ann-jen
Well-Known Member
Ok so it was our 4th jumping lesson today and things have been going great since the last one but we seemed to have a relapse today.
Basically the idea of todays lesson was 4 jumps at A, C, B and E, our school is about 40m square so it was like a giant circle of jumps. We managed this fine in trot so coach decided as she was going so well to start approaching in canter. We started with single fences which initially went fine although on the right rein she felt quite tense and tail swishy. Then we tried stringing 2 together and the tenseness increased to tiny bucks and kick backs and getting faster on the approach.
I'm not sure what it is that sets me off - but when Jenny starts to get tense for some reason I start to lift my hands too high and coach says this makes her worse and so we wind each other up further. I'm having to hold the neck strap to stop myself doing it.
Anyway we were a bit wrong to one of the jumps and knocked it down - Jen is a careful horse and hates knocking jumps down so she had a full on broncing session after that.
We then had to try to settle her back down so went back to trying to get her to trot into the fence and pull up in a straight line - which was quite hard as she was going like a train by this point and I was worried we were going to jump out of the arena if we carried on in a straight line! The only way we could settle her in the end was with coach stood in front of the fence I had to walk and halt in front of her and once she was doing this calmly trot and stop in front of her and eventually she moved out the way when we trotted in and so we carried on and jumped the fence and managed the pull up in a straight line - hooray!
My homework is to practice cantering over poles on the ground and pulling up in a straight line. Normally I would be feeling very down after such a rubbish lesson but she was firing up like this on a trot approach 1 month ago and so I feel if I stick to my 'homework' eventually canter approaches will become as boring as trot approaches which we are doing really well now.
Anyway I suppose I do feel a little bit down but having a bad session seems to have made me feel more determined - possibly because we still have a plan to stick to which I can see working. Jen is going to be bored witless with cantering over poles and then halting by our next lesson.
Anyway thanks for reading - it helps to get it off my chest
Basically the idea of todays lesson was 4 jumps at A, C, B and E, our school is about 40m square so it was like a giant circle of jumps. We managed this fine in trot so coach decided as she was going so well to start approaching in canter. We started with single fences which initially went fine although on the right rein she felt quite tense and tail swishy. Then we tried stringing 2 together and the tenseness increased to tiny bucks and kick backs and getting faster on the approach.
I'm not sure what it is that sets me off - but when Jenny starts to get tense for some reason I start to lift my hands too high and coach says this makes her worse and so we wind each other up further. I'm having to hold the neck strap to stop myself doing it.
Anyway we were a bit wrong to one of the jumps and knocked it down - Jen is a careful horse and hates knocking jumps down so she had a full on broncing session after that.
We then had to try to settle her back down so went back to trying to get her to trot into the fence and pull up in a straight line - which was quite hard as she was going like a train by this point and I was worried we were going to jump out of the arena if we carried on in a straight line! The only way we could settle her in the end was with coach stood in front of the fence I had to walk and halt in front of her and once she was doing this calmly trot and stop in front of her and eventually she moved out the way when we trotted in and so we carried on and jumped the fence and managed the pull up in a straight line - hooray!
My homework is to practice cantering over poles on the ground and pulling up in a straight line. Normally I would be feeling very down after such a rubbish lesson but she was firing up like this on a trot approach 1 month ago and so I feel if I stick to my 'homework' eventually canter approaches will become as boring as trot approaches which we are doing really well now.
Anyway I suppose I do feel a little bit down but having a bad session seems to have made me feel more determined - possibly because we still have a plan to stick to which I can see working. Jen is going to be bored witless with cantering over poles and then halting by our next lesson.
Anyway thanks for reading - it helps to get it off my chest
