Well, it appears that summer is coming with a vengeance- it was over 100 this last weekend and it pretty much took away any desire to anything too extensive with Max. However, Saturday was very interesting and Max definately performed beyond expectations. Basically, I decided to do a quick ride around Hansen Dam Lake and call it quits on account of the heat- it was beating down pretty fierce even at 10 am.
I rode over to Gabriellano Park and ran into a friend of mine rehearsing his mounted group- basically a drill team of sorts specializing in replicating Napoleonic era cavalry (mostly, he also does some stuff from later eras). Personally, the Napoleonic period really doesn't interest me but the idea of working Max as a cavalry horse does so I've always maintained some interest. I'd worked with them before some fours years back but really didn't pursue it too much because Max was having issues and I wasn't really interested in working with a drill team (not to mention Max's trailering problems at the time).
Anyway, my friend needed an additional horse & rider to make for an even 10 so he asked me join in. So I did and I have to say, Max was extremely cooperative and pretty much fell into the routine. I was a bit nervious because I didn't know what his reaction would be, working close to other horses and in some cases, sandwiched between two horses in formation. Max pretty much got into it although he back out a couple of times when the line became compressed as we practiced left and right wheels. He also kept pace with the other horses in line and didn't try to move out beyond the line, even when there was another rank moving in front of him and everyone was at the trot.
Charging in line at the canter also went well although I could tell that Max was focusing on trying to keep up with the other horses (which he couldn't do too well since many of the other horses are much more fast- Arabs, Lusitanos and the like).
I might have to do some more work with Max in this sort of thing just to get him trained used to cavalry manuevers. I also have to say that all the work I've been doing on side passes, leg-yields, and overall leg-use have really paid off. Also, my seat seems to be steady and my hands were relatively quiet. I was able to view everything on video afterwards since they had someone shooting footage.
We did this for about 1 1/2 hours and then retired to my friend's house to rest up- it was just too hot to really do much more. While we didn't do a lot of riding, what we did was pretty decent and I was pleased with Max.
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