I think posting about my current progress (outside of Kiki -- I won't be riding her until April) will make for a well rounded horse blog. So here goes:
Tuesday, I rode Major. He is a draft cross and just as cute as can be. The girl who leases him squealed with delight the first time she saw me on him. He's a bit of a sensitive flower as I like to say, and he found his way to B after he failed as a hunt mount -- his heart wasn't in it and he thinks too much -- not a good combo for fast speed and jumps that don't move. This was the third time I've ridden him and I decided it would be fun (and good for my body) to take the lesson bareback. He's incredibly comfortable since he's part draft, with a nice wide, flat back. He is in the process of shedding pretty seriously and so I could hardly grip without sliding against the hair coming off! I wound up with his fur in all sorts of unsightly places.
We started the lesson with some reading material from 101 Jumping Exercises (one of the reasons I love my instructor so much is that she really encourages us to read/learn outside of our lessons). She challenged us to begin warming up as though we had 20 minutes before our jumping instructor arrived so she could see what we might do to get the horses ready for fence work. I stuck to some transitions and lateral work. I feel as though having my horse listening to my leg aids (every time) is super important for jump work, especially with a horse like Major who need to be RIDDEN to every fence. He began moving into his gaits well, he can be a slow poke sometimes, and was bending quite nicely through a series of circles in varying size so he didn't know what was coming next. Then we worked on some walk/canter and canter/walk transitions. We worked on a 20 meter circle asking for the canter in front of B, riding the circle, and then asking for the walk at B again. If there were any trot steps, she simply asked us to stop and start over. All of these horses can canter from a walk, so she wanted us to send a clear message to our mounts, that we were asking for the canter, with our leg, ONLY our leg. MY riding partner has a much stronger Dressage background than I do and I often feel intimidated by her during our lessons, but doing this exercise helped show us both a few things. For one thing, she has a tendency to cluck, use words, and drive her seat, way before applying her leg. I never noticed before because we are usually cantering at the same time. So it was a challenge for her to drop all of the other aids and just use the leg. For me, I have a habit of going right back to the days when I rode bad ponies and I lift my seat and push my body forward when I'm not getting what I am asking and that's not helping either of us. We then practiced a few simple exercises over small jumps coming in over 4 trot poles and then either hitting a jump on the right or the left placed diagonally and continuing around the arena on the correct lead canter. Strangely, Major ran out of two jumps! Remember how I said he has to be RIDDEN to every fence? Only for a second did I change my leg pressure, and there he goes, ducking out! We finished the lesson by doing the same exercise...trot poles, over a jump to the left, pick up right lead canter over fence and continue to larger vertical on the long side of the arena. The first time we did this everything went well, except Major saw the vertical, decided it was a 4 foot oxer and jumped it that way! I felt like I was launched through the air holding onto a piece of mane with my feet flailing behind me! I stayed on (at this point, it should be noted, I did put his saddle on without the stirrups before the jumping portion of our lesson)...After doing this a few times, he settled in and we found our way to the spot a little better, but it took me pushing him to the base of the jump, holding his hand (hoof) the whole way!
What I learned:
*Some horses you have to really ride to the jump -- until their front feet take off! Had we been schooling over bigger fences at higher speed I may have come off today. A good lesson for someone who is just getting back into jumping!
*All the voice and seat aids in the world won't help a horse who is ignoring your leg.
*I have good balance and can stay on despite a giant OVER jump -- without catching my horse in the mouth (hooray for a good crest release)
*Doing some of these exercises in a small indoor is more challenging that it seems. Though I would love to be outside riding a course in the huge outdoor, there is much to be learned from small jumps with technical transitions!
I am taking a fun lesson tomorrow as my riding partner and her Mom want to ride together and they thought it would be fun for me to join in. B asked me if I want to ride a pony (duh, of course I do)! It's one of the best parts about being a small adult (I'm not that small, but 5'6" and 130lb), I can ride ponies and big drafts alike!
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