Sarah_Jane
Well-Known Member
If you have been following my blog (if not why not) you will know we were shortlisted for a £750 training scholarship with Supastuds. The shortlisted candidates in the 4 categories were invited to an assessment day at the Boomerang centre in Berkshire. The assessment to be undertaken by Matt Ryan and Blyth Tait which gave us a super opportunity to get their eye on my riding. I went with a really good attitude of enjoying it and having a good time and certainly not putting any pressure on. Most of the others had been out competing eventing this season and I felt my riding was going to be playing catch up a bit.
Firstly I have to say what a wonderful facility the Boomerang Centre is, the xc has ever conceivable fence on it, there are a variety of lovely arenas. Russ who owns the centre was really friendly and kindly came out to meet us on Wednesday night to guide us the last mile in and show us our stable, it is those sort of things that really make a difference (particularly considering my ability to get lost in the dark!)
Our sessions were not programmed until the afternoon so I spent the morning watching the juniors and pony riders train with Blyth, hoping to pick up some tips so I looked my best later in the day! There was a very nice lunch provided and then we finally got our turn to play. Our group did the sessions the other way round to most of the others to ensure a slightly earlier finish time. So first up we went up to Matt Ryan for a session jumping a course. I allowed time to warm up but on route I realised we not as expected in the top arena but jumping on grass, hence a quick dash back to the lorry for studs (supastuds of course) and a hasty warm up.
Matt asked us to jump a course and then critiqued it before asking us to jump it again. The course included some tight turns, two angled fences a corner and a skinny wall. Too be honest set quite small and Pip did not take a lot of notice. We didnt do a bad job first time round but Matt picked up a few points. When jumping the corner he would like to see it jumped nearer the middle rather than on the edge as I had done to eliminate the possibility of a run out and feels that most horses have the scope to jump it fairly central. He felt I was throwing myself forward over the fences and needed to keep my shoulders up and allow with the hand more. We jumped around again and it was better I know I do throw myself forward too much so a good point to work on.
Then to great excitement we finished off working through the cross country water - my first solid fences this year.
We just cantered through the water up a step and over a small fence with a drop and back over a drop into water to a log going out. He was fairly happy with the way I rode this but just felt I needed to get my weight back more before the drop into water and soften my hands. We popped through again and I tried to do as he said, certainly in the main succeeding (I think!)
We then had a session with Blyth Tait, he was focusing on finding out if we had trained the horse well and could lengthen and shorten as well as turn. We started off by trotting into a related distance cross pole to what would be 6 good canter strides. We from trot had to show him the distance in 8, 7 and 6 *strides. We then did the distance once in canter on 6 strides in what he called second gear, we did it a second time coming in a short canter (1st gear) doing a small circles in the middle before accelerating (3rd gear) and out over the second part. I have to say Pip acquitted herself well (even if he did call her big
). We then worked on a low skinny fence at x and did a figure of 8 shape think slight elongated 12 meter loops the idea was that we counted strides to the fence and could do it from a stride away to 5 strides away. I confused matters by counting backwards (well if I couldnt show off my riding then though it had better be my maths!).
We then jumped the related in the opposite direction and popped the a parallel on a dog leg to the skinny with a filler added. He wanted this jumped on 4 strides and then a second time on 5 strides, this time after jumping he wanted the canter collected and the horse halted with no strides of trot to show control. Found the exercises interesting and Blyth a good teacher, he really wanted to see impuslion in the canter and the rider being the driver and preparing the horse for what was ahead - Failing to prepare = preparing to fail!
I really fab day
Firstly I have to say what a wonderful facility the Boomerang Centre is, the xc has ever conceivable fence on it, there are a variety of lovely arenas. Russ who owns the centre was really friendly and kindly came out to meet us on Wednesday night to guide us the last mile in and show us our stable, it is those sort of things that really make a difference (particularly considering my ability to get lost in the dark!)
Our sessions were not programmed until the afternoon so I spent the morning watching the juniors and pony riders train with Blyth, hoping to pick up some tips so I looked my best later in the day! There was a very nice lunch provided and then we finally got our turn to play. Our group did the sessions the other way round to most of the others to ensure a slightly earlier finish time. So first up we went up to Matt Ryan for a session jumping a course. I allowed time to warm up but on route I realised we not as expected in the top arena but jumping on grass, hence a quick dash back to the lorry for studs (supastuds of course) and a hasty warm up.
Matt asked us to jump a course and then critiqued it before asking us to jump it again. The course included some tight turns, two angled fences a corner and a skinny wall. Too be honest set quite small and Pip did not take a lot of notice. We didnt do a bad job first time round but Matt picked up a few points. When jumping the corner he would like to see it jumped nearer the middle rather than on the edge as I had done to eliminate the possibility of a run out and feels that most horses have the scope to jump it fairly central. He felt I was throwing myself forward over the fences and needed to keep my shoulders up and allow with the hand more. We jumped around again and it was better I know I do throw myself forward too much so a good point to work on.
Then to great excitement we finished off working through the cross country water - my first solid fences this year.
We just cantered through the water up a step and over a small fence with a drop and back over a drop into water to a log going out. He was fairly happy with the way I rode this but just felt I needed to get my weight back more before the drop into water and soften my hands. We popped through again and I tried to do as he said, certainly in the main succeeding (I think!)
We then had a session with Blyth Tait, he was focusing on finding out if we had trained the horse well and could lengthen and shorten as well as turn. We started off by trotting into a related distance cross pole to what would be 6 good canter strides. We from trot had to show him the distance in 8, 7 and 6 *strides. We then did the distance once in canter on 6 strides in what he called second gear, we did it a second time coming in a short canter (1st gear) doing a small circles in the middle before accelerating (3rd gear) and out over the second part. I have to say Pip acquitted herself well (even if he did call her big
). We then worked on a low skinny fence at x and did a figure of 8 shape think slight elongated 12 meter loops the idea was that we counted strides to the fence and could do it from a stride away to 5 strides away. I confused matters by counting backwards (well if I couldnt show off my riding then though it had better be my maths!). We then jumped the related in the opposite direction and popped the a parallel on a dog leg to the skinny with a filler added. He wanted this jumped on 4 strides and then a second time on 5 strides, this time after jumping he wanted the canter collected and the horse halted with no strides of trot to show control. Found the exercises interesting and Blyth a good teacher, he really wanted to see impuslion in the canter and the rider being the driver and preparing the horse for what was ahead - Failing to prepare = preparing to fail!
I really fab day
could really do with some more as always only seem to have 3 of one type never 4 lol
