Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Orange County with Devon and her project horse Oxsana.

When we first began working with Oxsana she was having some problems from an old injury on her ankle and issues with her saddle fit. She was sore in the shoulders and every time the saddle would hit her she would look like she was off. Happily we have come a long ways since those days which we will show you now.

Devon is going to keep her in a stretch and go into a rising trot. We ask for a little more swing in her trot so that she will swing through a little more in the rising trot. Now it looks quite even. Now to develop her working trot she will bring the poll up, finding that place as high as it can go as long as it doesn’t interfere with the stride of the horse and keeps tracking through. As Devon turns down the center line she will show us a leg yield to the left, very nicely done! Now she changes rein down the diagonal and then lets her stretch all the way back down again in the circle.

Devon has begun to sit to the trot on this horse which she will demonstrate in the video. She is already in the stretch so she is going to sit to the trot in the stretch. She shows us how to sit to the trot without changing the rhythm or balance of the horse, beautifully done! Look how nice and relaxed her legs are, they are moving a little bit there, but of course she doesn’t have any boots on either which tends to exaggerate that. Now she goes back into the rising trot and develops it into the working trot bringing the poll back up. This horse has become so lovely and even! Devon goes large as she continues her working trot and does a little lengthening down the long side.

As you can notice in the video she is on the wrong diagonal because she is sore in the shoulder, so we only rise to one diagonal for a little while with this horse to let it heal. For a horse that was questionable a few months back about whether she would come back up or not, this one is looking very good! She develops the working trot as she goes large again. Once again she will bring her poll up again as high as she can without losing the rhythm or engagement of the horse.

Devon will now demonstrate the canter on Oxsana, and shows us a very nice transition. Oxsana is cantering very nicely over her back! She stretches her all the way down in a circle and look how lovely she is able to stretch in the canter. You should stretch horses in all three gaits. After she takes her canter down the long side she will demonstrate a shallow loop serpentine in the counter canter, maintaining the rhythm. Shallow loop serpentine means she will come out to X and back to the same side with no change of lead. Across the next diagonal she is going to perform a single flying change at X. Down the next long side she will show us another shallow loop serpentine. Always do your counter canter before doing flying changes, otherwise the flying changes can become very difficult. Oxsana is still working beautifully over her back. Down the next diagonal she tries three changes in four strides. That was a four and a five but not bad and quite rhythmic. She tries one more time across the next diagonal and gets it beautifully that time! Now she will let the horse stretch back down in the circle and then back down into the trot. Look how she made the transition without throwing her head up into the air, very very nice! Devon has only done the flying changes a handful of times and this is only the third time she has done the tempi changes! We are very happy with the way that went, so we ease her back down into the walk to reward her.

This is Devon and Oxsana here in Orange County and she has done a beautiful job of rehabbing this horse and bringing it along, now she has a lovely horse to ride! Thank you all very much, this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride.

classical foundation flying changes San Diego horse training shallow loop serpentine stretch tempi changes video critique Will Faerber working trot