Jump School: Long Lines and Variable Striding
At Morven, I really struggled sticking to my plan in the long related lines. In the first line, a six or a seven stride line depending on your ride, I choked. Leo spooked coming in, landed short and I held instead of riding forward. I got eight strides. Then later in the course, there was a 7 or 8 stride bending line…Leo spooked again, landed short and I got 9 strides.
Sally has told me a million times, I need to react faster on landing. If Leo stalls out on the first jump, I need to immediately send him forward in that first stride. I can't hold the whole down the line. At novice and training, I can get away with that but those errors won't be as forgiving at Prelim. I need to be able to make the distances and get the right striding, or I risk having the fences down.
In order to recreate the problems from Morven, Becca set up a course of long, related lines. We jumped a couple warm-up fences and went right into course jumping mode. Jumping no less than 7-8 fences at a time. The distances were long enough that I could add or remove strides to change the striding. Becca would tell me a course, tell me the strides I needed to get and then I had to ride it to plan. Then we'd do it again, changing the course and striding in the lines.
It was great practice. It really taught me to change and monitor my canter and take ownership over the course, rather than just let things happen as they may. Becca is also working hard to help me get in the habit of putting and keeping my leg on Leo. It is a theme that threads through our flatwork and our jumping. Every stride of the canter, Becca is yelling at me to squeeze with my upper calf. It does create a much better canter and helps me regulate Leo's pace. If my leg is always on, his canter is much more consistent - versus changing from a 14 foot stride to an 8 foot stride in a fraction of a second.
Becca also worked in an angled line with a skinny. It rode great when it was in the middle or end of the course and Leo was in "just show me the next fence" mode. When I had to ride it as the first fences in the course, Leo backed off like he does at shows. It's like he doesn't know what to do with an overload of visual information and doesn't immediately respond to my leg. Our homework continues to be getting and keeping my leg on Leo; and then getting him to respond correctly to my leg aids: move forward when I say move forward, lengthen when I say lengthen. You'd think on a forward horse those concepts would be easy but alas they are extremely challenging!
Sally has told me a million times, I need to react faster on landing. If Leo stalls out on the first jump, I need to immediately send him forward in that first stride. I can't hold the whole down the line. At novice and training, I can get away with that but those errors won't be as forgiving at Prelim. I need to be able to make the distances and get the right striding, or I risk having the fences down.
In order to recreate the problems from Morven, Becca set up a course of long, related lines. We jumped a couple warm-up fences and went right into course jumping mode. Jumping no less than 7-8 fences at a time. The distances were long enough that I could add or remove strides to change the striding. Becca would tell me a course, tell me the strides I needed to get and then I had to ride it to plan. Then we'd do it again, changing the course and striding in the lines.
It was great practice. It really taught me to change and monitor my canter and take ownership over the course, rather than just let things happen as they may. Becca is also working hard to help me get in the habit of putting and keeping my leg on Leo. It is a theme that threads through our flatwork and our jumping. Every stride of the canter, Becca is yelling at me to squeeze with my upper calf. It does create a much better canter and helps me regulate Leo's pace. If my leg is always on, his canter is much more consistent - versus changing from a 14 foot stride to an 8 foot stride in a fraction of a second.
Becca also worked in an angled line with a skinny. It rode great when it was in the middle or end of the course and Leo was in "just show me the next fence" mode. When I had to ride it as the first fences in the course, Leo backed off like he does at shows. It's like he doesn't know what to do with an overload of visual information and doesn't immediately respond to my leg. Our homework continues to be getting and keeping my leg on Leo; and then getting him to respond correctly to my leg aids: move forward when I say move forward, lengthen when I say lengthen. You'd think on a forward horse those concepts would be easy but alas they are extremely challenging!
Comments
Post a Comment