Red goes faster

I always look forward to the weekends that Jonna comes over to Perth, and like a diligent student make sure my homework is done while he is away. It’s even better that Bec trains under Jonna too because I get lots of continuity between Jonna lessons. This arrangement has been working out great for me and the other regulars.

This weekend I had 2 jumping lessons in the arena and was really looking forward to seeing what would happen. I always try and think about areas we need help in but this time round we didn’t have any issues I could think of, but wanted to build more.

We started our first lesson with a quick catch up and Jonna had plenty to say. So much of our lessons are made up of conversations about horse training and it really gets me thinking and inspired and motivated. It’s always a conversation I look forward to as I know my views are appreciated and considered.

Jonna watched Henry and I warm up and I was so pleased to feel how wonderful Henry felt, all our flatwork has made a massive difference and he came out ready to work, forward, willing and responsive. After we cantered over a cross rail a few times Jonna and I had a chat about what we wanted to achieve. The biggest thing was Jonna wanted my release to release more. I need to go with Henry more and not sock him in the mouth. This is an issue I have always struggled with and it’s about time I address it really.

Me not going with my pony very well

Jonna put the jump up and I worked on my position, and it was hard. I would release over the jump, but throw the contact away entirely rather than allowing and maintaining the contact over the jump. It took me a bit to get the feel right but in the end I got it when I thought of making sure I was still with him when we landed, not the take off part of the jump. This meant that I was staying with him through the whole process, not just the first part.

When I got the right feeling we moved on and added a second jump in. The first time over, I just stayed with Henry and supported him when he had a bit of a look and was slightly backed off. He jumped it well and Jonna was pleased with how I rode. Jonna observed that Henry accelerated slightly away from the jumps, so we worked on lifting him off the forehand after landing. We broke it down into two stages, the first right after the jump telling him to sit back a bit more and not getting him to change his pace. The second stage was then analysing if he needed to be sat back again, or slowed down and making the necessary change.

We used two stages which meant that I wasn’t just pulling on Henry's mouth when all he needed was a rebalance to his hind quarters, not a whoa. In this case a downward transition wouldn’t fix the problem because he needed help keeping himself together rather than being told off for going too fast. We cracked it fairly quickly and got the response after the jump to within 2-3 strides rather than the 5 strides we started with.

We finished on a good note, jumping towards the gate with only a very light aid to rebalance Henry within 2 strides, and me following with my hands. I put together a video of some of the good bits and less good bits below.