Studious

Well, I had the most amazing weekend and I am glowing with happiness and excitement! Friday was flatwork and our lesson was as Jonna said, "like a muesli bar, lots of bits"!

We worked mostly in walk with a bit of trot and canter thrown in. We started checking the turn with direct and indirect rein. Our indirect was better because we have been practicing it more. Good to note!
He's so grown up now!

We played a bit with shoulder in and our left shoulder in is better. The right indirect rein is very light and I pulled too hard which saw us going all over the place. It was harder in walk than trot and when trotting we got it about right on both reins.

We have a very brief canter, and when we tried to do a transition and it was heavy, as it often is, Jonna talked me through how to get it lighter, firstly by getting the tort to halt transitions light and then taking it into canter. We did a few repetitions and it was nice and light again. It was a good lesson to see where we are at and although not the most exciting I knew it would put us in a good place for our jumping.
Weekend visitors 

Saturday we had our show jumping lesson and it was awesome. Henry came out ready to go and he stepped up to the mark.

We started out cantering a cross rail to warm up which was no big deal and when Henry didn't change anything Jonna made it an upright and we got started with the lesson. Jonna had me canter the upright off both reins, until we had it right, then on the left rein come around to another upright with fill. Henry popped right over, giving it a bit of room. We repeated it a second time and I asked him to land on the right lead. He nailed it, and didn't change anything so we kept cantering to an oxer which again he just jumped like a grown up horse. This impressed Jonna no end at all, considering that Henry has, in the past, been a bit extra.

We repeated the little course a few times, and Jonna found that when Henry got a bit worried about something he took a long spot. I had started noticing it to, so Jonna had me really focus on holding Henry to a deep spot.

We added in a second spread fence, a hogs back. Hen has never seen a jump like that but he didn't give it a second glance, I just kept my leg and and he popped it without much issue. We did it again, then Jonna put it up which didn't cause a problem but Hen started to get lazy with his form.

Jonna put the jump up a lot, to about 1m, and Henry and I came in exactly the same. Hen jumped it, but whacked his front legs and raced out having had a fright. We came in a gain and he whacked his legs again. Jonna put it back down and boom, Hen jumped with amazing form.
He tried but he just didn't make it!

Jonna and I had a chat about what he had done. Jonna hadn't told me before he put the jump up, but he had wanted Henry to whack his legs to get a better shape. Then we put it back down to boost his confidence. It worked a treat and Henry jumped really nicely after that and he remained confident.
No lazy legs there!

We finished on a positive note and I was really buzzing. Henry and I have come a long way and he was so incredible in our lesson. Even when he got a bit worried, he listened to me and went off a light aide. He jumped without hesitation and tried his hardest to do the job. He was adjustable and maintained the same canter no matter what. I just have to work on getting him deep to the fences, and encouraging him to land on the correct lead. All in all a very successful and productive lesson.
perfect :)


Comments

  1. Great lessons all around. Henry is maturing so nicely.

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    Replies
    1. I'm very pleased with how he is coming along!

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  2. what a good boy! sounds like a fantastic weekend with Jonna so far ;)

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  3. Sounds like a really positive lesson for the both of you!

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    Replies
    1. It was, and a very good indicator of where we are!

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