Pony Week - Day 1!

CalllyH said:
Billington is brilliant too! Id love a lesson from him

keep your legs on hun - I know its hard work but it helps alot

just think if you complete the test thats a massive achievement in its self
Click to expand...

He is fab - he sometimes does clinics at Wellington when my daughter has been riding so I'd sit in and watch him instead .

All good advice TG - work hard but do enjoy yourself,
 
My horse is the same on circles, you really have to get him listening, so when you warm up use some transitions to get her listening and off the leg, then to supple them up, my PC instructor gave me an exercise to do, where [at any pace, but probably best walk to start] ask them to bend inwards [so sort of like shoulder in] and keep the letter at the other end of the school [A or C] inbetween their ears, whilst keeping all 4 feet on the track, so the closer you get the more they bend, do this a few times on both reins, and I found it really helps to get them A, bending and more supple and B, listening to you :D

Tip to keep them on teh track when doing the exercise/circles- Don't lean in, I find myself doing it sometimes then as soon as I straighten up, it makes it a whole lot easier :)
 
Sorry to hear things are not going as planned.

Circles.....ahh the good old circle! The reason most people cannot ride a circle is because they try and ride a circle - honestly bare with me here.

NEVER try and ride a circle, especially a 20 metre circle, it won't work and you will cock it up as will the horse. You need to ride a diamond, so A to V to X to P to A (V and P are between K-E and B-F). If you do this you WILL ride a *circle* and it WILL be accurate. Honestly try it, it works :)
 
thelwell_girl said:
Its just... Bonnie doesnt BEND! Ive been working on her corners, and she is getting better, but the thing is, she is highly likely to break out of canter on the circle, I just have to get her going again... xx
Click to expand...

Haven't read other replies so sorry if this has been said, but in terms of riding a circle, you're looking to make a 'corridor' with your hands and legs for her to canter within.

For example, if she falls in then lift your inside hand and open your outside hand away from her shoulder and push with your inside leg whilst maintaining a contact behind the girth with your outside leg. This effectively blocks her inside shoulder from falling in, and gives her outside shoulder 'somewhere to go' by opening the outside hand. If she drifts out partway through the circle, lower your inside hand and close your outside hand whilst maintaining the same position with your legs.

If she falls out, lift your outside hand to 'block' that shoulder, bring your inside hand back slightly and play with your fingers to encourage softness to the inside whilst resting your inside leg on the girth and riding strongly with your outside leg. Again, if she then starts to drift in, lift your inside hand and open the outside slightly.

This is not exactly how to ride a dressage test lol, but since they are being pretty mean with the jumping etc you may as well take it as a schooling exercise and see what you can get the horse to do by pressing different 'buttons'. This is how I school horses to work evenly on a circle and it does work, you just need to keep adjusting your riding according to what the horse is doing.

Don't worry about getting your horse to work in any kind of shape, just think 'forward, forward, forward.' and if she breaks back to trot then so what? None of us are going to the Olympics so just enjoy it! xx
 
Thank you guys for all your help - Im riding her for an hours practice this morning, then the warm up before the test, so hopefully she will start listening and bending... Inwill try those exercises too, especially the tunnel one, I think that'll really help her (and me!)

xxx
 
First off, big congrats on the GCSES you clever lass!

Second, go for normal plaits (as you're good at them in your own hair) and roll them up, like fold in half, in half again, and so on till you have a little bobble of plaitedness you can just stick a plaiting band around (same goes for how to wind your own hair up into a bun) if an arrow plait, or running plait is too tricky - they do look gorgeous though on a nice long mane!

Thirdly, I used to run pony weeks at the RS I worked at and there is NO WAY we'd take money off a client and deprive them of over half the weeks content. It's not difficult to lower the heights of the SJ fences especially if you go first or last, and if they were that worried they could put them down to literally teeny-tiny. You could always ride something that doesn't jump a great deal if Bonnie is so super someone else needs her - often the elderly RS horses aren't jumped much, but I'm sure an under- 1ft course wouldn't kill them and would give you experience of how to ride a course, you could work on good approaches and use of corners etc and then so what if the jump is hardly there? As the saying goes,SJ is just dresssage with obstacles!

Also for the XC could you ride a non-jumping pony and have a pootle around in the field if you can't ride Bonnie??

Good luck today, can't wait to hear how you get on - remember to SMILE (so important)
 
QR

Hope the dressage test went well :) The first few are always nervewracking. Sounds very odd that you can't have a caller, or use a schooling whip though?? Both are allowed under BD rules (caller to a certain level I think).

It does seem really off that you can't join in the jumping. Couldn't you have gone on a different level pony week where the jumps would be small enough that you could join in? Or if your dressage/stable management is too advanced for that, could you have done the advanced dressage part of the week, then joined a different group for the jumping part of the week? (even if spread over different weeks). I do hope they haven't charged you full price, it does sound like they're taking advantage :(

Hope you manage to get something sorted with them anyway, you obviously love the place and put so much into it :)
 
Hi guys!

Did my dressage today... Report will be up later!

I have spoken to them about Friday, and they said they couldn't out the jumps down for me at the end, as theres the presentation straight after, and there wouldn't be enough time.

I spoke to a senior staff member (who quite likes me :)) and within close earshot of the YM, and asked to ride maybe Albert (or anything!) in the field tomorrow, even just for a nice canter! Fingers crossed, but it's looking promising, as I've been at the yard since 8:35 this morning, and only left at 6! Also mucked out a whole row of stables myself, and noticed that Banjo was looking miserable in the rain, so asked to bring him in. Hopefully they'll notice my hard work and vigilance... ;):D

Xxxx
 
Oh, I forgot to say, YM said that the photographer is available for taking pictures of all of us on Friday, so Im gonna wash my shirt and smart joddies and get a professional pic done of me and the Coblet! :D x
 
Arent your parents going ape that they're paying for a week you're not actually doing most of? Sucks for you but my parents would be really unimpressed....!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top