Words of Wisdom (??!!) - an arena XC demo report

Gamebird

Gamebird

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Evening all, long time no speak. Mostly because I haven't really done much, partly because I went off HHO a little bit for a while :o, and a teeny bit because I'm moving house and jobs in a fortnight, my boss broke his leg on Xmas Eve leaving me working a record number of 24/7's in a row and I've just been a bit busy to do much barring basic horse exercising. Sorry!

A few months ago I had a drink too many at our RC AGM and when they were scraping the barrel looking for fund-raising ideas I offered to do an Arena XC Techniques Demo. I felt a wee bit guilty because we're only a small club and I've been to the Nationals in various disciplines twice in 18 months and cost them a small fortune in travel, entry and stabling fees.

Fast forward to yesterday and a rather frantic dress rehearsal which, for two rather under-practiced horses, went so well as to make me rather suspicious about what their inner comedians might have in store for today :rolleyes:.

I had two horses - a true novice baby (Piskie) who has only been jumping for a couple of months, and Fugly who should need no introduction and was going to pretend to be a seasoned eventer, for one day only!

I did a bit on the flat on Piskie to show how even a baby horse should be in front of the leg at all time and straight and stay on a line without wobbling, whether that be trotting across the diagonal or jumping through a combination. He demo'd how I introduce babies to skinnies, water trays and angles and finished with a little course. He's a bit fast at times but doesn't really have the ability to shorten and collect his canter yet. He has a lot of power but not much finesse!

Skinny:
[youtube]MAdTLbI40jE[/youtube]

Course:
[youtube]_6FB04LhmBs[/youtube]

Next up was Fugly and we discussed different gears for approaching different types of fence, adjusting the canter and playing down a distance on 4, 5, 6 and 7 strides (collecting is his speciality!).

He then demonstrated straightness with a single jump block:
[youtube]HhR4nNpd4ng[/youtube]

A bounce double of skinnies:
[youtube]nAGvpw5cyec[/youtube]

A demo of angles/turns using a small child as a tree trunk to turn round ;):
[youtube]u-pF4JwGuO0[/youtube]

And finally the beer trick - straightness with one hand showing that you can steer or hold them on a line with your seat and legs. I did get to drink the beer after that! :D
[youtube]Wt7Pg8LcoA0[/youtube]

We also jumped round the course, including the coffin with a paddling pool as the middle element but I don't think there's video of this. The jumps are tiny, but neither horse has done much recently and I had to talk and see a stride at the same time! Also I was trying to make it accessible to as many of the RC members as possible, very few of whom do BE.

It was a lot more fun than I expected and warm enough from where I was sitting - can't vouch for the spectators though :p. Yes, that's snow on the ground :(. It wasn't actually publicised as it should have been but we still got 30 people turning up and raised enough money that I won't feel too bad if i qualify for the Champs again!

No food on offer as Fugly's New Year Resolution is for his jockey to eat less cake :eek::rolleyes::o but you can have a glass of honey rum, which was my Xmas pressie from Piskie's owner, if you're quick :cool:
 
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I moved the small child progressively further and further into the centre of the arena and ended up with some rather crazy angles. He was looking nervous by the end!
 
It makes me cheerful that someone else uses those single jump blocks as skinny practice and sets up bounces using skinny fences, as everyone looks at me as though I am quite mad when I play about with stuff like that :D
 
That was great fun. Thankyou for taking the time to post the vid.s and explanations on here. Now, next time can you post some examples of grid work I can do to slow my horse down (Sorry for being cheeky ;-) ). He starts off calm and gets faster and faster as we go round a course.
If I could keep him rocking along in our dressage canter (which he can do perfectly well in a snaffle), I'd feel much more in control than when I'm constantly trying to 'get him back' in a waterford pelham when we jump. Sigh. Any tips gratefully received.xxx
 
Both look fab, love the look of Piskie. :)

What are your top tips for a wibbly wobbly jumper? My little chap is brilliantly straight on the flat but in combinations will wobble in between a lot.
 
My sound card is broken so I can't hear you :(

What does she sound like?

I like Piskie. How old is he? He looks lovely and rhythmic ( the newest thing I am struggling with at the moment) But what a funny name!
 
SpottedCat said:
It makes me cheerful that someone else uses those single jump blocks as skinny practice and sets up bounces using skinny fences, as everyone looks at me as though I am quite mad when I play about with stuff like that :D
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Nah, the people who don't practice that sort of stuff are the mad ones ;). Bread and butter for my horses.
 
I did it all the time with the GBO. If nothing else it means you can build a course with minimal effort by scattering jump blocks about ;)
 
abi31 said:
That was great fun. Thankyou for taking the time to post the vid.s and explanations on here. Now, next time can you post some examples of grid work I can do to slow my horse down (Sorry for being cheeky ;-) ). He starts off calm and gets faster and faster as we go round a course.
If I could keep him rocking along in our dressage canter (which he can do perfectly well in a snaffle), I'd feel much more in control than when I'm constantly trying to 'get him back' in a waterford pelham when we jump. Sigh. Any tips gratefully received.xxx
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I'm a long way from being an expert and there's a good reason that I don't teach ;). I also generally am more likely to have horses who are 'kickers' rather than 'pullers'. I don't actually do much grid work with the fast ones - I find they get quicker and quicker through the grid and it's not easy to do much about it. The last couple of keen ones that I've had have done a lot of jumping on a circle - just one or two fences at E or E and B and I go at a trot on a circle until they get so bored that they just plop over, then canter until I can lob them over on a long rein without doing much at all. I appreciate that some horses get more and more wound up the more you jump but don't think I've had one like that for a long time. I also don't mind throwing in a circle or two at a competition (obviously not at BE - too expensive! :eek:) if I feel they're gathering speed round a course. I had one recently who needed to be consistently halted after a fence. Quite aggressively so to start off with, but the amount of rein I needed to stop her gradually decreased when she got the idea and eventually she was slowing sown on the approach anticipating the halt after. That only works when they use their brain and learn though ;). Maybe someone better qualified will be along to help soon???? :o

doratheexplorer said:
Well done with the demo, i bet everyone took something useful away with them! Even if you did terrify a small child!!
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Mostly they took away tips on how to pick a drink up without breaking stride. A useful life skill I feel ;)

Kokopelli said:
Both look fab, love the look of Piskie. :)

What are your top tips for a wibbly wobbly jumper? My little chap is brilliantly straight on the flat but in combinations will wobble in between a lot.
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I make sure that the approach is dead straight (pick a coloured stripe on the pole to aim at), I widen my hands and make sure that I'm steering more from my legs and seat than reins and that the horse's neck is straight in front of me at all times and I practice over combinations where there is enough enough room between the fences to make adjustments - so 2, 3 or 4 strides rather than just 1. Two guide rails on the floor between the two elements are very helpful (placed lengthways and just over a horse-width apart) as they do the work for you and get the horse into the habit of straightness. I commiserate - Piskie was very, very wobbly in combinations to begin with and did a lot of work over poles with me making sure that I was disciplined at all times. He's come straight pretty quickly though.
 
Jesstickle said:
My sound card is broken so I can't hear you :(

What does she sound like?

I like Piskie. How old is he? He looks lovely and rhythmic ( the newest thing I am struggling with at the moment) But what a funny name!
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My already rather peripatetic Scots/Yorks accent seems to have completely deserted me :(.

I like Piskie too. He's a lot of fun and my job is to tun him into a safe allrounder for his slightly nervous owner (she won't mind me saying that!). He's 6 this year but was only broken in in the summer. He's IDx. His full name is The Tipsy Piskie, which is kind of appropriate :o. I believe a piskie is the Cornish version of a pixie, but don't quote me on that.
 
Gamebird said:
My already rather peripatetic Scots/Yorks accent seems to have completely deserted me :(.
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It hasn't! Although it isn't quite as strong as when I last saw you, but I put that down to you being cantering around on a horse whilst trying to talk!
I never think my Parents accents are very strong, but English people tell me they have really strong accents!
 
Gamebird said:
The child's owner said that if I broke him I had to replace him :confused::confused::eek:
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What?! the nhs repair children for free, why would you need to replace him :confused: unless they wanted to swap him for a better model?

The one I'd like to terrify would probably try pull me off as I went past so possibly not much help for an exercise :rolleyes:
 
Gamebird said:
I make sure that the approach is dead straight (pick a coloured stripe on the pole to aim at), I widen my hands and make sure that I'm steering more from my legs and seat than reins and that the horse's neck is straight in front of me at all times and I practice over combinations where there is enough enough room between the fences to make adjustments - so 2, 3 or 4 strides rather than just 1. Two guide rails on the floor between the two elements are very helpful (placed lengthways and just over a horse-width apart) as they do the work for you and get the horse into the habit of straightness. I commiserate - Piskie was very, very wobbly in combinations to begin with and did a lot of work over poles with me making sure that I was disciplined at all times. He's come straight pretty quickly though.
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Thanks will give it all a go, have done lots of grids with him and eventually he'll straighten out and if over a single fence he'll approach and land perfectly straight so thought it was so odd how he was through the combinations. :p

Can't believe Piskie used to be wobbly he looks brill now, hope Louie works out the same. :)
 
Thanks Gamebird, I think that's where I've been going wrong. In my head I thought that more fences and lots to think about would slow him down a bit. One or two on a circle repetitively may be just the thing. We've already been practicing the halting between fences part. Thanks for the idea.xx
 
Kokopelli said:
Thanks will give it all a go, have done lots of grids with him and eventually he'll straighten out and if over a single fence he'll approach and land perfectly straight so thought it was so odd how he was through the combinations. :p

Can't believe Piskie used to be wobbly he looks brill now, hope Louie works out the same. :)
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Good luck! They're all different. That's the challenge...:rolleyes:

ester said:
:eek: you'd think they would have appreciated your efforts!
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Terribly ungrateful of them :D
 
Thanks for sharing. Love the block jumping and beer can trick! Did you have to practice much to grab the can or is it easier than it looks?

Excellent use of small child too, they do have their uses!
 
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