Let my horse down..

[RachelFerd]

Katie's trainer never schools them up to height XC. And not very often SJ. She says there is no need to jump big in between events and she prefers to focus on technical difficulty in schooling and let adrenaline take you round on the day. No XC faults at all since stepping up to 90 suggests that it is certainly possible to never school over what you compete over.

This only makes sense in the context of jumping a physically BIG jump for the horse. There's no way on earth that I'd take a horse out to compete at 80/90/100 without having schooled it at 90/100/110 respectively. Things get a bit different when you're talking novice/intermediate size - that's the point at which you school over the questions, not the size. Although you'd still absolutely want to get your eye in jumping a handful of up-to-height fences.

Any trainer suggesting that you don't need to school, at least, occasionally, over more than the height of the fences that you intend to compete over is mad as a box of frogs. It is a sure fire way to end up having a nerve wracking time at competition and risk destroying confidence of horse and rider.

I also believe in 'little and often' for jumping practice. My older Nov/2* horse will jump on average once a week, although sometimes that might be a 10 minute session after hacking out. Baby horse may jump anything between 1 and 3 times a week - but again, short sessions that might just involve popping a few jumps at the end of a flat schooling session or doing ten minutes before going out on a hack. I used to worry about overjumping my horses, but actually, I've gone full circle and now think that a lot of us amateurs simply don't jump our horses enough.

4yo is prepping this year to start eventing at 90 next year (all being well) and he won't be going out to a BE90 until he is easily popping a 1m course at home or at an arena hire.

 

[Upthecreek]

This is really interesting. I think you can ‘get away with it’ to some extent up to 90. I think you can come horribly unstuck once courses become higher and more technical if you don’t have training and experience, and ultimately confidence of both horse and rider, to feel comfortable at that level. I do agree that most horses raise their game due to adrenaline, which can aid performance in competition. I also feel they need to be trained so that they can maintain performance if they start to get tired or have a sticky fence, which is when they are likely to lose confidence or leave a leg behind. My youngest daughter has just moved up to competing at novice and I cannot imagine letting her do that without all the training she has done to prepare for competing at that level. It’s too dangerous to wing it and hope that the horse will rise to the occasion on competition day.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Perhaps I just don’t know what height the jumps are??. They look small in training. Maybe they aren’t.

 

[Michen]

As with everything with horses and riders there are so many variables and it's not a one size fits all (literally!). I don't think anyone would want to be going out at BE100/Novice without schooling over that technicality and height though. Whereas the different between 80/90 for a horse is pretty minimal, and it's still a height where you can get out of trouble if needed or are on a super duff stride.

For me, I know my horse is both experienced and capable at 90/100 and needs no schooling or education to easily go around that height- it's me as the rider that's the weak link.

 

[milliepops]

i guess for many of us at least half of the point of training up to/over the height IS for the rider though?

i know i schooled at competition height or a hole above for *my* benefit when I competed BE.

 

[Michen]

i guess for many of us at least half of the point of training up to/over the height IS for the rider though?

i know i schooled at competition height or a hole above for *my* benefit when I competed BE.

Yeah definitely, it just depends on the rider though again. I *usually* ride far better at a competition than I do in training (exception being the weekend of course) and I'm also far braver (and therefore ride better). I've always been like that so unless I really up my training amount, I can't see that changing any time soon.. I just have to accept my limitations which for me is pootling around 80/90.

If I canter towards an 80cm oxer in training I'm nervous. When I do it in competition although I'm still nervous, I ride better because I'm more positive and my attitude is different- it's either canter towards that fence or go home. If I could replicate that feeling at home I'd probably train better

 

[Roxylola]

I might be odd, but, if I set up an 80cm course it looks huge. If I go jump round a 90 course away from home that's set up already it generally looks ok. So i just build things I know I can ride confidently and positively over. I'm happy pottering at grassroots and it works for us.
I'm also not keen to jump loads at home - our arena is small, and the other option is a field which is often not great ground - hard in dry weather but quickly gets waterlogged so I'd prefer to keep it on the safer side

 

[milliepops]

each to their own i guess I needed to practice riding to the right spot when the fences were up to height because I could do it reliably at 90/100 (or more likely horse would help me out enough for it to be unimportant ) it was technique stuff that only became relevant and trainable for me at competition heights.

 

[Michen]

each to their own i guess I needed to practice riding to the right spot when the fences were up to height because I could do it reliably at 90/100 (or more likely horse would help me out enough for it to be unimportant ) it was technique stuff that only became relevant and trainable for me at competition heights.

Oh yeh, but we are talking about totally different levels aren't we. You were going at fences that were genuinely big and you couldn't make mistakes going into them in the same way.

Most horses can get over an 80/90 off any duff stride that the rider may give them. Not the same for the bigger heights!

And ironically I'm usually less likely to go on a duff stride in competition, than I am in training, with my weird nerves/fear. But then I have no aspirations to go any higher ever!

 

[milliepops]

Oh yeh, but we are talking about totally different levels aren't we. You were going at fences that were genuinely big and you couldn't make mistakes going into them in the same way.

Most horses can get over an 80/90 off any duff stride that the rider may give them. Not the same for the bigger heights!

And ironically I'm usually less likely to go on a duff stride in competition, than I am in training, with my weird nerves/fear. But then I have no aspirations to go any higher ever!

well sort of, only because I'd already done that work at 90 or 100 when that was a stretch to my abilities. Just because my horse was more competent than me i still had to be able to not cock it up for her just happens that I didn't get a trainer that could fix my terrible eye for a stride until we were competing at Novice.

 

[RachelFerd]

I might be odd, but, if I set up an 80cm course it looks huge. If I go jump round a 90 course away from home that's set up already it generally looks ok. So i just build things I know I can ride confidently and positively over. I'm happy pottering at grassroots and it works for us.
I'm also not keen to jump loads at home - our arena is small, and the other option is a field which is often not great ground - hard in dry weather but quickly gets waterlogged so I'd prefer to keep it on the safer side

Are you using stumpy wings at home? Often at a competition you're using full height 1.8m wings, and therefore a 90cm fence is only half way up the wings. If you're building on wings that are only 1.4/1.5m high, your 90cm fence is well over half way up the wing and visually looks far bigger.

 

[Roxylola]

You may be right RF, certainly not all our wings are full height. I try not to get too close to jumps in competition anyway. As a stumpy person, when I stand next to a 90 fence it suddenly feels a lot bigger than it did when it was "over there". I do walk courses, and stride things but I focus on lines and strides, and don't look at the jumps much

 

[Michen]

You may be right RF, certainly not all our wings are full height. I try not to get too close to jumps in competition anyway. As a stumpy person, when I stand next to a 90 fence it suddenly feels a lot bigger than it did when it was "over there". I do walk courses, and stride things but I focus on lines and strides, and don't look at the jumps much

Haha I do that too. Walking the Xc I give them a wide berth ??

 

[LEC]

I also believe in 'little and often' for jumping practice. My older Nov/2* horse will jump on average once a week, although sometimes that might be a 10 minute session after hacking out. Baby horse may jump anything between 1 and 3 times a week - but again, short sessions that might just involve popping a few jumps at the end of a flat schooling session or doing ten minutes before going out on a hack. I used to worry about overjumping my horses, but actually, I've gone full circle and now think that a lot of us amateurs simply don't jump our horses enough./QUOTE]

I have come to this conclusion as well. I jump a lot more often now but 2 sessions will be poles/cavaletti/small jumps to put in the rideability that I want. One session will be jumping bigger.

I am not very good at jumping bigger at home but tend to train over courses a fair bit away from home. Funnily enough the harder I train the luckier I am.

 

[RachelFerd]

Absolutely. I think there has been a big shift in the way we train in part thanks to people like Caroline Moore who have made their exercises and philosophy very public and have shared through online, television and clinics their methods. Lucinda Green has also influenced some of the ways I train too - using small obstacles and varied terrain to the best advantage to do 'cross country training' without needing to set foot on a XC course. People like Sam Watson who have been very public about how they have trained themselves to see a stride consistently by working over a pole on the floor thousands and thousands of times.

So I think there's a whole category of 'skills for jumping' training that doesn't necessitate jumping big fences at all... and then you take all those well honed skills and apply them to jumping bigger courses, both SJ and XC. And the only way to build up skills, for horse and for rider, is by doing plenty of it. The reason Michi Jung has a XC course surrounding his arena is so that he can XC school little and often as much as a horse needs it.

I'm quite often trying to have a little cavaletti exercise set up in the dressage arena so that I can add a bit of athletic footwork onto a dressage schooling session. Or I go into the jumping arena after the kids have been using it, and jumped a bunch of small (2ft ish) size fences but on the MOST tricky lines that I can create from what is already set out.

But, having built those skills, you still need to practice applying them to the competition type question, before then taking them to an actual competition. And at no point would I want to think that i'm ever relying on adrenaline or a wing and a prayer to do the thing I'm trying to do. I'm definitely far more of a technician than I ever used to be!

EDITED to add ... the reason I had a silly error at the weekend is because I let my adrenaline run away with me and didn't apply enough rigour to the way I rode the end of the course, carried away thinking I was riding for a high placing

 

[sportsmansB]

I'm doing 90's this year, having done more before but really jsut feeling like I have enough to be thinking about at the moment without also being terrified all week...
And I always jump a course at 1m the day or two before I go, so that when I get there the 90 SJ course looks very jumpable, and ideally actually a bit small.
My horse couldn't give a toss I don't think, but it does wonders for my head

 

[Michen]

I'm doing 90's this year, having done more before but really jsut feeling like I have enough to be thinking about at the moment without also being terrified all week...
And I always jump a course at 1m the day or two before I go, so that when I get there the 90 SJ course looks very jumpable, and ideally actually a bit small.
My horse couldn't give a toss I don't think, but it does wonders for my head

Ironically when I got there I thought the BE100 was the 90, and thought oh gulp that’s quite big but ok it’s doable.

Didn’t stop me riding like an idiot when it dropped down ?

 

[Old school]

Hi Michen, you are being very very hard on yourself. You did your dressage and had a decent score despite no warm up. A sticky SJ as maybe you were dwelling a bit on being late to warm up for dressage and maybe feeling a bit on the back foot. A fab XC....really great pictures of a happy and brave horse enjoying his rider guiding him around. So you can go clear XC, now try forget about worrying re SJ. The worry won't improve it. But if you can beat the nerves back and focus on the fab feeling of XC and bring that into your mind while schooling SJ, it might help. For me it is about controlling my thoughts, and applying positive thoughts to the scary bits that works. I had to work out what was winding me up and break it down into small pieces and to logically think it through, was I being rational??? One bit of advice I had after my rotational fall was to forget about it. It is over, I am still here and move on. That did help me. Not sure if any of this helps you!! I think you are super and need to concentrate in believing you and you gorgeous horse are super too.

 

[Michen]

Hi Michen, you are being very very hard on yourself. You did your dressage and had a decent score despite no warm up. A sticky SJ as maybe you were dwelling a bit on being late to warm up for dressage and maybe feeling a bit on the back foot. A fab XC....really great pictures of a happy and brave horse enjoying his rider guiding him around. So you can go clear XC, now try forget about worrying re SJ. The worry won't improve it. But if you can beat the nerves back and focus on the fab feeling of XC and bring that into your mind while schooling SJ, it might help. For me it is about controlling my thoughts, and applying positive thoughts to the scary bits that works. I had to work out what was winding me up and break it down into small pieces and to logically think it through, was I being rational??? One bit of advice I had after my rotational fall was to forget about it. It is over, I am still here and move on. That did help me. Not sure if any of this helps you!! I think you are super and need to concentrate in believing you and you gorgeous horse are super too.

Thanks that's very kind. He does look super game and happy in those pics and came home happy too!!

I will try my best to do the above for next time. I feel quite confident weirdly, so hopefully we will be ok. It doesn't matter if the poles fall as long as we have a "happy" round! I'm not going out to be competitive, just self fulfillment. Oh and keeping my horse sane as he is SO much more rideable and relaxing out hacking when he's properly working, I don't have a stitch from riding him at the moment!!

 

[SusieT]

Generally the reason the rider is reluctant to train at 90cm at home is that they aren't confident. Something I think amateurs miss is that skill of actual schooling i.e not throwing horses over jumps and getting lucky that the horse accepts this. At some point you will become unstuck if you come across a 'big' 90 or a technicality. While the horse can jump it, if they are asked to regularly jump it or its well within their riders confidence it becomes a much easier for them.
It's fine to chicken out of training properly at home but probably best to admit it and then maybe plan a winter e.g. showjumping to improve it, or training. Or, just stick at 80 as if you are more confident the horse has a better ride than as you say the throwing him at fences as described here. Horse looks good in xc pics

 

[Michen]

Generally the reason the rider is reluctant to train at 90cm at home is that they aren't confident. Something I think amateurs miss is that skill of actual schooling i.e not throwing horses over jumps and getting lucky that the horse accepts this. At some point you will become unstuck if you come across a 'big' 90 or a technicality. While the horse can jump it, if they are asked to regularly jump it or its well within their riders confidence it becomes a much easier for them.
It's fine to chicken out of training properly at home but probably best to admit it and then maybe plan a winter e.g. showjumping to improve it, or training. Or, just stick at 80 as if you are more confident the horse has a better ride than as you say the throwing him at fences as described here. Horse looks good in xc pics

If I was throwing my horse at fences like that consistently, eg if this wasn't a one off, I'd absolutely be sticking to 80. But I used to not train 90 at home (much), and jump around 90's confidently on my previous horse so I am very much hoping that my riding at the weekend was an accumulation of things and that it won't happen again.

I agree though, if I can't ride him at 90 the way I ride him at 80 I need to stick to 80 until I can. I am just semi backing myself that I go back to riding in the way I know I can/usually would.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I don’t think it’s anything to do with your riding ability. It was just nerves getting in the way that day because of a heavy fall last time at that venue. That’s history now. Next time you’ll ride positively and fly round. 90 is totally within your capabilities. X

 

[Michen]

Thanks AE xx

 

[Michen]

Ok so here it is. I’m not sure he looks remotely sticky at the first few so unsure what I was feeling.. he’s not jumping very straight due to my inability to ride a line but I think he looks pretty chilled about the whole thing!?

https://we.tl/t-CugaFhuTvn?src=dnl

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Erm, it wants me to download 243 MB ?

Is this the only way to see it/am I dense?

 

[Michen]

Erm, it wants me to download 243 MB ?

Is this the only way to see it/am I dense?

Oh ha. Hmmm. Bear with me I’ll see if I can upload to something else.

 

[Bellaboo18]

I'd be absolutely thrilled with that round! It was a pleasure to watch.

If you're going to be super critical, yes the first 3 fences you dont get 100% the best stride, he chips an extra in, maybe cause hes having the tiniest bit of a look but honestly I'd be pretty chuffed with that!

 

[LEC]

Your round looks fine - you sit a bit quiet at the first four and allow him to prop slightly but it doesn't look backwards. When you get into your flow you have a more positive shot to a fence. I would be happy with that xc round. Its confident and a happy round.

 

[I'm Dun]

Honestly, that was fine and my overwhelming feeling watching it was what a lovely combination you are.

 

[Roxylola]

I thought you looked fine, you could see it improved as you got going which is better than getting more sticky. Hes having a fab time ?