Jumping Greener

In yesterday's lesson I got to ride the greenest horse in the lesson program. He's actually 6 years old and has been worked on extensively by my instructor and ridden by other lesson students, so I can hardly pretend it was a huge challenge.

There were a couple things he would do that emphasized I needed to be gentler with him:
He would start cantering if I asked too strongly for a trot.

He would bulge his shoulder out if he didn't want to move away from his friends (I am still learning to deal with that better).

And he would make this horrible grinding sound on the bit if I was putting too much pressure - it was like the audible manifestation of his building anxiety. When we were watching others take their turn at the jump, I would let the reins go down to the buckle to chill him out (unless he'd try to eat giant splinters of the indoor - why do they DO that?!)

We worked on jumping 2' jumps, including an oxer and an imitation of a rolltop (the things you can do with polls and cavalleti blocks!) and I really just focused on keeping control until the end and then not getting in his way. I'm sure a more advanced rider could figure out how to keep their leg on without overdoing it with him, but for a first time jumping a somewhat-green horse, that was my method and it worked fairly well.

I'm excited to ride him again in the future. Because our lesson program is small, I can keep track of how everyone is progressing and I don't want to fall behind everyone else! Of course, when everyone else gets to ride 3+ times as much as you do per week, there's only so much you can do!

Figure eights for jumper turns

We've been working a lot on turning, which (I know, this is obvious) gets harder when you are 1. Going faster 2. Turning more sharply 3. Turning sooner before a jump.

When I first started riding, I was at a hunter barn and there was no discussion about tight turns. It probably would have come up in more advanced lessons, but the side pass and making sure we "used our corners" on the rail was about it. Before and after every jump, we had time to get back on the rail and take a nice, wide turn. In fact, I was more likely to turn too early than have trouble turning at all.

My instructor uses ground poles in different formations to get us to turn correctly. By setting them up parallel and spread a horse width apart, we have to do very tight snake by walking between the poles.

She also sets them up in the shape of a box and has us think up different ways to do a figure-eights and clovers with them - here are some examples:

Sourc: HorseJournals

After, she had us go to the other side of the ring and do a figure eight. The cool part was we found ourselves naturally imagining the box, and this made our figure eights retain their shape even without the poles.

We've also been working on using ground poles as a guide to get us to turn before a jump, so maybe a ground pole just off the rail that then requires an immediate sharp turn to be straight in time to go over a jump.

I've been having lots of fun and learning a lot about control in general. I'm still working on steering in the canter - it's hard for me to do endless perfect 20m circles (let alone one), but we're getting there...slowly. I just don't have much time in my weekly group lesson to really work on it.

And in other progress, my position over jumps is improving. It's not very hight, but I can keep control and position over 2 feet under varying circumstances. I'd like to think that being really sound at this will help me when we start to string together higher jumps.

Finally, spring is coming! I'm hoping to do at least 1 show this year. Maybe a 2-phase, but at least another jumper show!

Jumper turns with gentle hands

I scored a private lesson yesterday and got to work on doing tight circles (at the trot) over a jump, as well as broken lines. I had to go over a jump, circle back and jump it again, find the broken line to the next jump, halt when I was straight on, then repeat the process over the next jump.

Yeah, I used SnapChat to draw it out and then screengrabbed it. What of it???

The getting a straight line to the jump in time to halt was hard! One time we were riiiight in front of the jump. I suppose if the horse I was riding liked to rush jumps, it would be a good exercise, but in the case of a horse that has been refusing jumps, I was motivated to do better.

One thing I gave myself a pat on the back for - I'm getting better and using multiple aids at once - half halting while lifting a should while bending and then releasing better over the jump. It was tricky to release when you also have to turn the horse in a circle, but something I know how to work on now (hopefully)!

Sunfishing and Stayin' On

Today I rode a 5-year-old that was very green. More green than any horse I have ever ridden (I know, that’s not saying much). Our lesson group was so crowded because of the extreme temperatures the day before that he was the only pony left. They put him on a lead rope and a working student had to jog along side my as we worked on trotting in a straight line. A lot of head-tossing happened. We went over a cross rail a few times. I got taken of the lead rope to go over the cross rail by myself and went into a trot that turned into a bolt and bucking that probably only lasted 20 seconds but was very exciting. Finally was able to walk the pony to the jump, go over it and bring him back to a very sloppy halt. I learned a lot about liiiight aids. Tiny pulses for half halts. Tiny squeezes from quiet legs.

I have a new-found respect for people who train young horses. This guy was small - I wasn’t that scared because just weren’t that far from the ground. But apparently I missed the training session where he tripped and fell with my instructor on him. He’s been better about picking up his feet ever since. Phew.

A brief LOTR reenactment

I broke my wrist playing football in October and was down for the count for just a month as far as riding was concerned. Then I was off for my honeymoon in New Zealand, where I managed to get an awesome trail ride in. My husband and I have been together for 6 years and this is the first time we were on horses together so that's quite the achievement. It was an amazing ride - there were wild goats battling, baby cows romping, creeks and hills to ramble across.

There I am with my awesome wrist guard. A lot of the horses were standardbred (and bay, as you can see!). There were a lot of horses to spot during our drives across the country. I would be prefectly happy picking up that lifestyle permanently.

In other news, I got back to my riding lessons these past two Saturdays. My flatwork is like riding a bike - I have no problems getting back into it, and even saw improvement this past Saturday keeping the horse at a trot between two big (okay, 2'9", but big for me) jumps. I really need to get someone to video tape me because I have no idea what I'm doing in the air, it just feels very disorganized. Even though I'm better about re-organizing between jumps, I want to get that beautiful position with the release I see in every photo ever.

It was about 5 degrees in the indoor this weekend. After a half hour of trotting I had regained feeling in my fingers but completely lost feeling in my toes. There was frost on the horses muzzles, they had a lot of energy to get out, but were actually very well-behaved. I rode a different horse the weekend before who bolted on me (for only about the length of the indoor until he came up on his friends' butts). It all happened too fast to be scary. Those OTTBs can move. What an amazing feeling. I mean, bad that it happened, right? But put yourself in my position - I've never gotten to flat out gallop a horse. So just a taste of it was sort of thrilling.

I know. It's no wonder I break bones all the time. I'm missing the gene that says "Don't do this! It's dangerous! Abort!" You think I'm kidding? In New Zealand we went skydiving and I didn't have an ounce of fear. I was like, well if I die, it'll be quick!"

Cavaletti Arithmetic

I've had 2 lessons in the past 3 days - a new record for me. The second was a private 45-minute lesson and my muscles may not have been entirely up to the task.

In any case, the first lesson was a group lesson and we jumped three low jumps positioned on a circle. The last jump was eventually brought up to 2'9". I had a lot of trouble getting the path to the jump right, but got it eventually, if not gracefully.

The second lesson we actually worked on a lower jump (and on a different horse) and focused on my position. Thank god. It's fun to say, "I've jumped 2'9"!", but what's the point if you can't do it well, let along string more than one together? If I can work up to smoothly completing a 2'6" course over the next few months, I'll be very happy.

To be honest, I still have some steering issues, depending on what horse I'm riding and if said horse is hungry/tired/had it for the day. It's funny to feel like you're making progress and then struggle to get the horse back on the track and not cutting corners at the canter. It's funny how on one horse, you can do it all easily, and then another horse reminds you that you still need to fine-tune your aids.

Snaaaaake ...or whatever you'd call it

We fixed my falling off problem, more or less.

In some ways it was obvious - do more of those 2'6" jumps heading into a corner where I have little time to sit up and decide for the horse where he should go. As mentioned before, it came down to staying up right as much as possible, and it also helped to focus on going slooower after the jump. My instructor had a lot to say about "checking the breaks" before a jump, especially on this thoroughbred, because he will gets faster and faster unchecked. It was a lot easier when I focused on rhythm all the way from beginning to end ("end" being a few strides out from the jump until we're ready to break into a trot).

Being in a group lesson with people of different levels, we worked on a little more than that.

1-minute diagram of the jump setup

We did this weird snake-shape where we had to find the center of each next jump with 2 strides in between, ending heading into the corner. She built up the jumps over time. First pass, they were all 9", but then it was built up so that only the first was at 9"and the last one was 2'6". The ones in the middle were set uneven, so one side was 2'6" and the other was 15" (I guess I just take the average?).

A fun activity that focused on broken lines, getting the the middle of jumps and keeping a good rhythm!