Jumping lesson catch up

I have a bit of catching up to do! I have been finding time to blog hard, work is busy and in the evenings Rosie insists on sitting on my knee and if she’s not then Arthur is, or she demands pats. Either way it makes typing on my laptop tricky.

 This past weekend I had a jumping lesson on Friday, then a weekend of dressage club. It was a very busy, interesting weekend and I feel like we have improved heaps too. Plus we had fun in the lovely weather so what’s not to like.

 I had been thinking after all our jumping recently we should do some grid work. I swear by coach and I are linked because she had the same thought. Henry has been jumping so well recently but we need to work on his form, and I need to work on my position, because my leg had had a mind of its own recently.

The grid in its final form was a bounce, one stride to an upright then two strides to an oxer. This configuration is Becs favourite, and we do it often. We warmed up cantering down the line of poles off either rein keeping Henry soft and round over his back and in a consistent tempo. It was, as always, easier off the left rein than the right rein but the right is certainly improving, I have to do far fewer repetitions these days. 

We built the grid up gradually, and I needed to start out by working to get him deep to the first fence, then just supporting him through the exercise. As it was built up, it became apparent that Henry was jumping slightly to the left, probably because he finds that easier. So to counter that I needed a stronger left rein and leg to encourage him to use himself more evenly. It took me a few goes to be the most effective without upsetting other things, but once I got it, I could feel he was jumping better over the final oxer 

That final oxer got built up to be quite large by the end, to encourage Henry to pick his legs up. I rode ok to it mostly but twice I pushed by body forward to take off rather than sitting quietly and caused Henry to have a rail. This habit is so much better than it used to be, but I think it comes out when I feel like Henry needs more help. So I help by hindering. Silly me!

Once Bec was satisfied we had the grid nailed, we came right and changed leads over another large oxer and finished over a spooky upright. I needed to really focus on getting Henry deep to all the fences to encourage him to jump round over the fences. The first time I nailed the grid, but didn’t support with my leg enough to the oxer, just letting him drift and then jump a long spot. I recovered and jumped a perfect jump at the upright, mostly because I knew I would have to because it was spooky.

We did away with the bounces at that point, and just did the upright to the big oxer of the grid and repeated the oxer to the upright and then I got the perfect stride, except I shot my body forward at the first oxer from the grid. Bec had me do it all once more but I had to promise to ride the second oxer perfectly. No pressure.

I came through, nailed the first line, got a good spot at the oxer and saw a long spot to the upright so made a decision and went for it. It was the right call, and we finished the lesson on a high!