Jumper show appearance
Jen and I went up to Swan Lake Equestrian Center in Pennsylvania for a schooling show today. We wanted to hit up some jumper classes and this venue has quality courses - which is hard to find with a schooling show. We entered a 3 ft class as a warm-up, and two 3'4" classes.
The day involved a lot of waiting around. I dislike the vague time schedule that goes with these hunter/jumper shows. It started to rain when we got on; and rain intermittently the entire time we were up. Luckily is was just a steady, not too annoying rain.
Our results were disappointing. Leo and I warmed-up great, but it just didn't translate in the ring. We had a 4-fault round over 3ft and then an 8 fault and 12 fault round over 3'4". Sally always tells me that at training height and up, a rider mistake will be costly. The first round, I was riding backwards. I corrected this in the next round but still had a couple rails. I actually re-rode the same course in an attempt to better my score and riding, but ended up having 3 rails the second time.
It's frustrating. Leo's a hell of a jumper but I still am not in command of his canter. He's either behind my leg or too much in front of my leg. When I make an adjustment, the pendulum swings too far in the opposite direction.
I know I should try to be positive but I'm frustrated that we had such a good stadium round at MCTA in May and everything has been downhill ever since. The courses today were exactly what we needed to practice. They included 2 different one-stride combinations, related lines and turns. All the fences were set true-to-size at 3'4". We had some nice jumps, but Leo was careless at times and I couldn't effectively regulate the length of his canter or the impulsion. I think I need to rethink my training approach. Something is just not gel-ing right now.
I've decided that jumper shows suck just as much as dressage shows for me and Leo. Leo sucks at dressage so dressage shows are painful. I suck at show jumping, which makes jumper shows painful. The only thing Leo and I are ever in sync on is cross country. I thought that I just needed to hit up a lot of jumper shows to cure me of my show jumping inadequacies but change evidently doesn't come with just 3 classes. I think I'd rather just go to horse trials more often so I can have a least one feel good moment in the day.
The day involved a lot of waiting around. I dislike the vague time schedule that goes with these hunter/jumper shows. It started to rain when we got on; and rain intermittently the entire time we were up. Luckily is was just a steady, not too annoying rain.
Our results were disappointing. Leo and I warmed-up great, but it just didn't translate in the ring. We had a 4-fault round over 3ft and then an 8 fault and 12 fault round over 3'4". Sally always tells me that at training height and up, a rider mistake will be costly. The first round, I was riding backwards. I corrected this in the next round but still had a couple rails. I actually re-rode the same course in an attempt to better my score and riding, but ended up having 3 rails the second time.
It's frustrating. Leo's a hell of a jumper but I still am not in command of his canter. He's either behind my leg or too much in front of my leg. When I make an adjustment, the pendulum swings too far in the opposite direction.
I know I should try to be positive but I'm frustrated that we had such a good stadium round at MCTA in May and everything has been downhill ever since. The courses today were exactly what we needed to practice. They included 2 different one-stride combinations, related lines and turns. All the fences were set true-to-size at 3'4". We had some nice jumps, but Leo was careless at times and I couldn't effectively regulate the length of his canter or the impulsion. I think I need to rethink my training approach. Something is just not gel-ing right now.
I've decided that jumper shows suck just as much as dressage shows for me and Leo. Leo sucks at dressage so dressage shows are painful. I suck at show jumping, which makes jumper shows painful. The only thing Leo and I are ever in sync on is cross country. I thought that I just needed to hit up a lot of jumper shows to cure me of my show jumping inadequacies but change evidently doesn't come with just 3 classes. I think I'd rather just go to horse trials more often so I can have a least one feel good moment in the day.
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