Digbys second jumping lesson

I_A_P

I_A_P

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as per title.
He was a good boy we basically worked on canter transitions as he can be a little lazy. And i am making a concsious effot to sort out my position...i know my other trainer has said to adopt a more foward seat for th moment but i do realise when im hacking i slouch....mainly becasuse i have had so much trouble with my neck/shoulder region one side its been so painful so i get tired and sore and round up my shoulders...now its not so bad im really going to ry and sort it out.
anyway back to Digby, he was very good we only jumped very very small fences-about half a foot high
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but he didnt seemed fussed about the fillers/planks which was good...but tbh he didnt jump he just trotted over them so i really hope she puts them up necxt time.
He got tired quickyl but then we had done a lot of work on the flat so didnt take him long to tire jumping!!
all in all good!
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well no they were kinda half a foot in..then there were planks....i was a bit frustrated as he was making no effort and she knows when i have jumped him myself iv had him over 1m in s ingle fence with a pole in front.
Im going to have to say something next time as hes not learning anything really!
 
If you think he needs a bit bigger then ask.

You need to make sure he is moving off your leg nicely before you jump higher. But if after transitions he is then ask if you can jump a bit bigger.

Are you going to Intro the start of this year, or wait for half a year?

How's the hacking going?
 
i will, its only my second lesson..she said wait til he gets stronger but thats just too small hes not actually jumping...thing is i dont know if she really listens to me i get the impression sometimes that whatever i say is "im just a silly girl what do i know"
he is getting better on his canter transitions as he can be lazy-it qould come a million times quicker if i could practise 4 times a week or so...but he was pretty worn out before he started jumping to0dayu so was a bit lazy- when i went to try him they had been popping fairly decent sized grids with him.
I will not be ready for an intro as i cant bring him on fast enough hes a real real baby and doesnt really have any one thing good enough to take him out yet.
hes never been to a show.
i would love to do great witchingham in July but it really depoends how my lessons progress, and what i can take him out to as soon as i can.
Once he starts doing more i cant start giving him a little feed so hopefully he can have a bit more energy...but then if im hacking 4/5 days a week then i dont want him to have too much..so i dont want to yet really.
I think what i may ask to do next week is pop a small grid of 2, maybe 3 fences along one side and just do some pole/grids and then we can raise them up a bit towards the end-as he can do these out of trot. which i was doing on my own, and he was good.
I shall take some video hopefully next time
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Hacking is going well thanks, he is starting to settle quicker as he leaves home but i think that will come.
I have taken him out competely alone a few times this week and he has been good!
 
Are you not feeding him now then?

If all you can do is hack I would hack for a good 2hours a few times a week, schooling on the hack to strengthen him, I know its difficult with the wet ground, but cantering up hills would be great. Hill work is excellent for them and hacking is actually the best thing you can do for youngsters.

If he isnt spooked/phazed by anything I would def aim for Grt Witch Intro, if it is just a case of getting to know him and strengthening him.
 
NO, he is just on haylage-we have kept it how Helen had it purely as we havent wanted to heat him up...i normally give him a small hard feed say after a lesson.
i will eventually but i just do not want to psych him up and would rather keep things simple feed wise until i know he is settled and doing proper work.

He is hacked well most days and goes on very long rides...i school him as i am riding as well.
Not really many hills..apart from one which i always get him to trot all the way to the top. I would love to do more hills but there just isnt any!!
Cantering wise i do as much as i can without cantering on the same field day in day out...i have one grass track and one field ...once it gets drier i wil be able to use the tramlines on dads fields but its too wet at the moment...that will do him thwe world of good.
Im going to take him xc schooling ASAP at gt witch as soon as it dries out..he shouldnt be worried by water..but i dont know about ditches/steps etc so will be good to try out all that kind of things.

Im looking for local events atm just so i can be taking him out.
he works relativly nicely once he has warmed up but i cant really do a dressage test on him until hes had abit more work as he likes to drift into the school..but as hes beginning to understand my inside leg he was far better today.
I think his canter will be the biggest thing as its quite a big powerful canter compared to my last mare, and its hiom being balanced in that...once he is i think it will be fantastic a really jumping canter; but it will just take time.
 
By the sounds of it he probably isnt being lazy but lacking a bit of energy, why dont you feed him a bit of hi fi once a day or something with some salts or vitamins to replace what he is loosing during work, as he is being worked a decent amount for a young horse in the winter on no feed.

Also maybe you should consider trying a coupl eof other different people for jump instructors as no one should make you feel like "what do you know" I think its very important to have a good relationship with your trainer and for them to understand you and your horse. I dont feel like that at all with mine, I can ask him things about events, say how I feel horse is going ask advice about any aspect of the horse my riding comfortably
 
i had the discussion on here last week about my trainer...i think her nose is out of joint as basically i stopped having lessons with her 2 years ago with millie apaprt from the odd one here and there....then went to my flat instructor who i still have as we progressed so much more and then had jumping clinics...thing is there isnt anyone local to me at all to have a jumping lesson, and as i dont have my own arena i am trying at the moment to have one every week so i can get going and obviously i dont want to be travelling very far. So for the moment sher is fine...dont get me wrong i had a good lesson and next week i will definatly say can we do such and such or put them up.
Things is she had a go at me about riding in a particular way as soon as i got there and said if im going to continue having lessojs with so and so then i musnt ride like that wen i go to her...which means 2moro wen i have my flat trainer im going to have to say what she says and see if we can find a happy medium...as im not going to fel "told off" every week.
Its not so much she thinks i dont know anything but almost like she has to have better things to say than me in a way-its hard to explain but i just get a feeling.

As i kinda came to the conlusion last week im perfectly happy as i am as she can get us both going and doing some basic things...and its an arena locally i can hire if i like to so i cant burn my bridges...otherwise i will have nowhere at all!!

I will chat about the feed with my instructor tommorrow, he was fine today for half an hour but then he just gets tired as hes not really very fit.
Hopefully if i cant trust him hacking a bit more, and i have my lessons planned out, then i can start introducing feed i was just advised to keep it all very very simple.
I guess i will have to play it by ear, and see how he gets on.
 
Aw bless him, sounds like he's working sweetly. Agree re.feed, if he is tiring quite quickly, it will be because of lack of muscle tone, and if he isnt getting any protein fed, he'll have nothing to use as "building blocks" for the muscle he is developing! Even if you just feed him chaff and a balancer to make sure he is getting everything he needs
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Think he'll be a star, and big canters are a nightmare in young horses
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Goddy has a big canter and we still have probs balancing, and as a result he can get worried and almost becomes stuffy. He is getting better as he is feeling more confident and stronger
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Thanks KatB, hopefully you can understand why i havent been feeding him, like i say hes been having some fater a lesson....or even after a long ride.

I did try to give him some hi fi when i first got him and a tiny amount of mix but he wouldnt eat it and doesnt really want to know....so just kept to the haylage!

I shall start giving him some hifi etc and see how he goes!
 
Yeah sorry, crossed posts with you!
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Can understand that, he will get better as he gets stronger though with the schooling, and you'll then find he comes on leps and bounds
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Thats ok!
i wish i could school him more as it would do him so much good...but then thats not really possible!
 
Sounds like you are doing all the right things & are thinking about everything you are doing. I agree with starting to introduce some feed, especially when you are working him fairly hard. They do however become tired quite quickly at this age as well - one moment they are full of beans and then its like a switch going off and they get very tired.

I look foward to the next report !
 
dont want to meet me then
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maybe we can take them together the second time
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so i know what he is like!! i am taking my instructor the first time
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combined training sounds good -il see you there
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