When you think of beginner suitable horses I don’t think a common response would be my 160km fit arab. Despite Tissy’s need for speed and running off with Dan at full on canter a couple of times, the insistent jogging and occasional head throwing she wasn’t actually too bad.
And who can blame her for wanting to have a blast, especially as we were riding on the track we usually do our canter training on. Despite this Dan learnt a lot, she’s not a push button pony, but I know she’s safe, she will always slow for corners, she even plans for them by changing her canter lead before the corner. Dan had to be firm with his aids to get her to walk and transition down from canter and trot. She’s forward going and requires very little encouragement to pick up the pace so Dan really had to ‘ride’ her rather than be the passenger.
By the end they were doing short sections of canter and coming back down to trot and walk with ease and minimal tail swishing. Qantas as usual was very well behaved especially with walking around in the pond at the end of the session. I was also really impressed that, although he wanted to blast off after Tissy, he stayed with me and wasn’t too difficult to handle and keep back. An excellent skill in an endurance horse.
I’ll take Tissy here again soon and ride her myself, that way she can go as fast as she likes and have a bit of fun!
Beth Endurance 