Pidgeon
Well-Known Member
Ok so took the ginger beastie to Someford for some XC schooling, just sticking to the small fences on vets orders. An interesting session with some valuable lessons learnt............
Started off ok popping a few of the small fences, had a play in the water complex with just one stop at the ditch which was my fault for not having my legs on. Then cantered through the water and past a skinny ascending brush fence. then decided to canter through the water and over it which didn't happen at all so left it after 3 attempts - note to self do not canter past a fence and then expect him to jump it next time especially when its a very skinny skinny.
By this time however Pidge had decided he was going to be in charge so we had a little discussion before the next fence and then I took him for a blast to try to get some of the excess energy out of him
then on to the coffin, the blast hadn't worked as he was worse than ever going into the fence, head in the air and in charge mode, so another little discussion ensued about who was in control, however I ended up in control 2 strides out and hadn't put my legs back on enough so when Pidge suddenly went "OMG who put that fence there" I neatly popped out the front plate and ended on my bum, thank god sometimes for not being a skinny minny and having some padding there
dusted myself off, scrambled back on and did it properly
Popped the trakhener fine (my rider frightener fences but need to get used to them if doing BE this year)
popped some of the small skinny fences and then a log pile where he clocked friend going over the big steeplechase fence and locked on, hence me taking evasive manouveres as we were definately not going to jump that big, my vet would skin me alive
Decided to pop the owl howl which he did lovely
so carried on over the small chair and cantered to the left where he spotted the owl hole again and locked on, awful line of approach but he was keen so I let him pop it again
then finished up with some skinnys on a 2 stride followed by the house and ditch and called it a day as we'd done a reasonable amount.
He did stop at these the other way the first time as was napping towards Sunny, so will do some more work on his own before going out competing in a couple of weeks time to cure that.
Overall an interesting and productive day with some valuable lessons learnt - all rider errors as usual
but hey ho we had fun and Pidge certainly enjoyed himself. Can't wait till we can jump some bigger fences.
So as usual quick question when he gets keen and the head goes up what can I do - I put my legs on at the moment and encourage his head down to regain control but it doesn't always work, I have tried a running martingale in the past and it made absolutely no difference whatsover. He's in a cavesson with a myler comfort snaffle.
Started off ok popping a few of the small fences, had a play in the water complex with just one stop at the ditch which was my fault for not having my legs on. Then cantered through the water and past a skinny ascending brush fence. then decided to canter through the water and over it which didn't happen at all so left it after 3 attempts - note to self do not canter past a fence and then expect him to jump it next time especially when its a very skinny skinny.
By this time however Pidge had decided he was going to be in charge so we had a little discussion before the next fence and then I took him for a blast to try to get some of the excess energy out of him
then on to the coffin, the blast hadn't worked as he was worse than ever going into the fence, head in the air and in charge mode, so another little discussion ensued about who was in control, however I ended up in control 2 strides out and hadn't put my legs back on enough so when Pidge suddenly went "OMG who put that fence there" I neatly popped out the front plate and ended on my bum, thank god sometimes for not being a skinny minny and having some padding there
dusted myself off, scrambled back on and did it properly
Popped the trakhener fine (my rider frightener fences but need to get used to them if doing BE this year)
popped some of the small skinny fences and then a log pile where he clocked friend going over the big steeplechase fence and locked on, hence me taking evasive manouveres as we were definately not going to jump that big, my vet would skin me alive
Decided to pop the owl howl which he did lovely
so carried on over the small chair and cantered to the left where he spotted the owl hole again and locked on, awful line of approach but he was keen so I let him pop it again
then finished up with some skinnys on a 2 stride followed by the house and ditch and called it a day as we'd done a reasonable amount.
He did stop at these the other way the first time as was napping towards Sunny, so will do some more work on his own before going out competing in a couple of weeks time to cure that.
Overall an interesting and productive day with some valuable lessons learnt - all rider errors as usual
but hey ho we had fun and Pidge certainly enjoyed himself. Can't wait till we can jump some bigger fences.So as usual quick question when he gets keen and the head goes up what can I do - I put my legs on at the moment and encourage his head down to regain control but it doesn't always work, I have tried a running martingale in the past and it made absolutely no difference whatsover. He's in a cavesson with a myler comfort snaffle.
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if he's normally ok over bigger fences then i wouldn't be too worried about it...but you need to watch that it doesn't become an evasion habit- my TB tries to do this when he's trying to take charge and has lead to some pretty hairy moments going into combinations 