The End of Summer is Near...
Where has the summer gone? It's already August...before we know it, another winter will be here. Why is the end of summer so sad!?
So what have Leo and I been doing all summer? Well, we haven't been competing. Leo came back from his bruised ankle just fine. He's been in work all July, but I had to take a work trip to Japan which interfered with any possible competition plans.
Volunteering
Since I wasn't competing, I was able to be a jump judge for both of New Jersey Horse Park's summer horse trials. It's alway a good event to volunteer at because the June events goes all the way to Advanced and the July one goes through Intermediate. They didn't have enough volunteers at the June event so I had to cover 4 xc fences; 2 at the start of the course, 2 near the end. I ended up screwing up big time - I didn't notice a horse & rider knocked a flag down at one of the skinnies I was covering on the advanced course and the next rider ended up getting eliminated. The TD said I wasn't to blame because the horse shouldn't need the flags, but I felt terrible and needless to say the rider was not pleased with me.
There was much excitement that day as the prelim course rode really hard. This was supposed to be Leo's second prelim run had everything gone to plan. There was a double-step bank complex that caused a lot of eliminations; horses and riders were falling at the water; and I was covering an angled combination that took out a few riders. The coffin was very atypical - the horses can to jump a ditch, push one stride uphill to a vertical, land downhill and then 4 bending strides to another vertical. It also rode rough for everyone. I was kind of glad it wasn't our second prelim but the more prelim courses I walk the more I realize none of them are easy. But just like training is super easy for Leo right now, some day Prelim will be super easy for us too.
I always get pumped up fence judging though. It's fun watching the upper levels compete, but I also like watching the lower levels too. Both ends of the spectrum are super educational. Watching the lower levels makes me wish I had a young horse to bring along again!
Confidence
Sally posted an interesting training tidbit on her Facebook page about how important it is to be aware of a horse's confidence on the flat. It got me thinking about her entire training philosophy. She's always been very focused on horse and rider confidence. Her exercises are challenging but the height is always competition height and she structures her exercises to that everything builds on a foundation she establishes at the beginning. Leo and I have never been over faced by her and yet we have made steady progress.
I took Leo to Fair Hill to school the xc course in a lesson with her. I thought she would have me school the prelim course but instead she just kept things straight forward and had me run Leo through the basic xc elements on the training level course: banks, ditches, water. We did gallop a few prelim fences but didn't run through any of the technical combinations. And Leo was foot perfect, super confident and just felt great. I remember Becca asking Sally how much she had to school xc with her Prelim horse Spy and Sally said she rarely schools a brave horse cross country.
Just last year, I remember running MCTA and there was a bunch of combinations on the xc course I had never schooled before. It was intimidating but Leo was perfect through them all. Sally told me that I would never be able to school every question in advance of finding it on course. I had to trust that my training in the ring would translate to the course.
Of course, at Fair Hill, I wanted to school all the prelim stuff. I could rationalize this and say its for my own confidence and that would be partly true, but it's more of an ego thing. My ego wants to know I jumped those fences, but my ego isn't the important thing. Leo's training is the important thing and he came out of that xc course super confident and that is going to translate into our next competition.
In the ring, Leo is schooling technical skinny combinations, related lines to corners, related distances where I have to adjust the number of strides. For the most part everything is set at prelim height - though the skinnies stay lower. The harder things get in the ring, the better Leo jumps and more his honesty shows through. He doesn't want to stop even when things get wacky. And if I make a mistake that leads to a stop (like earlier this week, I messed up the distance to a large square oxer and Leo put on the breaks), Leo never holds it against me. He comes back around without hesitation, let's me fix my mistake and jumps the fence like there was never even a stop.
Competition Plans
This weekend we compete in the P/T division at Bucks County Horse Park, which is hosting a schooling horse trials. The entry fee is a mere $95 which is incredible! Then we run a full Prelim at the end of August at Loudoun. If the money is there, and Leo stays sound, I could conceivable get 5 prelims under my belt this fall. I say 5, but I will be happy with 3 or just 2! Hah!
So what have Leo and I been doing all summer? Well, we haven't been competing. Leo came back from his bruised ankle just fine. He's been in work all July, but I had to take a work trip to Japan which interfered with any possible competition plans.
Volunteering
Since I wasn't competing, I was able to be a jump judge for both of New Jersey Horse Park's summer horse trials. It's alway a good event to volunteer at because the June events goes all the way to Advanced and the July one goes through Intermediate. They didn't have enough volunteers at the June event so I had to cover 4 xc fences; 2 at the start of the course, 2 near the end. I ended up screwing up big time - I didn't notice a horse & rider knocked a flag down at one of the skinnies I was covering on the advanced course and the next rider ended up getting eliminated. The TD said I wasn't to blame because the horse shouldn't need the flags, but I felt terrible and needless to say the rider was not pleased with me.
There was much excitement that day as the prelim course rode really hard. This was supposed to be Leo's second prelim run had everything gone to plan. There was a double-step bank complex that caused a lot of eliminations; horses and riders were falling at the water; and I was covering an angled combination that took out a few riders. The coffin was very atypical - the horses can to jump a ditch, push one stride uphill to a vertical, land downhill and then 4 bending strides to another vertical. It also rode rough for everyone. I was kind of glad it wasn't our second prelim but the more prelim courses I walk the more I realize none of them are easy. But just like training is super easy for Leo right now, some day Prelim will be super easy for us too.
I always get pumped up fence judging though. It's fun watching the upper levels compete, but I also like watching the lower levels too. Both ends of the spectrum are super educational. Watching the lower levels makes me wish I had a young horse to bring along again!
Confidence
Sally posted an interesting training tidbit on her Facebook page about how important it is to be aware of a horse's confidence on the flat. It got me thinking about her entire training philosophy. She's always been very focused on horse and rider confidence. Her exercises are challenging but the height is always competition height and she structures her exercises to that everything builds on a foundation she establishes at the beginning. Leo and I have never been over faced by her and yet we have made steady progress.
I took Leo to Fair Hill to school the xc course in a lesson with her. I thought she would have me school the prelim course but instead she just kept things straight forward and had me run Leo through the basic xc elements on the training level course: banks, ditches, water. We did gallop a few prelim fences but didn't run through any of the technical combinations. And Leo was foot perfect, super confident and just felt great. I remember Becca asking Sally how much she had to school xc with her Prelim horse Spy and Sally said she rarely schools a brave horse cross country.
Just last year, I remember running MCTA and there was a bunch of combinations on the xc course I had never schooled before. It was intimidating but Leo was perfect through them all. Sally told me that I would never be able to school every question in advance of finding it on course. I had to trust that my training in the ring would translate to the course.
Of course, at Fair Hill, I wanted to school all the prelim stuff. I could rationalize this and say its for my own confidence and that would be partly true, but it's more of an ego thing. My ego wants to know I jumped those fences, but my ego isn't the important thing. Leo's training is the important thing and he came out of that xc course super confident and that is going to translate into our next competition.
In the ring, Leo is schooling technical skinny combinations, related lines to corners, related distances where I have to adjust the number of strides. For the most part everything is set at prelim height - though the skinnies stay lower. The harder things get in the ring, the better Leo jumps and more his honesty shows through. He doesn't want to stop even when things get wacky. And if I make a mistake that leads to a stop (like earlier this week, I messed up the distance to a large square oxer and Leo put on the breaks), Leo never holds it against me. He comes back around without hesitation, let's me fix my mistake and jumps the fence like there was never even a stop.
Competition Plans
This weekend we compete in the P/T division at Bucks County Horse Park, which is hosting a schooling horse trials. The entry fee is a mere $95 which is incredible! Then we run a full Prelim at the end of August at Loudoun. If the money is there, and Leo stays sound, I could conceivable get 5 prelims under my belt this fall. I say 5, but I will be happy with 3 or just 2! Hah!
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