Lessons with Jo Graham

Last week Grace and I went over to Cheshire to have a lesson with the British Dressage trainer, Jo Graham. Grace loaded and travelled very well, she did not sweat up at all and seemed to settle after her initial few shouts as we left the yard.

Andy helped me tack her up, and Jo asked me to come into the school and work in as I did at home. So we worked in long and low, but she was quite tense and spooky (it was very windy, and there were lots of scary things lying around). As I asked for right canter, a lady was turning her horse out in the field next to the school and Grace thought it was all just too exciting and did three huge bucks, the last one unseating me completely and we parted company!

Despite this little ‘mishap’ at the beginning, we went on to have a really good lesson. Jo said I am doing too much and Grace not enough. She relies on me to hold her up, keep her going and to do all the work. We worked on getting her much sharper off the leg and into a more consistent contact. This involved shortening my reins and not using my legs as much, just when she backed off.

Since our lesson we have been working really hard on what Jo had pointed, and it did not take long for me to realise how little work Grace was getting away with. Since following our new ‘routine’ Grace has been sweating up quite a lot after a 45 minutes session, whereas before she would not even be out of breath!

The difference in the way Grace is going is unbelievable. She is coming up in her shoulder now, sitting back on her hocks a little and learning what a half halt means!

We did have a lesson booked for tomorrow, but Grace had a bit of a swollen leg on Thursday morning, was trotting up slightly lame and it was quite hot. So I got the vet out (I’m paranoid about tendons) and discovered she had an infection in her leg which was causing the swelling. I have been cold hosing it twice a day and bandaging it at night, which along with the antibiotics have brought the swelling right down and she is no longer lame.

So we now have the Spencer Wilton clinic to look forwards to on Wednesday…