First Impressions

We took the trip down to Sally's place in Aiken on Saturday. It was awesome to catch up with her. She's so much like Jane and Becca - social, easy to talk to, very down-to-earth. I haven't seen her since last year when Leo and I took a couple lessons with her in Aiken. We talked at length about how things with Leo progressed last year and some of the difficulties I had with him over the last 6 months.

She explained to me that with hot horses, management becomes key. Rarely is it riding that is the source of the problem. She said we're basically the same rider all the time, gradually getting better over time, but our riding doesn't change drastically enough to be the cause of the inconsistencies in our horses behavior. Her one horse, Joule, has the most difficult personality in the barn. She said there are definitely days he's barely rideable. If he gets even a hint of alfalfa, he's impossible to ride for 2 days. He has a very strict schedule that they learned over time suited him best. He can only be stabled overnight for one night at events. He gets turned out 24/7. He's only allowed pellets, etc.

She said I have to be really observant about changes in Leo's routine - sometimes even something like a slight variation in feeding can manifest itself with bad behavior. I need to try and corollate changes in his behavior with changes in his routine. Same thing at horse shows. I need to try and figure out what sets him off then put a plan together for managing it. She said I might need someone on the ground to help me through his tantrums.

So I had a lesson so she could watch Leo go and he was all business. No silliness, so bad behavior, no tantrums. She said he looked good and she didn't see any indications of the problems I had been experiencing. If we were going to see bad behavior, Saturday would have been the day: super windy, new place, new horses. But Leo was great! She said the changes I made might have solved a lot of the issues. It's hard for her to say since she hasn't been a witness to the problems. We rode out in her big jump field, which has lots of stadium and cross country fences. Sally had seven fences set up in a circle/hexagon shape. You could jump through the circle, out of the circle, back into the circle, and so on. It was a really interesting setup! She had us jump a bunch of mini-courses using the fences, with lots of turns in both directions.

My timing was way off and we missed the distances on the first half dozen jumps. But then I started getting it together. When I start riding forward, we hit better distances and had a better rhythm in general. Sally's 3 pieces of feedback were:

1. When I'm jumping (including the canter warm-up), it doesn't matter what Leo is doing with his head and I shouldn't try to put him in a frame. He has to bring his head up coming to the jump so he can see it. I just need to let the running martingale do its thing.
2. Position wise, I need to be stronger in my core, keep my shoulders back and use my eyes through the turns. I should also be thinking 3-point not 2-point when I'm jumping.
3. I need to be cantering courses when I'm prepping for a show. She reminded me that I'm not going to see a gymnastic on course. Gymnastics have their place but right now I have to tackle course work. Basically, I'm 2 weeks out from the first horse trial of the season and haven't been prepping properly!

I should have been doing more gymnastics last fall to settle Leo and used that education to move onto course work this year. Hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? And by course work, I mean related fences with turning. We did a lot of cantering around over fences last fall, but the fences have been in a hunter course formation since I arrived in June and haven't changed. The big turns and long flowing lines don't provide the right education for an eventer. I need to be more proactive and change the jumps so they suit me and Leo. All the turning in my lesson with Sally helped settle Leo and kept his attention better. I need to remember that.

Sally is going to work with Leo this week and ultimately give me some guidance in how to proceed. She said she didn't see anything in my riding that would cause any behavioral problems like I described with Leo, so she doesn't believe I am the source of the problem. Whew! She noticed I was able to correct him from falling in on his right shoulder when making a turn to a jump and I wasn't overly fussy with my hands like I said I was. It's nice to know I'm doing some things right! Mike and I are off to SnowShoe Mountain in West Virginia for a little snowboarding. When I get back I'll go back to Aiken for some more lessons. Our boot camp with Sally ends with the Jumping Branch Horse Trial. Can't wait!