An Experiment in the Use of Constructive Criticism

lui23456 said:
Ive missed your reports too and Im really not qualified to give CC at all!!

Love the dressage (I wish my tests looked like that) especially loving your hands Im trying to master that at the moment!

As others have pointed out he jumps to the left, and I can see why he knocked that fence he just lost the canter a little but a great rhythm!

X-C looks fab very confident!!
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Thank you, lui23456, I've been trying hard with my hands but need to improve them more as I have a bit of a wayward left elbow which blocks him, not a good thing on his bad side. :(

I think a softer, more forward rhythm would be even better, and I'm sure I can get that over the winter.

We love our xc together, even if he does scare me sometimes by not paying any attention to the fence until about two strides out. :eek:
 
Rouletterose said:
Lovely horse, in the dressage he's not really tracking up in trot but what he does have is a fabulous rythm in fact I would say excellent rythm.

In the first canter back to the track he was very unbalanced and all your weight went to the left as you tried to help him, as someone else said this probably reflects jumping to the left, is he as much as he should be off your left leg?

Lots of leg yeilding etc on the right rein to push him and make him listen to your left leg aids and take the right rein.

lovely horse and you are obviously a very good competent rider.
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Thank you, Rouletterose, I was hoping you would add to this thread.

You're right that he's not off my left leg enough and he does seem to shift me onto the wrong seatbone in a millisecond, not helped by him being very round! Interestingly, or to me anyway, I had been leg yielding but had had him too straight and a bit "rammed" together whereas the trainer I had a lesson with the other day had me really softening the outside hand when I flexed him left to make him balance himself, rather than meeting my outside hand and having it support him. I'm not sure I've explained that very well. :o

Thank you for your last comment but as I said earlier, I'm not happy with my riding and feel like I've been running to stand still. Hopefully I'll get back on track soon as I'm frustrated as hell! :mad:
 
claire_p2001 said:
I am only going to mention the SJ and say what I see :)

I thought it was a lovely smooth round and much improved from previous videos when i watched it i felt confident you were going to clear the fences. Previously it sometimes looked a bit 'hairy' you have def got him under control more and he is not firing so much at the fences. The only time the rhythm was lost was on the way to the oxer which you had down as you already said the canter got too slow and you ended up too deep. I think this may have started at the previous fence it looks to me like you didn't regain control soon enough after that fence. If you watch it back you only begin to regain the canter and ask for the flying change when you are almost at the corner then when you turn you lose the shoulder and then the canter. I would have probably done the same thing as you waited for the short one :) In hindsight you should have moved up round the corner and taken one less but what is to say he wouldn't have been careless on that stride as well? I'm am currently being told over and over to move the canter up round the corner and then wait for the fence when i am straight on the bigger canter. So to sum up try to regain the canter sooner after the fence :) Easier said than done.

Thanks for posting again we miss your updates.
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Thanks so much, claire_p2001, your showjumping perspective is much appreciated.

I agree that I'm slow after a fence, much drilling is needed or maybe just a lesser fold over the fence, therefore less work to do to get back to where I was before take-off? I agree that I probably should have moved him round that corner but I'd already decided I was going to do the oxer to the double on six and not five as most people have, so maybe if I had and he'd left that up, I may well have struggled to get him back for the double and had a problem there. :rolleyes: Essentially, and to summarise, I'm slow, he's a bit of a tank, and those two things combined are making us have fences.:p Boo. However I shall take heart from the fact that you think it has improved from the last vids you saw, even though I know full well it's far from perfect. :)
 
coreteam1 said:
Ok, wish I was brave enough to jump like I did when I was younger, so no cc there from me! :D Well done

Dressage, nice test, I would never want to do dressage on grass, although you probably had studs in?
Well done :)
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Thanks, coreteam1, I did have studs in but this is the horse who created "the left/right game" and I use decent sized ones so that if he does decide to play we at least have a chance of staying upright. :p
 
Vetwrap said:
Can't see the vids at work and as I am not anywhere near knowledgeable enough to give CC, I probably won't... but threads like this are really useful to those of us who ARE trying to learn what to look for and work on. I know already that my youngster is very one sided, something that I will have to work on with him. Then, maybe, if I am brave enough, next year, I might put up something myself for some CC on.

We'll see....

CC is very important and can be very educational for anyone who views it in that light.
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I agree, Vetwrap, it's good to learn from others' mistakes and I think this is proving to be a very interesting and civilised thread. I'll look forward to seeing some of yours soon. :)
 
horseywelsh said:
Not watched the vids as short of time today so no CC from me BUT reason for posting is I too have missed your reports, especially your SJ lesson with LD reports ... used to find these very inetersteing and picked up some useful tips/exercises.
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No worries, horseywelsh, I appreciate that not everyone has time to ponder over stuff on here. ;) I'll maybe post some more LD lesson reports once I'm jumping again.
 
Glad to see you back BD, I also enjoy your reports :)

I am not really qualified to criticise, constructively or otherwise ;) but I thought you got the best out of Jup in each phase at his current level of training :)

The ONLY way I could possibly add is if you were to send Jupiter to me for say, 6 months :D:D:D
 
Sadly work blocks YT and so I can't marvel at Jooooop. :( But since I am absolutely not able to offer more advice than "wrong diagonal", "boots on upside down" or "saddle back to front", all of which I am sure you are not guilty of, it's not going to affect any CC that I can give! :p

I just wanted to say that I wish I could ride as "badly" as you do on a "bad" day on one of my good days! ;) You have been superwoman this last season and done far more than many of us mere mortals could have done (heck, I get a sniffle and would complain that it affects me riding a prelim DR test or jumping 90cm, never mind riding a cheeky boy or two round Nov BE! :p ).

Once you get back on an even keel, get your strength back and can apply Kick Ass Kermit fully to the cheeky boys rather than other things, then your inner perfectionist will be more satisfied I'm sure. :)

Keep on keepin' on and enjoy the journey! :D ;)
 
alwaysbroke said:
Having tried to film D_K going xc this year sympathies to your OH, its not an easy job holding a small camera:D

No CC on about your riding from me, you do a far better job than I would ever hope to achieve, but I do think you can be a little hard on yourself, you haven't had the easiest of years and you are still out there 'doing it', that in its self is a huge achievement:)

Must say I have missed your reports as well.

Ah and Spotted Cat 'spot on' with your post:D
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Yeah yeah, whose side are you on? :p In fact, there was some comedy vid when I tried to film SuperFran one day, so I should shut up!

Thanks for the kind words, but I'm still frustrated and upset about how things are....with my riding, I mean, not the other stuff. :rolleyes:
 
VRIN said:
Not CC but you remarked about your horse being a bit 'casual' over the smaller jumps...

Have you seen the Clayton Fredericks series on the Horse and Country channel - specifically the one about warming a horse up for the SJ phase?

Well worth a look if you haven't but he has two horses one a bit laid back (maybe 'casual') the other quite sharp.

Anyway when he warms his 'laid back' chap up, he brings him in quite slow and gets deep so that the horse has to 'pick his feet up' and make a bit of an effort... haven't really explained it well but seriously take a look if you haven't already...

Tried his ideas with my laid back - in fact almost horizontal - horse at weekend and it certainly seemed to help.
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Thanks, VRIN, I haven't seen that one but will endeavour to seek it out and try it once I'm back jumping again. :)
 
Can I give a top tip to the camera man, rather than offer CC?

Instead of videoing and watching over the top of the camera watch the horse through the camera screen. Sounds really basic, but unless I actually focus on videoing the horse, rather than watching and videoing my attempts look like your OHs. Unfortunately, it's all for my little sister who has no qualms in telling me off, and she's terrifying!

Jupiter is lovely and manages to look as happy in himself as ever, but also a little more 'in his box' rather than doing whatever pleases! He's fab, and well done on your good results :) I miss your reports!
 
emmyc said:
Glad to see you back BD, I also enjoy your reports :)

I am not really qualified to criticise, constructively or otherwise ;) but I thought you got the best out of Jup in each phase at his current level of training :)

The ONLY way I could possibly add is if you were to send Jupiter to me for say, 6 months :D:D:D
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Thank you, emmyc. I did what I could at that moment in time but it doesn't mean I can't improve on it, and I think a lot of what's required is training myself to do the right thing automatically, not the wrong thing, so it becomes second nature hopefully.

Don't tempt me with sending him to you, although I'd give it 2 weeks before you were begging me to take him back. ;)
 
Baydale said:
:D You knew what I meant, baring my soul not baring my butt, and whilst I'm definitely up for a bit of cyber butt-kicking everyone seems to be being terribly polite. Am I really that scary? :eek: Ah, you don't know, do you, as you've never met me? Feel free to bring Mally over to meet her twin. :)
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I asked for CC on Mally once and everyone was terribly nice, I took it to mean they thought my horse was awful but I was far too fragile to handle the truth :D
You weren't terribly scary at Oasby, but then I felt I could outrun you if necessary without too much effort :p
 
FigJam said:
Sadly work blocks YT and so I can't marvel at Jooooop. :( But since I am absolutely not able to offer more advice than "wrong diagonal", "boots on upside down" or "saddle back to front", all of which I am sure you are not guilty of, it's not going to affect any CC that I can give! :p

I just wanted to say that I wish I could ride as "badly" as you do on a "bad" day on one of my good days! ;) You have been superwoman this last season and done far more than many of us mere mortals could have done (heck, I get a sniffle and would complain that it affects me riding a prelim DR test or jumping 90cm, never mind riding a cheeky boy or two round Nov BE! :p ).

Once you get back on an even keel, get your strength back and can apply Kick Ass Kermit fully to the cheeky boys rather than other things, then your inner perfectionist will be more satisfied I'm sure. :)

Keep on keepin' on and enjoy the journey! :D ;)
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C'mon, FigJam, I know you're busy winning rosettes and stuff but you really should give me some cc if you get a chance to look at them....no pressure! :p

I'd like to think my inner perfectionist will be 90% satisfied at some point but I think Kick Ass Kermit has some serious work to do to get back up to speed. As it's me who harps on about enjoying the journey is it wrong to say that some of this year has been bloomin harder work than ever before, but in a different way. :confused: Ungrateful cow, aren't I, when I have so much I should be grateful for? :o Self-absorbed whinge is over now. :)
 
Lolo said:
Can I give a top tip to the camera man, rather than offer CC?

Instead of videoing and watching over the top of the camera watch the horse through the camera screen. Sounds really basic, but unless I actually focus on videoing the horse, rather than watching and videoing my attempts look like your OHs. Unfortunately, it's all for my little sister who has no qualms in telling me off, and she's terrifying!

Jupiter is lovely and manages to look as happy in himself as ever, but also a little more 'in his box' rather than doing whatever pleases! He's fab, and well done on your good results :) I miss your reports!
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I'll tell him that but tbh he's not really that interested in doing it any better for the afore-mentioned reason ie. he hates doing it. :rolleyes:

Thanks for your comment that he looks more in his box, I do think he improves ever year in that regard and so perhaps the fact that I haven't posted for a while has made it more obvious that he's able to contain himself?
 
My thoughts on the SJ

All meant as positive so hopefully won't be misinterpreted 

You have a tendency to support him of the floor too much then not release enough in the air which results in you leaning on your hands and doing the chicken dance with your elbows in the air. As you are balancing on your hands you lose your lower leg base of support and then take a while too long to re balance yourself on landing. This is why I think you had the fence, took to long to rebalance yourself, then balance horse, then ask for change, the balance after the change for the turn at which point I think you had overshot slightly and all the re balancing cause a but of a backward canter and lack of implosion so you went for a backwards deep one to probably the biggest squarest oxer in the course.....,

My recommendations... Try to be a little less supportive off the floor, remember it's the horses job to jump, our job to try and get them there as balanced as we can and in a reasonable take off position. Allow him to operate under you.

Try and keep your lower keg base of support and not lean on your hands in the air, this will mean you sit up and balance yourself quicker and are therefore quicker to balance the horse.

I know you have said he is a bit stiff and a bit strong but when you get the last half stride before a fence, try to soften to him, give him the chance to throw a nice shape.

As far as the horse goes - he jumps a little inverted which IMHO could be because of a little too much support if the floor. in training if he wants to make a mistake let him. He looks like he has a conscious. He could also be a little softer and supple through the back particularly behind the saddle, but still young and weak.

Hope this all makes sense. Apologies for any grammatical errors, typing on iPhone and autocorrect can be a bugger sometimes......
 
Baydale said:
I'll tell him that but tbh he's not really that interested in doing it any better for the afore-mentioned reason ie. he hates doing it. :rolleyes:

Thanks for your comment that he looks more in his box, I do think he improves ever year in that regard and so perhaps the fact that I haven't posted for a while has made it more obvious that he's able to contain himself?
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You need to find a 17yo girl who insists on every second of her time on a horse is videoed so she can rip her riding to shreds later on... He'll be videoing beautifully in about 3 days (I hate it with a vengeance, but it's more than my life's worth not to!!).

It must be a hard one to balance- he needs to be polite and aware that you know more than him about everything and rideable but also keep him feeling that "top of the world" feeling so he's confident in himself? It's like the ponies who do all the PC opens and PTs, only in extra-large, lol!
 
Glad you are back and posting, and hope all is as well as can be with you :)
No CC from me, except to say a great partnership in the making :)
 
Anusol has Lidocaine in it, which is useful for all sorts of things, I've stuck it in the dogs ear and on my gums. It's just a bit embarassing to buy, and you probs want a new tube if you are going to put it in your mouth.
 
Ok, so here is Juno's PM, in its entirety, that he agreed to let me post having thoughtfully checked and double-checked that I wanted to hear it first:

Before I start I just want to say that I hope you know how highly I regard your riding. No way would I have invited you to ride Juno if i didn't. I've also watched quite a few BS rounds you've done and when with a pupil told them that you are the perfect example of what they should be striving for.
So its from this basis of knowing what you are capable of that I make this comment.

When I watched your round at Keysoe my first though was WTF has happened to your riding. Now dont get me wrong, for most it would have been a good round but for you it wasn't.
What struck me from that round and from the vid you posted is that Hank appears to be the sort that would rush if allowed to do so. In attempting to prevent this I feel you have started riding defensively and in so doing you are restricting the canter too much, almost to the point of shortening the last 3 strides. You are also leaning forward on the flat at times between fences. Again something I have never seen you do before. I would have expected you to ride more positively, pushing him to the contact whilst also allowing him the freedom to use himself. All the time maintain the integrity of your position.

Now I am probably talking complete *******s so please feel free to ignore me.
However if there is a grain of truth in what I think and you decide to copy this on to the forum I insist you copy the complete response including the first part.

Really hope I haven't spoken out of turn but you did ask. :o

Before I go into any of the finer detail, I think what hit me about this is that Juno has seen me a few times over the years and he could see a difference. I had a wake-up call when I watched some very old (2000) vid of me on William at Belton; admittedly that was an established horse in an Advanced, but also some of me on Tango in a Novice the same year. I was, frankly, shocked at how badly I'm riding now, by comparison. I talked this through with meardsall_millie and she v kindly said it's riding younger, less experienced horses, but I think it's more than that.

I know the sport has moved on a lot in the last decade or so but I've realised I'm struggling to keep up. Having breast cancer and chemo was never going to improve my riding, admittedly, :p but I seem to have lost core stability too. I wonder if I lost that when I fractured my pelvis and never quite got it back? I'm just thinking out loud now, but are there any medical folk who might like to have some input? Anyhoo, what I do know is that training is essential and I've prioritised that more now that I so obviously have a problem with my riding. I had my first dressage lesson last week for 2 years probably, and whilst she said there were just little things to work on I pointed out that there are a lot of little things! :eek: Oh well, I like a challenge. :D

Soooo, I'd like suggestions of things to do to help me get my core stability back please. My mental sharpness - never a thing of greatness before chemo - has also suffered, so handy hints on how to improve that would be good too. I promise I'll try anything, within reason, or I will when I've got the ok from my consultant tomorrow night that my fractured fibula is mending ok four weeks after I got trodden on. :eek: :o

Thank you, JunoXV, for pointing out the big thing, my riding. All the Jupiter stuff is being worked on and will improve before next season. I'm sure you'll agree that at 1m it's easy to ride nice, smooth rounds where the fences stay up but at 1.10m you get found out. :rolleyes:
 
All the things I do are great for core stability and are also low impact on fractured and broken bits! It depends on whether you want things you can do at home or not, because if you want 'home' stuff then I'm not your girl, sorry :(

Interesting about the core stuff as that would also explain the collapsing I saw....(but no-one else did so probably doesn't exist!)
 
Baydale - the best thing for core stability I've found is working on the flat and over small fences without stirrups, or if possible on a nice quiet well rounded ponio, going bareback. You'll be amazed how quickly you core improves!!
 
Hi
Can't offer any cc on the riding... Far more experienced people than me have got that covered.
But, have you tried either pilates or hydrotherapy for your core strength ? Are you able to see a physiotherapist who deals with sports injuries/ rehab?
Stating the obvious I know.
As for mental alertness, those bloody sudoku puzzles, (that I can never do ) ?
Kx
 
Sounds to me rather like self doubt more than anything. It can't help that you've been through the mill, and had to face your own mortality. I think confidence is the key to positive forward riding and you may not recognise that you are less confident, but as soon as it's apparent it can be a downward spiral.(From the horses mouth here - I literally forgot how to ride, couldn't canter into a small fence)
I may be even worse when you are a high achiever, which you are, and when you set the bar high, without it seems, slowing down for treatments etc.
It also doesn't help if you have a horse/horses which are keen to find you out, which Jupiter seems to be. He is a machine XC but a sharp boy on the flat and hardly a relaxing ride.
 
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