, but it'll take a bit of pounding into that bull head of his.

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She loves him really, it just takes a lot to exasperate Ellie and Fizz cracked it, haha. One of the only two male things to have ever done that!

Art, Oak Hollow, Ellie Step (c)
BH Bodyclock (c)