Wednesday jump day
It's one of those weeks where I'm not sure what day of the week it is! It's been flying by but feels never ending at the same time.
Henry is looking a little more comfortable and this morning didn't gimp down to the paddock quite so much, and was less reactive when I was cleaning his hoof. I could tell he desperately wanted to trot after Coolie but he just couldn't bring himself to. Poor fellow. He will feel much better with his shoe back on.
Coolie and I have been working on flat work recently and I am trying to really focus on improving his way of going. Hopefully he is improving and I can work on my position at the same time. I have some other plans for summer to help us out too! It involves going to the beach, which is always fun.
Lats night we had a quick jump in preparation for the weekend. I really wanted to focus landing on the correct lead, and riding more forward.
Warming up Coolie felt good, and if I set him up properly he was consistently landing on the correct lead. I thought it was a fluke, but as I built up a course we got the correct lead every time! I was quite excited by it.
I was trying to be very away of my pace and Andrew got the metronome out and set it to 105bpm. I couldn't hear it but Andrew shouted at me when I was on the money and I just let the jumps come to me. With a more forward pace everything rode so much better, although it felt too fast for me, but then I do love to ride with the hand brake on!
Once I rode forward we got everything spot on and Coolie was landing on the correct lead, and I was riding well. We didn't jump much because everything was just going smoothly so I called it a day after we nailed it once.
Henry is looking a little more comfortable and this morning didn't gimp down to the paddock quite so much, and was less reactive when I was cleaning his hoof. I could tell he desperately wanted to trot after Coolie but he just couldn't bring himself to. Poor fellow. He will feel much better with his shoe back on.
Coolie and I have been working on flat work recently and I am trying to really focus on improving his way of going. Hopefully he is improving and I can work on my position at the same time. I have some other plans for summer to help us out too! It involves going to the beach, which is always fun.
Lats night we had a quick jump in preparation for the weekend. I really wanted to focus landing on the correct lead, and riding more forward.
Warming up Coolie felt good, and if I set him up properly he was consistently landing on the correct lead. I thought it was a fluke, but as I built up a course we got the correct lead every time! I was quite excited by it.
I was trying to be very away of my pace and Andrew got the metronome out and set it to 105bpm. I couldn't hear it but Andrew shouted at me when I was on the money and I just let the jumps come to me. With a more forward pace everything rode so much better, although it felt too fast for me, but then I do love to ride with the hand brake on!
Once I rode forward we got everything spot on and Coolie was landing on the correct lead, and I was riding well. We didn't jump much because everything was just going smoothly so I called it a day after we nailed it once.
The metronome idea is fantastic! I always think I'm riding forward and...welp, not so much.
ReplyDeleteIt is so helpful, we use it all the time to get the feel of the right rhythm. Makes it so much easier to self check too once you get a feel for the metronome speed, you can get it going in your own head.
DeleteI feel like remembering to ride forward gets harder the more schooled the horse is. Like in the early days the difference between the horses “good” jumping canter and anything else is pretty obvious. But then as their balance improves and their collection and all the other little pieces that go into improving their flatwork, suddenly I have a much much harder time understanding if I’m in the right gear for jumping bc the horse has a far greater range for what feels “good” in the canter.... does that make any sense lol?
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly! You have more power from the canter so it feels faster than it is, and the horse has the ability to jump from that canter, especially at the height I jump. It is even more important to have the right speed as you get to the 1.10m mark to allow the horse to jump well.
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