Megan Jones Clinic

After a fairly quiet week spent riding in the bush due to a very sodden paddock, I spent the weekend at the Megan Jones clinic with Coolie.

Saturday was show jumping where we worked over poles, a grid and then progressing to a course. It was all about control and rhythm. We were the most experienced combination in the group, and all the exercises we did are things I have done before. It was a good session, and it helped us both feel very consolidated in what we are doing with our training. I liked how similar she is to my coach, everything we did in the session is what I do at home, and in my normal lessons.

Sunday I took both the horses to Brigadoon for cross country. I took Dakota out schooling on her own as I was only riding Coolie in the clinic. My aim for the session was to get her training over ditches and trakheners confidently, as I know there are both at our next event. Ditches in the past have been our undoing so I wanted to make sure she felt confident about them.

Nice legs over the stock yards

We did our normal warm up, checking we had our forward and stop buttons in place. She was feeling fresh but was responsive. There were heaps of other people out there training, so when I noticed the water was free we headed straight over to use that. She was happy as always to pop in and out, and I worked on getting her take off spot for jumping out a little bit closer to the bank, as she is known to take a flying leap. She was super and I feel like she is starting to read these questions better.

Flying over 95

We then did some logs, working on pace and placing her at the fence, before heading over to the ditch and trakhener. We walked up to the ditch, I kept my eyes up and leg on, and she popped it quite happily. We then trotted and cantered over it to check there were no dramas, before we added in a second fence to replicate a bit of a course. I then headed over to the trakhener and she popped the 80 and then cantered around over the 95. She flew over no dramas. Again I put together a little course which was far too easy, if you ask her!

Huge leap off a bank

We headed over to the sunken road to finish off our session. Again, no dramas only putting in a few big strides to make a tricky distance. I need to book a XC session with my coach to work on some of our techniques.

95 trakheners are not worth worrying about!

Next up Coolie and I had our XC session with Megan Jones. Megan had us all warm up working on trot-halts and then canter-halts to make sure we had breaks. The we popped a small fence which we had no dramas with. Again, Coolie and I were the most experienced combination in the group.

Jumping well

Coolie making his own fun when he got bored

Over at the water we practised trotting and cantering in and out, then added fences before and after the water. All the jumps were tiny and we had no dramas. Coolie was starting to get bored as we really weren't being challenged. Out of the group, I got the least attention as I have done this kind of thing with Coolie for years. Our basics are well and truly established! It is good to have a session like this to make sure though!

Displaying his displeasure of easy tasks by kicking out

After spending an age at the water, we headed over to the sunken road to practice drops and banks. Again this was well within our comfort zone, and we had no dramas jumping up or down, other than a little bit of attitude from the horse. We did a bank to upright combination around to a drop, which I had to do again because we drifted to the upright. I got it right the second time and then we were done.

Again, he makes his own fun!

behaving himself...

I was a bit disappointed to have not been challenged more. However, it was the first time all year I hadn't felt nervous about XC on Coolie and was dying to jump bigger fences so I think it was the boost I needed. Coolie felt great and knew his stuff, and really wanted to be challenged. Megan's techniques are very similar to my coaches, and while I am pleased I pushed myself to try someone new, next time I'll just have a lesson with Bec!

I am hoping both horses and I will be confident over the next 2 weekends at Gidgegannup.