No Pumping Canter Departs!

On a whim, I was able to nab a spot with clinician Alex Gerding on Thursday afternoon for a dressage lesson.

You may know Mr. Gerding from this:



I find it too bad that his lessons are so ungodly expensive, because I LOVED HIM. He picked out our flaws right away and we went straight to work fixing Hampton's issues. I came away with several new exercises AND ... AND ... I asked him if he would help us put the foundation for half-pass on and within 10 minutes were were half-passing from the centerline to the rail! He was bossy and no-nonsense with high standards which is the type of teacher I THRIVE on. We also worked on counter-canter, transitions, haunches-in and leg yield zig-zags.

I laughed out loud after he scolded me for schooching Hamps into the canter during a walk-canter transition. I tend to do this when he is behind my leg. Alex (in his German accent) says "Hold it!!! There will be NO pumping canter departs!" ... so I had a do-over. Exactly what I need!

He is also a hoot to hang out with, especially after a few beers. He just doesn't give a crap about politics, so he says. He sure did have some mighty interesting things to say about our Olympic teams ... and some not-so-politically correct things to say about Obama, Native Americans and immigration. A total riot to be around.

This morning I had a jumping lesson with E, and Hamps was game for that, too. We worked on some gymnastics. One stride to one stride, bending line to a vertical, roll back to another vertical, a fairly large oxer and we also jumped a skinny! Yup, he ran out a couple of times, but it was my fault for not putting him together quick enough. Overall really productive.

Hamps will get a few days off now ... unfortunately, he has a sore back and some nasty skin issues. I BELIEVE his sore back is from rain rot/skin funk right where the saddle goes as it seems like it is skin-sensitive and not muscle-sensative if that makes sense. Someone may have bit him but I can't find any broken skin, just funky hair. The saddle is probably irritating it. Poor guy. I've been treating with MTG.

He's got gross bug/heat bumps on his neck and some patches of missing hair on his face - probably from more funk or fungus. Gross.

Kudos to his new farrier, Bobby, who did a really nice job. When I had Hamps trimmed back in May, by the guy who does most of the other horses on the farm, he was shockingly tender and footsore on gravel. He has NEVER been tender after a trim in his life. So I tried a new guy this time around and thankfully Hamps has no issues with gravel this time!

That wraps up this installment of What Karen Has Been Doing to Torture Hampton.