Lisa's Blog post # 7

Now we’re cooking!

We have been cantering all around the ring.  Our departures have been spot on.  He’s not bucking at all.  He stops when I want him to.   We are jumping again!!  (just baby jumps) Things are finally back on track! 

I’ve learned to keep my leg on and ride him from my seat to my hand.  He is such a sensitive horse that my weight and body position influence him tremendously.  I need to be positioned to the right going both directions in order to keep him balanced. – using more direct inside rein going to the right and more of the “tunnel”  to steer him when we go to the left.  I ride with a light, nearly sitting seat because getting up in 2-point gives him the wrong ideas!  I keep my hands wide, my elbows elastic and chest out so I don’t slump and drive with my seat.  Even when he is gaining ground those last few strides toward a jump I need to hold him with my seat while remaining elastic with my elbows.  He’s the first horse I’ve ridden that kind of “attacks” the jumps so I need to get used to that slight burst of energy before each one!

Lesley has told me how much Felix, her retired *** horse, loved to jump but I’ve never known  a horse that I could actually tell  loved something or not – until Cotton!  Even going over baby jumps in the arena gets him a little hyped up.  He is much more manageable when he doesn’t know what we are doing so Lesley has taught me to keep him guessing by circling in front of the jump every now and then, making sure the circle falls on the line to the jump so I can decide at the last minute if we are going to stay on the approach or veer off to continue the circle.  It sometimes takes a little flat work to get him calmed down again between jumps.   If the line of our circle during that flat work happens to fall on the approach to a jump his ears prick up, he lifts his head and steps up his pace just a fraction – then as I direct him off the approach he just seems so deflated!  Poor guy! 

Anyway, now that we’ve got the canter under control in the arena I want to work on my downward transitions and changing speeds at the canter out in the open – especially when he sees a jump in the distance!  He also tends to land from a jump really on his forehand and duck through the corners in stadium so I want to learn to do a course on him of baby jumps as we fix that problem, then gradually raise them as I learn to handle the corners with taller and taller jumps.  We’ve schooled individual Training Level jumps before with ease but I think maneuvering through an entire course of anything over 2' would be a train wreck for me right now!  I'm looking for "money in the bank"! in both our accounts!

I’m looking forward to my lesson tomorrow!  What will Lesley want us to tackle next?