Jumping all the jumps... and other adventures.

Riley and I had a busy weekend...

Thursday he got a trainer ride and was apparently a total butthead. Locking his jaw, bulging his shoulder and pretending to spook at the cows he's seen a million times (and is turned out next to). Eventually she was able to get some good flat work out of him, but I think he thought a few days off meant he was now retired. They worked on a lot of transitions and of course, his right lead canter.

Friday I had farm duty in the evening, and I wanted to fit in a flat ride in Emily's dressage saddle. It fits both Riley and I really well.We started off doing lots and lots of sitting trot (he has THE BEST trot for sitting) and he actually moves better while you're sitting the trot for some reason. Serpentines all over the ring using my leg and set to change the bend in his body. he finally getting the concept of moving off my leg instead of leaning on it. One exercise I worked on was walking down the quarter line, leg yielding to the rails, walking a few steps then yielding back off, walk a few steps and then back on the rail. This really got him moving straight and it helped set him up for success at the canter. he was very forward on Friday and the first canter depart was a little explosive, but he picked up the right lead first time after my little leg yielding exercise. We did the same thing again and we got another perfect depart (from the walk) on the correct lead! Hooray! We cantered some more in the other direction and he felt great. I really like riding in the dressage saddle as it really allows me to lengthen my leg and open my hip angles. My plan is to flat in it once a week and do some no stirrup work in my jump saddle every ride.

Saturday Emily and I busted out Jimmy's book for gymnastics (I also just ordered his new book). We were both eager to put our ponies through some technical questions and we choose two very different exercises. One was 3 jumps a stride apart with placing poles in between. It was an accuracy questions which also forced the horses to compress their stride in between fences. One of the things I love the most about Jimmy's book is that is tell you how to set up the exercise from start to finish so each time around you add an element that makes sense to both the horse and rider. We don't have a ton of jumps right now so we were using the narrower poles for the exercise so the fences were only 8 feet wide. This made for some interesting wiggling on Riley's part leading up the first fence, but he is honest as the day is long and went through each question even if he had a rail down or had an awkward fence (no thanks to his pilot).

We're doing what now?

First exercise. Can be ridden in either direction. Red poles are jumps (2-2'3"-ish), brown are placing poles.

The idea is that after they get a rhythm through this line, you are supposed to raise the middle jump a bit to help with the stride compression. We didn't get that far, but Riley was very good.

Then we moved on to a completely different kind of exercise which is meant to teach your horse to extend his stride between two oxers. As you go through the exercise the oxers and widened to encourage the horse to jump out and over instead of up. This was a bit tricky for us and we got some really awkward jumps but eventually I stopped sitting down too early and actually releasing over the fences. Side note: I was riding in Emily's spare Berney Bros jump saddle that I love, but it's way too big for me. It does keep my leg in a really solid position and I feel much more comfortable over fences in it, so I may be on the look out for one soon!

Second exercise, again can be ridden from either direction. Diagonal poles laid across the two verticals.

Not the best I've ever ridden, but this was a tough question for both of us. He's barely done any sort of related distance work so it was a really good learning experience for us both. Lots of pats and praise for him. We were going to add in another jump that we could canter to after either line, but it was super hot and Riley was pretty cooked by the end of all this.

And now, a photo dump of some video stills:

Into the line, this gives you a good idea of how the poles helped encourage the horse to compress their stride and really use their hind end. Also, I love his expression.

Middle of the line, eyes up hands forward.

And out.

Need to learn how to crouch more over the fences. But boy does this saddle keep my leg soild.

Jumping out of the oxer exercise. I love this one.

Someone was a little exuberant about the oxer with the pole across!

Favorite. He's such a cutie.

We still have so much to work on, but we're on the right track. I'm getting much more confident with his over fences and even though he's still a bit wiggly (as you'll see in the video) if I keep my leg on and leave him alone he's goes through without issue. No spinning and ducking out! He's definitely starting to really like jumping!

His schedule will look something like this for now. Flat ride Wednesday evening, trainer ride (whatever she feels like working on) Thursday or Friday. Jump Saturday and hack Sunday with a little flat work. I think that's a fair schedule for him at this point, especially with the heat. He's on night time turnout on hilly terrain so staying fit is not an issue. We are tentatively aiming for the evening HT at Olde Hope in a few weeks, Carousel at the end of August and Emily will ride him at Fairhill in September.

Sunday we had a really nice sunset hack together and we left the barn full of horses and headed up to his turnout field (it's 20 acres) to play around. He even let me open the gate from his back!

Hacking out to his field.

Not too shabby of a view.

And of course, my favorite tree.

He was fantastic, we just played around with some big sweeping serpentines at the trot and had a few fun canters up and down the hill. It was a short ride, but I just wanted to stretch his legs a little after a few days of real work.