Adventures in Jumper land continue...
I think I have mentioned this before, but I love, love, love the day after a horse show. I can do absolutely nothing and feel not one nagging thought of guilt! This morning, I have the patio door open. It's chilly but I am in my pajamas, under a blanket, sipping coffee and chilling' with the cats. And now I get to reflect on how fantastic Leo was at the jumper show yesterday and how far we have come together. This is the best Sunday ever!
Leo and I have just been on fire in the last few weeks. We're totally in-sync with our jumping now. Last weekend, Sally was in town for the weekend and I was able to get a lesson with her. Leading up to that lesson, Leo and I were not putting a foot wrong in our jump lessons. Whenever anything is going consistently well, I get this ridiculous thought in the back of mind..."It's only a matter of time before I will screw things up..." Those thoughts are so stupid. Of course I will make mistakes, but there really is no going backwards. Even the mistakes are jumps forward.
So this little nagging thought led me to think I was going to unravel in my Sally lesson. But we didn't! We were awesome. We were so awesome that someone commented to Becca that Leo looked like an easy ride. Best compliment ever!!!!
A year ago, the focus was on getting me to react properly to a bad jump or bad canter and not let the issue at one fence impact the rest of my course. Now I do react from one fence to the next. If we're too forward at one fence, I land, re-establish my canter and try to take the edge off the next fence (without nit-picky all the way there!). If I get deep and feel Leo stall a little, we land and I ride forward. Leo in turn is much more confident in me (I think) than he has been before and he listens to me! Now Sally is focused on the quality and correctness of my canter between fences and making sure I wasn't pushing Leo's stride beyond where he could maintain his adjustability. We are still running into problems in related lines where I just can't get the distance to work and the last stride ends up being very short - rather than having nice, even strides. Leo is still a spooky horse! He wouldn't go near a chevron with a psychedelic image on it and we had to let him look at in before he would jump it. I believe Sally's exact words were "This is ridiculous."
Black River Farm Jumper Show Round 2!
This time Flying Horse Farm brought a big crew to the jumper show. With a total of eight horses, we were there from the first class to the last class...9am 'til 6pm. Maddie rode in the 2ft division, Ellen rode in the 2'9" jumpers, Zoe and Christine rode in the 3'3" jumpers and Becca had 3 horses across the 2'9", 3' and 3'9" classes - whew! This time I only did the 3'6" division, which was 2 classes. One with a jump-off, one without a jump-off (speed class over a longer course). No one was in my division - just me :)
Everything went great! We were outside in a huge ring which was a nice change from the indoor. In the first round, Leo was clear and we jumped the jump-off course. We even did a snazzy rollback and found a nice angled line to one of the jumps. I caught a really long spot into the in-and-out during the jump off and Leo didn't hesitate and took the distance without concern. I definitely have a margin of error right now that I didn't have before which is super exciting! It's nice to know that when I make a mistake, Leo will pick up the slack for me versus shutting down.
In the second round, we had the first fence down but then were clear over the remainder of the course. I was able to smooth out my second round which is the great thing about doing all these stadium courses back to back. The second course had a lot of roll-back turns, but Leo responded well and wasn't anticipating which fence he thought he was going to jump next. He was listening.
Black River does such a nice job with their courses. They flow extremely well but there are still rider options for striding and turns (how sharp and daring do you want to be?).
Becca and I are quite liking the jumper world right now. I think there is something to be said for riding a bunch of courses back-to-back and getting all that jump experience in. It's nice to be able to work on training issues in a competitive environment. Plus, you can get a lot more rides in for a lot less money than a horse trial. The worst thing about these shows is all the waiting around and not really knowing when your class is going to start. At the first jumper show, our division started at 2:30pm. At this one, the same division didn't start until 4:30/5pm. It definitely isn't as nice as getting ride times like at events.
The schooling jumper shows stop now and that world transitions to rated shows for the rest of spring, summer and fall. We may still attend a few but our focus will turn towards events. Plantation Horse Trials are next weekend, then it's on to MCTA the first weekend of May.
Leo and I have just been on fire in the last few weeks. We're totally in-sync with our jumping now. Last weekend, Sally was in town for the weekend and I was able to get a lesson with her. Leading up to that lesson, Leo and I were not putting a foot wrong in our jump lessons. Whenever anything is going consistently well, I get this ridiculous thought in the back of mind..."It's only a matter of time before I will screw things up..." Those thoughts are so stupid. Of course I will make mistakes, but there really is no going backwards. Even the mistakes are jumps forward.
So this little nagging thought led me to think I was going to unravel in my Sally lesson. But we didn't! We were awesome. We were so awesome that someone commented to Becca that Leo looked like an easy ride. Best compliment ever!!!!
A year ago, the focus was on getting me to react properly to a bad jump or bad canter and not let the issue at one fence impact the rest of my course. Now I do react from one fence to the next. If we're too forward at one fence, I land, re-establish my canter and try to take the edge off the next fence (without nit-picky all the way there!). If I get deep and feel Leo stall a little, we land and I ride forward. Leo in turn is much more confident in me (I think) than he has been before and he listens to me! Now Sally is focused on the quality and correctness of my canter between fences and making sure I wasn't pushing Leo's stride beyond where he could maintain his adjustability. We are still running into problems in related lines where I just can't get the distance to work and the last stride ends up being very short - rather than having nice, even strides. Leo is still a spooky horse! He wouldn't go near a chevron with a psychedelic image on it and we had to let him look at in before he would jump it. I believe Sally's exact words were "This is ridiculous."
Black River Farm Jumper Show Round 2!
This time Flying Horse Farm brought a big crew to the jumper show. With a total of eight horses, we were there from the first class to the last class...9am 'til 6pm. Maddie rode in the 2ft division, Ellen rode in the 2'9" jumpers, Zoe and Christine rode in the 3'3" jumpers and Becca had 3 horses across the 2'9", 3' and 3'9" classes - whew! This time I only did the 3'6" division, which was 2 classes. One with a jump-off, one without a jump-off (speed class over a longer course). No one was in my division - just me :)
Everything went great! We were outside in a huge ring which was a nice change from the indoor. In the first round, Leo was clear and we jumped the jump-off course. We even did a snazzy rollback and found a nice angled line to one of the jumps. I caught a really long spot into the in-and-out during the jump off and Leo didn't hesitate and took the distance without concern. I definitely have a margin of error right now that I didn't have before which is super exciting! It's nice to know that when I make a mistake, Leo will pick up the slack for me versus shutting down.
In the second round, we had the first fence down but then were clear over the remainder of the course. I was able to smooth out my second round which is the great thing about doing all these stadium courses back to back. The second course had a lot of roll-back turns, but Leo responded well and wasn't anticipating which fence he thought he was going to jump next. He was listening.
Black River does such a nice job with their courses. They flow extremely well but there are still rider options for striding and turns (how sharp and daring do you want to be?).
Becca and I are quite liking the jumper world right now. I think there is something to be said for riding a bunch of courses back-to-back and getting all that jump experience in. It's nice to be able to work on training issues in a competitive environment. Plus, you can get a lot more rides in for a lot less money than a horse trial. The worst thing about these shows is all the waiting around and not really knowing when your class is going to start. At the first jumper show, our division started at 2:30pm. At this one, the same division didn't start until 4:30/5pm. It definitely isn't as nice as getting ride times like at events.
The schooling jumper shows stop now and that world transitions to rated shows for the rest of spring, summer and fall. We may still attend a few but our focus will turn towards events. Plantation Horse Trials are next weekend, then it's on to MCTA the first weekend of May.
congrats on a solid showing - sounds like you and Leo are really clicking right along! good luck at plantation! i'll be jump judging at MCTA - but hopefully will be actually competing too one of these years haha
ReplyDeleteEmma, I think you may be the only person that reads my blog! But I'm glad you do!! I think it's awesome that you'll be jump judging at MCTA - it's a great event and so many amazing riders compete there. You've inspired me to find a competition to jump judge at this year :)
ReplyDeletehaha i'm sure there are plenty others who read - most just lurk tho ;)
Deleteand jump judging is so much fun - such a great opportunity to watch riders like Sally and Phillip Dutton without any added stress of my own show prep!