Pan Progress

Winter starts and after days of rain and mud it dawns clear....with a little relief from the cold. So I took the opportunity to catch up with Pan,(Canyonleigh Paeon), working with Emma Armstrong at Heath Ryan's establishment at Heatherbrae. He'd had his first jump, indoors, Emma riding, under Heath's direction, on Tuesday night. Heath's comments, "he looks good, very snappy pick-up in front and careful; learnt quickly"!Emma elaborated: trotted over poles, then to cross rails, then vertical, then raised vertical, then poles to vertical, then vertical to pole; coped very well."
This is an impressive progression for a horse that had only ever seen a jump once before (when trialled on lunge with Craig Barrett.)
Emma anticipates giving him a couple more 'pops' over the next few days and then taking him to Jump Club at Maitland Showground for his first real outing on Sunday next.
On the flat, he's working forward, into the bridle, flexing readliy off the inside leg at trot, cathching into the rider's outside leg to straighten and go forward and looking very balenced in a regular tempo at trot. Canter is a bit rushed as yet; the next "ask" is to maintain the regular tempo with flexion to the rider's leg as already attained at the trot. It's great to see such obvious development in such a short time.He's only been back in work for three weeks!!
He's already growing, with the stimulus of work, and changing shape; changing from 'baby' to 'real working horse', and totally enjoying his work, surrounded by other horses in work; (Dressage star and super-sire Regardez-Moi, Rozzie Ryan's upcoming superstar Jive Magic, baby superstar Fiji, Emma's 3* veteran Voortrekker, and others.) These guys are great visual learners, as well as kinaesthetic partners to their riders.
He's got a great opportunity to learn from the best and I'm delighted he's showing the talent I expected from a cousin of Rocco and nephew to JP!!