How quickly do you see a Plan B?
In my jump lesson with Sally on Tuesday, Leo and I were on fire. We were working on courses with combinations and related lines. We were hitting everything for the first half of the lesson (and Julia said it looked like I was ready for prelim!! What a compliment!) Then half way through, I failed to get Leo's canter back and had several messy jumps in a row. And then naturally I started riding backwards - as if that was going to correct the problem!
I jumped into one line and pulled out because I didn't like the distance and subsequent jump I got. The line was a vertical, 69 ft or 5 bending strides, to a large oxer. I buried Leo at the base of the first fence and we landed with a dead canter. I circled around and got the exact same distance the second time. On landing, Sally yelled at me to keep going and make it work. I kicked forward. We got six strides but a good jump over the oxer, and proceeded to jump the rest of the course.
Translation: I'm not always going to get the distance or the jump I want, but there is always a Plan B. I need to think quick and make decisions to finish the job at hand. A circle will cost me time and penalties versus making a quick decision to correct the canter, impulsion, etc. and ride the line with an alternate number of strides or a different bend, etc.
In this case, I just needed to get my leg on and establish the right canter so I could jump the line in 6 strides.
So the lesson is this: When training, it's important to keep riding even when the ride isn't going to plan. In a competition, there are no do-overs. At home, you can always repeat the exercise and smooth it out on the next trip, but don't give up on the crappy round. That round is critical to developing the skills necessary to correct problems when they arise in competition.
I jumped into one line and pulled out because I didn't like the distance and subsequent jump I got. The line was a vertical, 69 ft or 5 bending strides, to a large oxer. I buried Leo at the base of the first fence and we landed with a dead canter. I circled around and got the exact same distance the second time. On landing, Sally yelled at me to keep going and make it work. I kicked forward. We got six strides but a good jump over the oxer, and proceeded to jump the rest of the course.
Sally said, "The best event riders are those that get to Plan B the quickest."
Translation: I'm not always going to get the distance or the jump I want, but there is always a Plan B. I need to think quick and make decisions to finish the job at hand. A circle will cost me time and penalties versus making a quick decision to correct the canter, impulsion, etc. and ride the line with an alternate number of strides or a different bend, etc.
In this case, I just needed to get my leg on and establish the right canter so I could jump the line in 6 strides.
So the lesson is this: When training, it's important to keep riding even when the ride isn't going to plan. In a competition, there are no do-overs. At home, you can always repeat the exercise and smooth it out on the next trip, but don't give up on the crappy round. That round is critical to developing the skills necessary to correct problems when they arise in competition.
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