Mort and I started the clinic like most do--with our regular warm-up. I generally let him walk a couple laps each direction on a loose rein then play a bit with changes of direction on contact, but not collected. I just test to make sure he moves off my leg when I ask and lets me play with him with little fuss. We then usually do the same in the trot work. We do long and low each direction and a couple of small leg yields (often on a circle). After that I usually canter him a bit each direction trying to make sure that his hind end is really powering the ride. At this point I consider us physically warmed up and start actually "riding". My goal with this warm-up is to test his attitude and responsiveness while slowly powering up that hind end. It's not good enough at this point in our riding anymore.
Essentially Holger said that the hind end was so powered up that his sticky shoulders were struggling to keep up. TBs are often really stuck in the front end and Mort is no exception. We get to his comfort zone and stop there. Obviously this isn't awful, but we're not going to get that wow factor ever. (Is this the story of my life or what?) He said I need a whole lot more lateral work in the warm-up to get his shoulders working and up. Not only do we need more lateral movement but my lateral work is just "nice". He's calm and obedient, but it's not really pushing the envelope in terms of actually increasing Mort's range of motion. Moral of the story is the same as always--I need to push my horse more because he's capable of a lot more than I give him credit for.
We started with a very functional leg yield exercise that had us leg yielding out of a corner toward the middle then turning back toward the same wall, while leg yielding his butt around that turn, to leg yield the other direction back toward the middle. You only use half of the arena but it gets you working both directions. I liked it because it worked and wasn't overly complicated. We again got some talk about "nice" versus having a "plus one" option. Essentially if I think I can get more I should ask for more. Eventually I'll hit his limit but I also need to keep pushing this limit over time because it will get further and further from where we are now. We had some good work started and his left shoulder is definitely more free than his right.
Here is a link to a video of us working on this exercise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4lNLzwXyu4&feature=youtu.be
The next thing we worked on was shoulder-in. It gave even more focus to that outside shoulder really lifting. We put in a lot of half-halts to try and put that hesitation in his stride. Lots of forward and backing off to try and find that sweet spot between pushing too far and being complacent. I really enjoy watching the videos between the two exercises and watching his trot become more and more swinging and free and uphill. All this work really had him focusing on me well and we both felt very light and connected--that feeling we're all always searching for.
Here is the next video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l7JByJugGo&feature=youtu.be
We worked a little more on shoulder-in in the walk and trot after that then tried to do some of these in the canter. It really pointed out that my half-halts in the canter are more of a suggestion that Mort decides whether he wants to listen to or not. He'd shoulder-in, but it took us about half of the darn long side to get a decent one. So instead of continuing down this freight train we adjusted to another exercise. We are all (probably) familiar with some sort of square exercise. He set up an octagon instead with the inside line being about three feet from the outside line and we had to stay between them. The goal is three strides of canter then a turn, keeping him straight between the turns and not letting him just turn it into a circle. It was tough and still further pointed out my inability to get a good half-halt out of him in the canter. We'd get a few in a row then he'd try to swing his butt out instead of actually using himself and it would take another two turns to get him back again. We were a hot mess.
We worked on this some more, but instead of just keeping the canter every two-three strides I'd drop him back to trot, then back up to canter. All of the down transitions helped make my half-halts more effective. After a handful of these he was a lot more uphill and attentive. By the time we did some of this each direction we'd been riding for an hour and fifteen and we were both tired and sweaty. Mort never asked to quit and I just fall in love more and more with that OTTB work ethic.
Holger said that Mort has a lot of potential and I just need to keep pushing the envelope and not settling for "nice". We came away with a lot of homework and renewed importance on me working harder. He had yesterday off and enjoyed a long nap. We've got a schooling show this weekend so most of this week will be focused on breaking down some pieces of tests and working on the regular items, but next week I look forward to pushing the envelope more and more.
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