Growing Pains
What can I say? Riding is hard and training a horse is hard. Strangely, Leo's flatwork is getting much better right now, but our jumping is going through a rough patch. I try not to think too much about it, but what can I say - I'm obsessive with this horse stuff.
The Jump Slump
I'm not exactly sure what's changed but Leo is unforgiving of my mistakes at the moment. As the fences get bigger, Leo has decided if I mess up the distance, that he is going to stop instead of jump from an uncomfortable distance. This happened twice in my jump lesson with Sally this week which resulted in a some swift discipline. Sally said it doesn't matter if I mess up, stopping is not allowed. Leo went through a similar phase as a novice horse. When I ask to have input, Leo just sometimes doesn't allow it.
Sally wants us to be in an energized 11 ft stride so that I can shorten to 9ft or lengthen to 13ft if needed. It's hard work for both Leo and I. To generate the right canter, I have to contain him between my leg and my hand. It's hard finding the right balance. Then for Leo, this energized canter step is hard for him to maintain (takes strength and he has to fight his long back for control). He finds it far easier to canter around on an open stride and take flyers over the fences.
The oxer to vertical 1-stride combination is still my nemesis. I practiced it last week and again in my lesson with Sally. Leo dirty stopped coming into the combination the first time. So frustrating. Put the fences down to 3ft, move the overs in, and we're fine. Raise them to 3'3"+ and max out the oxer width and it's a totally different ball game for us.
Sally is part trainer and part therapist. She always reminds me that I did not pick an easy horse to ride. Leo is and will always be a difficult ride, but we are making progress. Sally also said I'm going through something that everyone goes through at some time or other, where horse and rider are just not in sync and you're waiting around for the breakthrough. She said this happened with her and her favorite mare, Eva. Eva is a handful and then some. Sally spent a solid year plus some at training with her, trying to figure the mare out. Finally, Sally had a breakthrough in her training and then the mare got injured. That is life with horses.
So I asked Sally if moving up to Prelim next year looked like a reasonable goal. She said there are moments with Leo and I when prelim looks like a no-brainer, but in order to do the move up, I need more consistency. Practice, practice, practice.
Sally's jump training advice for the moment:
The Jump Slump
I'm not exactly sure what's changed but Leo is unforgiving of my mistakes at the moment. As the fences get bigger, Leo has decided if I mess up the distance, that he is going to stop instead of jump from an uncomfortable distance. This happened twice in my jump lesson with Sally this week which resulted in a some swift discipline. Sally said it doesn't matter if I mess up, stopping is not allowed. Leo went through a similar phase as a novice horse. When I ask to have input, Leo just sometimes doesn't allow it.
Sally wants us to be in an energized 11 ft stride so that I can shorten to 9ft or lengthen to 13ft if needed. It's hard work for both Leo and I. To generate the right canter, I have to contain him between my leg and my hand. It's hard finding the right balance. Then for Leo, this energized canter step is hard for him to maintain (takes strength and he has to fight his long back for control). He finds it far easier to canter around on an open stride and take flyers over the fences.
The oxer to vertical 1-stride combination is still my nemesis. I practiced it last week and again in my lesson with Sally. Leo dirty stopped coming into the combination the first time. So frustrating. Put the fences down to 3ft, move the overs in, and we're fine. Raise them to 3'3"+ and max out the oxer width and it's a totally different ball game for us.
Sally is part trainer and part therapist. She always reminds me that I did not pick an easy horse to ride. Leo is and will always be a difficult ride, but we are making progress. Sally also said I'm going through something that everyone goes through at some time or other, where horse and rider are just not in sync and you're waiting around for the breakthrough. She said this happened with her and her favorite mare, Eva. Eva is a handful and then some. Sally spent a solid year plus some at training with her, trying to figure the mare out. Finally, Sally had a breakthrough in her training and then the mare got injured. That is life with horses.
So I asked Sally if moving up to Prelim next year looked like a reasonable goal. She said there are moments with Leo and I when prelim looks like a no-brainer, but in order to do the move up, I need more consistency. Practice, practice, practice.
Sally's jump training advice for the moment:
- Canter lots of poles to develop my eye - which I can do in my flat schools
- Jump Leo twice a week
- Set the fences at 3'3" and up. The canter I need for these fences is totally different than 3' and under. Because I need to develop my feel, I have to jump at my competition height or above.
- Set up simple cantering fences - don't try to recreate the hard stuff from the lessons.
- Set up combinations (like the 1-stride) and jump it until it becomes second nature. if I run into a problem finding my distance in, I shouldn't use a placing pole. That actually makes the exercise harder for Leo. Instead I should set up a really small fence 19-20 feet in front of the combination so it's easy for the horse to get a clear one-stride.
Dressage Improvements
I also had a dressage lesson with Sally this week. She said she wanted to give me a warm-up routine to use with Leo at shows. She likens Leo's tension and resistance to her horse, Sue. My focus needs to be on getting Leo to relax through his back. To do this, she focuses on extreme bending for 5-6 strides on a 20-meter circle. Alternating between bending and straightness. Anytime Leo resisted the bend, we'd add a 10-meter circle into the mix. We changed directions through the circle and never left the circle. We added in canter work on the same circle, with 15-meter circles thrown in.
It sounds so simple, but Leo went fabulously well. Sally said it was the best she had seen him go on he flat. She asked me what I worked on the day before, which was walking and trotting in the xc field (millwork). She said, that's interesting. I was like why is that interesting. Doh. With Sally all the pieces relate and fit together. Leo is better on the flat when he works in the field the day before. He is awful on the flat when I jump the day before. Sally pointed out that I need to use these insights to my advantage with his training schedule. She said on Saturday, before our horse trial, I should repeat my field work and see how Leo is at the show.
The other thing to note is that Sally made changes to his bridle. She raised the noseband and tightened as far as it would go which was 3 holes tighter than where I had it. (I actually had a hard time getting it on that same hole later in the week! hah!). Like Phoebe, she also thinks a Michlem bridle would be worth a try.
Warm-Up Routine tips:
- Confine Leo - limit the space we ride in, in order to maintain his attention
- Move the bit before asking for anything - before any turn, transition or other request, I need to softly squeeze the reins in order to move the bit and prevent Leo from having anything to brace against.
- Extreme Bending through his ribcage will help loosen his back - Leo has to move his head to the inside of the circle without dropping his body in; I should be looking for him to bend around my inside leg and lift his back. This is hard, so ask for 5-6 strides then go straight for 5-6 strides and repeat.
- Do lots of changes of direction and transitions in a short span of time, simulating the time between movements in a dressage test.
- Collect and go forward to get Leo moving off my leg
- Add in leg-yeild by cutting across the short side of the arena and leg-yielding for a few strides.
Chiropractor Insights
I had a chiropractor come and evaluate Leo last week and I definitely think that is contributing to his good performance recently. Liz Paternotte is the area vet who also has her chiropractic license or certification or whatever they have to have. She ended up adjusting Leo's back. She said I may never get rid of the toe drag because Leo's left pelvis bone (I think specifically its the tuber sacrale) is lower than his right which is a contributing factor (the hip joints are even though). Because the left pelvis bone is lower, it has a tendency to pull / rotate the vertebras in his back to the left. This is what she fixed.
She thinks he'll need another adjustment in 3-4 weeks. For Leo, the goal of this work is to help maintain his comfort so he is willing to train (and train correctly - not evade all the time) and build the right muscles to support any conformational flaws. I'm happy with the results so far!
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