Back to Basics to remind her who’s in control – Jump Training report

[langside]

Well that was the aim and now I feel really stupid writing this but I still find myself typing

To cut along story short I’ve really been struggling with the beast and her ‘attitude’ since before, during and after our JAS experience

To be fair to her that’s probably a bit harsh as those of you that know her would probably describe her as keen but We’ve hit that wall where she thinks she knows best and has got a slight diva-ness attitude of I can do anything I don’t need your input which was fine at the lower levels but now we’re moving up so after many talks we’ve decided to take the step to go back to basics (before it gets really dangerous) and therefore we have to be prepared for one step forward and two back………. And believe me we’re doing exactly that

!!!

So the plan at the moment is to get the basics sorted my position and her balance que lots of dressage with Claire at home which also means lots of tantrums

as this is technically replacing her hunting time

and re showjumping working at small heights in order to get the basics back = boring but needed

But on Thursday saw that Osbaldeston was still open for Jump Training and thought it would be a better choice than a normal show jumping outing (reports such as Oldgit remind me why i hate sj warmups/ experiences sometimes

)…… but should have figured that things wouldn’t go to plan after our practise that evening

Warm up – well she was just a PRAT and I rode her equally like a PRAT sorry no other way to phrase it
all our work trying to balance her in canter was not evident at all

heres a the video of the short time she wasn’t too horrific if you want to view: (Jeanette Brakewell was warming us up)



Went in and jumps were small but exactly what I wanted in hope of keeping in control i.e taking the strides that I want and not what she wants which is often a LONG ONE

when theres no need!! and keep in balance and work on my position.
And the prat theme continued as once again non of it happened especially my part yukk!!….see vids below

Round1


Round2


Im just really annoyed and a bit fed up and don’t really know where to go

Not sure if I should just get on with it and just accept that we’re going to knock them down as she’s so keen you could probably ride her towards 1.40 and she’d take you to it in the same way as a 80cm fence but there’s probably only a tiny chance either will stay up or we should just stay at lower levels as neither of us is improving enough to move on just feel like money has completely been wasted lately

But im not going to finish on a complete bummer so the positive is that I enjoyed the concept of Jump training and found both trainers great especially Sylvia Farmer (who I’d never heard of before) and she was just fab

Think im turning into a bit of alcoholic as im offering a glass of wine again

(white today though) if you got this far

 

[rotters13]

Hard luck. I'm sending vibes.... (

 

[Lolo]

I don't know if we're watching the same videos? She looks keen, but you brought her back to trot without massive fuss, you chose nice strides, you sat deep and pushed her on and she looked calm and fairly respectful (if a little bit like she found it all oh so easy). What exactly is dangerous and out of control (and this isn't meant to sound rude- I am fairly thick about stuff like this, but I feel I'm missing the point)?

She looks fab, and you gave her a lovely round...

 

[worMy]

sylvia is awesome - shes my JRN co-ord.
shes so lovely

 

[diggerbez]

it really doesn't look that bad

in fact i think it looks pretty good...yes she looks strong but i think that you ride her really nicely, most of the time you hit the fences on a nice stride and you give with your hands nicely- which is hard on a horse that pulls like a train....

what feedback did the trainers give you

 

[langside]

im feeling 'very spoilt brattish' when i say this but it just wasn't anywhere near what i wanted (sorry running to corner to hide now in shame

) just i know whats going wrong - people have been telling me and ive been working on them just it doesn't seem to be showing and i keep looking at the videos and picking more and more things up

I think because the fences are small its hiding some of our serious cracks which show alot more in bigger classes or in xc for instance her no-fear has got us into trouble xc resulting in us stitting on a fence rather than jumping over because she took a stride out

something i don't want to repeat

I appreciate your comments and they do cheer me up but i don't know is im just going through that 'slump' phase or what its just so frustraiting knowing that i have the ingrediants just nothing to mix them with

PS Wormy im very jealous would easily go to have a full leson with her is we lived closer

 

[dieseldog]

I thought she looked better in the second video - she did respect the bigger jumps. The warm up looked really small (size of arena) I always find in small ones that I worry so much about stopping and turning after the fence that it makes it a not very nice experience.

 

[ann-jen]

Hey - stop being so hard on yourselves - I think you looked great.

 

[Mabel98]

Have to say i can't see the problem, I'm no expert but it's forward and your horse has a serious jump!

 

[charlie76]

I think she looked great. Esp in the 2nd vid.

 

[Festive_Felicitations]

I thought the second Vid looked better than the first, where you can see that she speeds up into her fences. She seemed to listen to you more and go more steadily. Also I looked at some of your old videos and she was impressive in the OTECC (?) Joker class, true she hit some but she cleared some off very tight turns.

What is she like over bigger SJ's? Does she back off and repect them more? Because from these vid's it appears that she needs to learn to jump up rather than long and flat. The only thing I can think of for this is grids - decent oxers with poles inbetween to ecourage her to do the desired number of strides, and bounces/ 1 stride doubles where she has to do a
steady one as their isn't room for a long one.

The other thing I wondering is how does she jump loose? Fast and clear? Becasue if so could you come to a compromise in terms of control where you set her up but 3 strides out just give her her head and let her do the rest? You may end up going faster than you like, but if she is happy jumping like that and you have more input it might be a worthwhile compromise.

In terms of XC I have no ideas sorry, did she seem at all put out by landing on top of the xc fence? If not maybe you should sell her as a team-chaser...=)

All of the above is based on 2 videos and zero previous knowledge about what you have done before so if has been tried and failed, or sounds like gibberish please excuse me!

PS if you think your rounds were bad I will post one of mine one day to make you feel better!

 

[rlhnlk]

She looks very similar to my mare, except mine thinks knocking poles down is a terrible sin and is very careful and clever. I odn't do xc much though so I don't have that worry.

I don't know her or you so this may be a stupid idea, but have you tried making the most of how she is. So instead of slowing her down dramatically, let her bowl along a bit but try to keep her up in front at the same time, plus do plenty of gridwork so she knows where her legs are and what they are doing.Tthis works best for mine but as I say she is super careful, plus she can lack confidence when slower but the speed seems to give mine more confidence, although it is slightly scary when she considers bouncing 2 1.10 upright on a 24ft distance.

Just be careful if you do slow her down as when I tried this mine lost all her sparkle and wasn't as happy as when she is bombing round and I think if they are enjoying it then that is half the battle, although I'm sure you know this already.

Good luck with her I think she is lush!

 

[Fiona]

I'm in agreement with most of the other posters. I saw a horse who was keen to jump, but only one really 'stride out' moment in the two rounds. Obviously your trainer etc know you and your horse better than us and maybe can see what you're talking about re dangerous jumps but I can't - sorry

The 2nd round over bigger fences was def better, so surely even bigger fences would back her off more - therefore an even better round

Fiona