Sticking The Landing (gymnastics part 2)

Continuing with the gymnastics work in the lesson this weekend, I started with the usual issue of not having enough impulsion over the very low jumps. The horse I ride maxes out around 3 ft (especially as he's getting older), but doesn't care to jump over cross rails. He perks up when he sees a gymnastic of verticals, but that's usually a few go's in, anyways.

After we had done the gymnastic pretty well, we had to work on straightness going out of it. Of course, I was so focused on what was going on in the gymnastic, I allowed the horse to get in the habit of turning immediately after. This is an old problem that haunts me when I'm focusing on the jumps. In our next lesson, we're going to work on 10 meter circles to become more intentional in all of that.

Sitting pretty for gymnastics

I had a semi-private lesson after a 2+-month dry spell and could not have felt better about it. Was I flopping around a bit? Absolutely. Never underestimate those weird tiny muscles that control your body as you canter (leg flop) or get in 2-point (torso flop). But some consistency will help me improve those this fall.

We did a small gymnastic - worked up to a 2 stride to a 4-5 stride to a bounce, all over jumps no more than 20 inches. We hit some rails a few times due to lack of impulsion, but once we got going, Tony did it easily. Where I failed was sitting up between jumps. I get so focused on the last jump that I don't think about what I need to do to "sit pretty" for a few strides and keep the balance back. It's something to work on in the next lesson.

We also did a post at the canter - sit a stride, post a stride. I was lucky that my horse will keep cantering so long as you don't overly interfere. I did sit a little too hard, and could feel the rhythm break when I did. Again, it goes back to flopping around a bit.

I was also doing an odd thing that seemed to work. Tony is very bad at halting. He resists quite a bit and your half halts will get bigger until you're doing an uneven rein to get him to listen (I wonder, if he weren't a school horse, and someone more advanced was riding him, if a stronger bit might be better - to be able to subtly ask instead of tugging his mouth. ANYways - to get him to halt I would literally look at the ceiling. Something about tilting my head up, he could feel it, and would halt! If anything, it was a fun experiment. Not something that makes sense in the long run, but maybe there's a more subtle tilting of the body that would also work.

I want to start thinking about what I could work on during a practice ride (if I end up having the time), and one of them is controlled posting (having a softer seat?) . Another is not cutting corners at the canter. And also, not standing in the stirrups when jumping; I do find I am on the horse's neck for a second when we land.