Pre event lesson

This weekend we headed down to Capel for our third event of the season. I was excited and felt very prepared. I guess I am starting to know what to expect with Henry and I know we have done all the hard work already.

As prep for the competition I had a lesson Thursday night to make sure we were tuned up and ready to go. We started out cantering over 3 canter poles, getting straight and ensuring we had a good bouncy canter. I need to feel like I am puffing Henry up a bit, not just letting him flop through the exercise. It took me a few goes to get it correctly on the left but we got it easily on the right, as is our current trend.

Bec turned it into an upright and I needed to keep things the same. I really needed to look up into the distance to keep Henry straight after the fence. Bec said I need to ride all the phases of the jump, I tend to forget about the getaway.

We progressed quickly onto a course, starting out with a 3 stride related line off the right rein. We nailed it the first time and so we progressed to a fourth upright off the left rein. We managed to land on the left lead which I was very excited about, we are getting straighter!

The last jump in the course was a Swedish oxer, Henrys first! I was a little bit worried about it so I over rode it but he didn't care. We came back over it and this time I sat up and waited and Henry flew!

We did the course a few times, and I was making quite a few mistakes. I think I was feeling a little less confident after falling off twice last week and I was over riding as a result. Henry was being great it was me making mistakes. The biggest thing was under riding and not making decisions and flinging my body at the jumps. I needed to sit and wait and make a decision early. 

The last course was the best, I kept us straight, forward and I waited for the jumps and we nailed it. We landed on all the correct leads and I really rode well. My position finally felt really stable which is something I have really struggled with. 

Overall Henry is feeling awesome, he knows his job and I need to remember he isn't a baby anymore, he is a horse who knows his job. I need to ride him that way and not baby him so much. This lesson was the  perfect preparation for the weekend and I left feeling confident about the jumping phases.