Building up the course

My lessons for the past few months have been focused on the very basics of jumping:

Path: Straightening the horse out once you're on your line to the jump (Path)

Pace & Power: Getting the rhythm right - not letting the horse get strung out on speed, between or after jumps. This means I'm still very often heading to a jump at the trot, then regulating the canter, or even going back down to a trot between jumps. Sometimes I'm supposed to do this and still mess up a bit

Position: I think I am more able than every to have the right position over jumps, but with all the other things going, I flop around a bit. For example, I can be focused on half-halts to get the horse under control between jumps so he doesn't take the long distance, but then my body ends up behind the motion when he does take off at the base.

All these things aren't quite there (maybe they'll never be perfect), but yesterday I realized how much progress I've made when we started building up to a course.

I was with the advanced students who can jump 3ft up, but we focused on what was basically an 18" course with a couple 2ft jumps as the final line. The course had a lot of turns, but my horse was a bit more of a school master than than theirs, so it was a level playing field. One had to ask a younger horse for flying changes clearly, while another was moving a horse up a level from the baby jumps.

I was surprised that I survived doing the course. One time I goofed a bit and the horse got strung out on the last jump, but all in all I pulled it off. There were turns I wouldn't have gotten in the past, and I felt less flustered in between jumps, like I actually had time to re-organize. 

Adventures in automatic release

In my lesson this weekend we worked on the automatic release by over-exaggerating it: Opening up the reins while pushing them forward. Over-exaggeration should be a general part of learning anything new in riding, or breaking habits, because it ALWAYS works for me. It makes doing things the right way feel in the realm of 'normal'.

I was getting pretty good at this auto release business and then I surprised myself by having another thing click: Keeping my leg on over jumps. It's hard! It works muscles I don't usually work. I should know this by now, but the body works in mysterious ways.

We also practiced having a tiny opening in the rein over the jump to clue the horse into where we were going next. But with Tony, if you give him an inch, he'll take a mile (and a hard right) so it was more valuable to focus on being straight and then asking for the turn after all 4 feet are on the ground. Some day I will have a strong enough leg to control all that, since I know jumper turns can require planning ahead.

Keeping my leg on over the jump made me feel organized upon landing, so my horse didn't do a sharp turn like he normally does. He waited until I gave him an opening by easing leg pressure. Actually, I eased leg pressure and opened the rein a centimeter and he took it. So now I just have to 'think' about turning, and he'll do a smoother turn.

My hope is that this leg on and auto release combo sticks as the jumps go up. We got up to 2'9", but it took a lot of concentration and I think if there was another jump to turn to, it would have been a wee bit messy.

That being said, I still get a little excited when I see the jump go up to 2'9" but it doesn't fully phase me any more. Because I'm so focused on working on different things, I don't notice if it feels different from 2' any more.

Straight Up

Haven't posted in a while, but that's because it feels like I've been trying to learn the same things lately.

Get a good rhythm before the jumps through half-halts.

Give good release all the way through landing.

Sit up, leg on to keep him straight after the jump.

That last one still eludes me. I guess I'm just not organized after a jump yet to pull it off.

And I've been riding a horse with a hard mouth so when I got on a horse who was opposite, I was pulling too much on his mouth. He was feeling good and breaking into a canter and I wasn't gently enough bringing him back. It was bad. I ended up switching with another student who had more experience with him.

Maybe winter is all about shaking out those lingering issues. 

We've entered cavaletti hell

All my previous posts have basically been about how cavalettis are making me the rider I want to be.

Well, right now they are my personal hell.

My instructor put ground poles and raised poles on a semi circle and I've replayed this in my head several times and still don't quite know how to do it. Here's footage of the disaster I was this past Sunday:

Sorry, I know someone blocks the camera at the end, but I think there's only so much if this you would want to look at anyways.

Most of the time, Tony just wanted to run out, because the strides were so weird, so at least I got to work on keeping him to the bending line. That was a challenge for me in and of itself.

There are so many things to think about with this exercise.  I think I should just stay in a light seat because otherwise I get behind the motion, so that's one thing to try next time.

It also goes by so quickly that I don't have time to think about whether we look good. But here are the 3 things that I think I could immediately do to improve:

1. I guess I could start with having a good rhythm. That's always a good thing, right??

2. And obviously keep him to the center of the poles, which has a lot to do with me learning how much leg to use.

3. And, relatedly to how much leg, half halting properly so I'm not just pulling him one way or other, or letting him escape through a sloppy loose rein.

Other than this exercise, we improved a lot as partners in terms of transitions. Tony gets stronger with more and more jumping, but I was getting better at bringing him down to a walk from a canter. I could even bring him to a halt which used to feel impossible for me. And he even backs easily. Trying weird exercises feels a lot better when you know you are ultimately in control.

All the puzzle pieces

This month I have been traveling all over the country for work, usually leaving Sunday evenings. So I'm pretty stoked that I've been able to consistently go to my weekend riding lesson. Obviously, my dream has always been to ride consistently during the week, but that is for another time in my life.

My husband came to a lesson this month and took a bunch of videos of what we are working.

• Transitions: We are working on asking quietly, like asking for the trot with just the inside leg, doing a downward transition by sitting deeper, etc.
• Canter: I can canter longer than i could before. I used to get disorganized and it would all fall apart before I made it all the way around the ring. I noticed in this video that I'm pumping my arms, and this is because i want to give the horse his neck and it just looks a little...artificial?
• Simple lead changes. These are pretty simple, but i also need to learn to avoid unnecessary ones by planning for the correct lead before the jump. 
• Sitting up and being forward to jumps. You'll see in the video that I've gotten better at this, and it's probably due to less fear going over a jump. Probably, as the jumps get higher, I will need to learn how to stay out of the saddle longer! In terms of being more forward, this is a balancing act for me. I ride one horse where if you rev her up too much, she starts bucking, and another where if you don't, he'll trip over the jumps. Definitely learning to fine tune.
• No-stirrup posting trot. Getting my leg at the girth and generally wrapping it around the horse correctly lasts about 4 seconds, and then it slips!

In the video below, you can see what we work on throughout a typical lesson, how my instructor builds up the jumps, and where my issues are. 

In last week's lesson, we worked on going over a jump and doing a 10 meter circle at the trot, then the canter, to go over the jump again. I did not get it quite right at the canter. It comes up so fast! My instructor was kind enough to point out my horse's long back as part of the difficulty. But the canter is feeling better to me, so I'm confident I can get this soonish. I need to work on:

• Not leaning into the circle, just turning my torso (and using my eyes)
• Using the outside rein for the turn
• More half halts rather than pulling

Um...yeah, a lot of things need to click for me :)

Left lead right lead

I got to work on the canter a lot on Katie in my last lesson.

I usually find it difficult to ask her for the right lead, but this time it was clicking for me. We could switch leads by going into a few steps of trot.

We worked on me standing for two seconds and sitting for two seconds in the canter. I didn't really succeed in fully standing. I think my legs aren't really in the right position when I stand up (more forward), so it's more like a half seat.

Also, when I sit down, it's not soft enough and Katie would break into a trot. I'm thinking this means I need to maintain a light seat in this exercise.

We did a little jumping and went over a 2'6" standard a couple times, but it wasn't hugely successful, we couldn't get over the middle of the jump. I still call it a minor success because I used to be unable to get over a jump with her at all. She refuses if there is any leaning forward on my part at all.

She also requires being fine tuned in my aids. If I ask for a canter, but then keep asking too much, she will start bucking. I'm learning to sit up more when that happens, but my instinct is to grab mane, which means leaning forward.

Leaning forward is consistently my issue. I think I still do it in my trot to canter transitions, as well. I guess I have a fear of being left behind and losing my balance that way. I guess I have to let myself be behind the motion and then fine tune from there if I want to make progress - lesser of two mistakes?!

Corrections for no stirrup

In yesterday's private we worked on trotting without stirrups, and I realized why it's so hard. I thought I could just relax my leg down the side of the horse, but apparently that isn't the right position. I had to put my hand on the pommel to pull my seat forward, let my leg hang long, but then I have to make sure my leg is lightly touching the horse, from my knee down to my heel. This meant my toes were still up, like the stirrup would position them. It also meant I had to use muscles I never use. I couldn't do it for much more than 5 minutes, and with a lot of readjusting by grabbing the pommel.

This is the sort of thing that would be great to work on during practice rides!

...

I'll be traveling for work 5 days a week for the next month.

Sigh.

We also worked on keeping a rhythm at the trot and canter and going over crossrails/2' verticals. I cantered longer than I think I ever have on the rail (ok, sometimes I cut some corners) and was actually doing it long enough to find a rhythm. My left leg really slides around, though. Which just makes me think that no-stirrup work is really valuable!