Sarah_Jane
Well-Known Member
Ok at TD's request here is a report of our lesson this afternoon.
To give you some background this has never been Pip's easy phase and we have recently taken the step up to jumping Intermediates eventing and Foxhunter show jumping. For me this is stepping out of my comfort zone particularly with a horse that is not as naturally careful as Sarnie was. At Newcomers / Novice whist I don't find it easy it is a level I regularly compete at, whereas with Intermediate /Fox I believe you are at the level that the rider can't make any major mistakes and get away with it as it is too big 1
. I ride into fences thinking I mustn't miss, mustn't miss...................... and guess what I miss
Pip is quite sensitive and has had something in her past scare her. She is terrified of jumps fallen over, odd things with poles or anything majorily odd. This means we can't use things like v poles or similar and most of her learning comes from straightforward jumping.
Recently I have been having an issue with her coming back to me too much and almost bouncing on the spot certainly not taking the length of stride she should do.
Today's lesson we were lucky enough to have somewhere on grass to work with my show jumping trainer, have to say the ground was perfect. We started off on the flat trying to get her to work into the bridle more and get her hocks engaged. We used a lot of canter to walk - walk pirouette - canter to really get her engaged and through.
In the jumping we worked on a more forward tempo but still into the bridle rather than long and flat. What happens is on landing she can really come back to me rather than keep up the tempo. It doesn't help that at 11 she doesn't have the flying change in her armoury (my excuse is she only came to me at 9 and it has taken 2 years to establish a counter canter!) We used a pole to help her get a change after the fence rather than bring her back.
As soon as we started on the related distance she came back to me too much and added a stride so had to really focus on landing and riding forwards. In the combination I then found I was riding too forward and not keeping the contact so allowing her to flatten. A very fine line needed - forward to the hand but always in the correct ratio to give the right balance.
Hopefully the video below will give you pictures of what we worked on. As I say for Pip the improvement has to come from me learning to ride her better.
[youtube]Q010BTXfHjg[/youtube]
To give you some background this has never been Pip's easy phase and we have recently taken the step up to jumping Intermediates eventing and Foxhunter show jumping. For me this is stepping out of my comfort zone particularly with a horse that is not as naturally careful as Sarnie was. At Newcomers / Novice whist I don't find it easy it is a level I regularly compete at, whereas with Intermediate /Fox I believe you are at the level that the rider can't make any major mistakes and get away with it as it is too big 1
. I ride into fences thinking I mustn't miss, mustn't miss...................... and guess what I miss Pip is quite sensitive and has had something in her past scare her. She is terrified of jumps fallen over, odd things with poles or anything majorily odd. This means we can't use things like v poles or similar and most of her learning comes from straightforward jumping.
Recently I have been having an issue with her coming back to me too much and almost bouncing on the spot certainly not taking the length of stride she should do.
Today's lesson we were lucky enough to have somewhere on grass to work with my show jumping trainer, have to say the ground was perfect. We started off on the flat trying to get her to work into the bridle more and get her hocks engaged. We used a lot of canter to walk - walk pirouette - canter to really get her engaged and through.
In the jumping we worked on a more forward tempo but still into the bridle rather than long and flat. What happens is on landing she can really come back to me rather than keep up the tempo. It doesn't help that at 11 she doesn't have the flying change in her armoury
(my excuse is she only came to me at 9 and it has taken 2 years to establish a counter canter!) We used a pole to help her get a change after the fence rather than bring her back. As soon as we started on the related distance she came back to me too much and added a stride so had to really focus on landing and riding forwards. In the combination I then found I was riding too forward and not keeping the contact so allowing her to flatten. A very fine line needed - forward to the hand but always in the correct ratio to give the right balance.
Hopefully the video below will give you pictures of what we worked on. As I say for Pip the improvement has to come from me learning to ride her better.
[youtube]Q010BTXfHjg[/youtube]
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