Henry has lift off!
While Coolies feet stayed firmly on the ground this weekend, Henry got to do some 'flying'.
Saturday I rode Henry on the flat, doing some trot and canter poles. Nothing too exciting, when he is a good boy he does about 20 minutes of walk, trot, canter and then we call it a day. Baby horse doesn't need to be smashed.
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| Being one with nature |
Sunday though was a little more exciting. Henry hasn't jumped since our last lesson with my coach, just over a month ago. I was interested to see how he would handle it as he seems to always have a big improvement the second time running through things.
The big take home messages from my lesson were to click or kick to jump, hold the neck strap early, and make our turns really good. Let Henry sort out the rest. Then if he gets fast, don't pull, just circle.
With this in mind I started out by trotting through the poles a few times. These are a non-event now. Then we set a tiny x rail, with a take off and landing pole. Henry has definitely got more relaxed about this, he trotted through quietly, not really even jumping. He knocked is a few times with his back legs, but didn't freak out as much as he had done previously.
Then we set up a second little x the same as the original one and trotted through both on a circle. Henry was a bit confused about the second one and trotted through without too much concern. The second time though, he gave himself a big fright by knocking it quite hard with his back feet again, sending the poles flying. He lost a bit of confidence then and was wobbly coming in. I just kept him steady and calm, continuing the exercise until he relaxed.
At this point in his training, Henry needs a lot of confidence building. He often scares himself and then needs encouragement to continue as before. He is a good boy though, and very obedient. He showed great improvement over fences even having enough control to add in a second fence! Not bad for an almost 4 year old.
The big take home messages from my lesson were to click or kick to jump, hold the neck strap early, and make our turns really good. Let Henry sort out the rest. Then if he gets fast, don't pull, just circle.
With this in mind I started out by trotting through the poles a few times. These are a non-event now. Then we set a tiny x rail, with a take off and landing pole. Henry has definitely got more relaxed about this, he trotted through quietly, not really even jumping. He knocked is a few times with his back legs, but didn't freak out as much as he had done previously.
Then we set up a second little x the same as the original one and trotted through both on a circle. Henry was a bit confused about the second one and trotted through without too much concern. The second time though, he gave himself a big fright by knocking it quite hard with his back feet again, sending the poles flying. He lost a bit of confidence then and was wobbly coming in. I just kept him steady and calm, continuing the exercise until he relaxed.
At this point in his training, Henry needs a lot of confidence building. He often scares himself and then needs encouragement to continue as before. He is a good boy though, and very obedient. He showed great improvement over fences even having enough control to add in a second fence! Not bad for an almost 4 year old.
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