After a three week break, I hopped onboard Louie last week
for a quick 20 suppling session in the school, clipped him out the next evening
and enjoyed a hack on a Friday evening after a long week at work.
I’ve recently joined our local riding club, attracted mostly
because of a great winter training schedule that they offer with a number of
sessions taking place in an indoor arena not far from us. I can be a little
cautious going to different trainers after so many years of using the same two
(Cathy for flatwork and Philippa for jumping), but I wanted to make sure that
this winter I committed to getting out and doing more to progress through the
winter months. It’s too easy to just do a quick session at home, not really
achieving much but ticking it off as a training session.
Anyway, I joined and saw that Philippa was coincidentally
doing a showjumping clinic with the riding club. As soon as I saw it, I booked
on. Afterwards, I thought that it might not have been such a good idea – Louie can
be spooky and overdramatic with even a pole on the ground after not going over jumps
for a few weeks, so it perhaps wasn’t the best idea after doing nothing for
what would have been almost four weeks by the time the session came. I came to
the conclusion I could always cancel if he was a bit of a loon in the few days
prior… He was lovely during our first schooling session, VERY spooky and on his
toes when we hacked, and I noticed he wasn’t moving off the leg laterally, so I
popped him in the school the next morning. He was fine, excited and keen, but
settled into his work and did some good lateral work.
Monday evening came and off we set. It’s always a bit daunting
when you’re new to a club and don’t really know anyone, but the two girls in my
group seemed lovely. I haven’t been to the venue for a good few years, and was
never able to walk Louie into the indoor arena. I’d have to get off. Yes, even
for a dressage test, he just would not go in, even with a lead horse or being
led by a person. **eyeroll at a typical Louie behaviour!**
I got on in the car park and thought, let’s have a go, it’s
been a while… He walked straight in. While I waited for the other two girls in
my session to come in, Louie walked around on a long rein feeling relaxed and
calm, but also happy and not lazy. Once we started to warm up, Louie went
beautifully, although Philippa soon reminded me to adjust our frame and way of going
from a lovely dressage one to a one more suitable for showjumping. As the arena
isn’t overly big, we cantered around on the same rein all at once. I thought
this might make Louie quite excited, but it didn’t, although he was definitely
keen!
We started off over a small cross pole. Until about a month
ago, we’d stopped jumping cross poles as they seemed problematic for Louie,
instead always just sticking to uprights, as at the end of the day in a
competition, there’s never really cross poles. However, we’d started to start
our sessions with one, challenge him to get him to know it’s one side to the
other regardless of what’s in front of him. He had a good look as we came in
& I sat quite defensively, but he popped over. We came around and did it once
more, before working up over an upright and then an oxer.
One of my biggest bad habits, as I’ve mentioned in the past,
is looking for the fence and prioritising getting my line before worrying about
anything else. In a smaller space this definitely becomes more obvious to me
and makes a difference when I don’t focus on it. The other bad habit is letting
my hands creep up or move about in reaction to Louie. Last time Louie and I did
a 60cm showjumping round in this arena the turns felt tight and difficult, the
space between fences felt minute and generally it felt frantic when going round,
possibly also because he was very spooky. So when Philippa straight away put
the six fences together, I wondered how we’d get on. I knew I had to look early…
First time round, the fence were kept quite small, and we found
our way round quite well, maybe a little unbalanced coming to fence two and
fence five, as well as allowing myself to get a bit too flustered after fence
five to correct my canter lead ready for the wiggly plank (which you can’t see
on the video). I forgot to look, missed my line, Louie had a really good look
and stopped almost, but with a kick and keep looking up, he popped over it.
Hooray! Sounds so simple to some, but after three weeks of
doing nothing and being generally spooky about things like this, it was a very
positive moment! We repeated the red plank again, just to improve on the turn
and line to it.
I watched the other two jump around, before the jumps went
up a bit, maybe 75-80cm. Louie jumped round well and I found the corner
straight forward to make. Philippa also added fillers fully into one jump
(number three) which again can thrown a bit of a dramatic reaction from Louie.
I remembered to look early and get my line. I rode a bit defensively and forgot
to keep my hands quiet, but it didn’t cause any problems, and Louie jumped it
like a standard upright. It was a dog leg to number four, and Philippa shouted
to keep my hands still, and in a quick reaction I kept them still but
practically threw them away, so we had a bit of a leap to the left over the
fence. Round to the plank, and I managed to get a much better line and kept a
better rhythm around my turn, leaving us with a nice jump to finish on.
As I say, usually when Louie is keen and in a smaller space,
it feels a little frantic. We end up disunited and landing on the wrong lead. I
was thrilled as we went round to not only find myself looking early and finding
my lines well, but to be looking ahead where we were going and therefore landing
on the correct lead, sometimes changing leads over the fence, including the
last one!
For those of you that have followed us over the last few
years, you’ll know how we’ve struggled with our showjumping, particularly with
consistency, Louie’s dramatics and remembering to look early for my line and
keep my hands still in a good rhythm. I left this session feeling so positive and
was thrilled with how well it had gone. For the first time after our training
sessions over the last month, I feel like we’re starting to take steps forward
to getting out & about back to showjumping parties! So watch this space
over the upcoming months as I’ve put it high on my agenda for my winter
training plans!
Sounds like great progress! ❤️
ReplyDeleteThanks Roosa! I was SO pleased with how it went! X
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