Beth always seems so innocent, but she's not! She likes to set up hard, sneaky, challenging grids. But while they are always tough, they are always helpful. Today was no exception.
She started us out with alternating rails coming into the grid, which was three bounces. The trot poles made us really have to slow the rhythm down so that the horses could concentrate on their footsteps. And sure enough, if they ran through it, it was awkward. When I slowed it down and let Fleck see it, he was able to dance through it properly. And that set him up on his hiney so that he could get through the bounces without losing energy. It wasn't too tough at first, but as the fences got bigger, it became more obvious when they were losing power. Beth did the alternating angled fences in the bounces to help us focus on straightness. By alternating them, the horses had to really rock back on their haunches and fire evenly off both hind feet. You can see it in the video. But man... was it hard!
But look! When we got it right, Fleck was really rocking back and firing!
ooh interesting way of setting up grids... perhaps to help with straightness?
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