Day 1 & 2
8 years ago
Showing posts with label learning jumping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning jumping. Show all posts
Thursday, March 29, 2012
LOOK UP DANGIT
Gosh. I admit, we've improved by LEAPS AND BOUNDS (here's us doing something similar a year and a half ago) but gosh, all I can see is me looking down the whole time. And I swear I'm going into it thinking, "look forward at the treeline!".
Anybody got any hints for how to improve that?
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Jumping Courses
Okay, this is not at all to scale, I just whipped it together to give you an idea of what the layout looked like for my lesson today. Hopefully, there will be pictures later but I have to wait and see what Jessica's boyfriend got (he was playing ground crew for us today because she was riding one of the horses she has in for training...that was extra training for Kieran too since he had to listen to me and not pay too much attention to drifting over to where the other horse was).Anyway, we started out by warming up with a nice walk, then doing the trotting circles in the corners and cantering down the long sides thing we did last week. Despite the temperature having dropped about 20 degrees overnight and it being really windy, Kieran was really relaxed in the warmup and while forward and "there" not...too forward. :)
Then Jessica had us canter both directions over the poles (that's what the thinner lines are). One set was about 3 strides apart, one was about 4 strides apart. The idea was just to get him into a nice canter, canter over the first set, then keep going over the next set and so on. A lot of today was "we've spent a lot of time just getting him over single things and then stopping to talk about it and then doing it again, so now you have to push him forward after a single "thing" and keep going so we can connect it all together".
Then she had the jumps set up. The two angled ones and the one in the middle on the bottom were all using my jump blocks and were just single poles to make verticals. The angled ones stayed at 18" the whole time (and now that I'm looking at it I realize I angled them the wrong direction, pretend they're angled with the outside sides pointed toward the upper corners, not the bottom corners). The vertical on the bottom started at 18" but later we shifted the blocks around so they were at the 2' level. The jump in the middle was made using a pair of jump standards Jessica brought and started out at 2' and near the end of the lesson she had it bumped up two holes to 2'6".
Anyway, a lot of the idea was just to go straight, keep moving forward, and for me to plan out what I wanted to do as we go along. She didn't tell me a particular path to take, she wanted me to decide and make good choices. It was actually really difficult because I've been taking lessons for so long that I've gotten used to letting the instructor tell me what to do and where to go when they're there.
So we had a few false starts, though Kieran of course was pretty good, he never refused a thing. Though like, after we knocked over the same jump (the vertical at the bottom) several times Jessica asked, "okay, so what are you doing that that jump isn't working for you? Maybe you need to do something else." So we talked about it and I changed up what I was doing (went around and did one of the lower jumps first, then came back around for that guy) and it worked.
By the end of the lesson we were able to do the whole "course" without knocking anything over and with me choosing where to go and how we'd get there. Kieran stayed game the entire time. I'm actually really surprised how well he's taking to do this but he seems to enjoy it. One of the other little exercises Jessica had me do with him in the middle of the lesson was to trot in to whichever jump I wanted and get him to canter out and then just sort of get up out of the saddle and allow him to keep going as much as he wanted as a reward. Basically we made jumping into a game today instead of just drilling over and over and he really seemed to take to it.
One of the other things Jessica said today is that I think we need more space to get set up and ready than we actually do. Or well, than Kieran actually does...it's still stuck in my head. So we were coming into one jump but we were a little catty-corner and I stopped and Jessica was like, "why'd you stop? You were totally there!" and I was like, "but it wasn't perfect! we didn't have enough room!" (and that was while that jump was still one of the 18" ones) and she was like..."Kieran is clever enough to figure some of this out on his own even if you don't set him up absolutely perfectly as long as you're up there telling him he can do it, he'll respond okay, Mom." And you know what? She's right. He will. It's actually a little scary that he's so willing. I mean...it's a lot of responsibility up there!
Anyway, it made for a good lesson, even if it wasn't as structured as they usually are. I think it worked for Kieran too. It made for a nice change of pace. :)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
We Jumped the Barrel Again :)
Okay, to back up.
Today Jessica tells me, "I've got an exercise he's really going to like today!"
So she has us warm up by trotting circles in all the corners of the ring in both directions. I threw in doing a bit of cantering down the long sides the second time around, then back to trotting for the circles and short sides.
So we started with poles on the ground in a zig-zag pattern, like so:
/
\
/
\
The idea being that you'd come in from the left and after going over the pole, do a circle so you'd come around straight at the next pole, then another circle going the other way so you'd be going straight at the next pole, and so on.
First she had us trot a few times over them. The first trot was fine, okay but just sort of...okay. So Jessica was like, "this time, I want you to get him engaged and really thinking about what we're doing because that time he was totally tuning it out."
And she's right. I mean...I was thinking, "hey, we've done this before, no big deal," and so that's pretty much how Kieran felt about it. So we went through it again and I thought, "we're going to be engaged and paying attention and do it right" and wouldn't you know he was really using his hind end and forward and it was just....lots better. Who knew? LOL
Then she had us do it again but this time she wanted us to do it cantering. So we talked about it because obviously, Kieran doesn't do flying lead changes, so we'd have to trot over the poles themselves to do a simple change and the circles would be a lot bigger than we could do with the trotting. So the idea was that I needed to plan ahead of time how this would go so we could do it.
It...wasn't pretty.
We could do the first circle okayish, but we'd get to the second pole and we'd have to go down to a trot and then I'd be thinking "okay, change the bed, push for another canter but you've got to circle too! omg!" and it would all kind of fall apart.
Didn't help that Kieran kept picking up the left lead coming into the first pole and we were supposed to do a circle to the right. One time I didn't even feel it even did the full circle and Jessica was like, "that was totally on the wrong lead". Usually I can tell, but that one just...felt really put together. Anyway, I ended up switching which side I was coming from and we did it from the top instead and once we got through three poles with no mishap, I skipped the last one, because I didn't want to mess it up so we ended that exercise on a good note. It was really difficult! It's hard because you've got to do the "plan" thing but you can't overthink it (or at least I can't) or it just...doesn't work.
Anyway, so we went back to trotting the poles, but Jessica used my jump blocks to slowly raise them. First they were just low cavaletti, basically, then she made them all half a low crossrail. Then she raised them to very low verticals (or the tall setting for a cavaletti). Then she'd make one side be the tall setting for the jump blocks and the other side be the medium setting but only the ones in the middle. Then she made them all the tall setting, basically 2ft verticals (and added ground poles under them). Theoretically, he could still trot over them but at that point he was more likely to jump them. Here she said if he wanted to canter in or out, I could let him, just...mostly trot.
As they got higher she also said I was really going to have to work at being serious about it (like we talked about with the first exercise) and giving him a boot to push him forward and be like, "yo, they're getting bigger, you've got to give me more effort, dude).
One time she quickly stuck her coat over one to make it more "interesting" and he was like, "oh....she wants me to jump, okay!". LOL So that one got some more effort. That was one about three strides out he started cantering (not rushing, just...cantering) and gave a pretty good jump for.
Anyway, finally we ended up sticking a barrel under one of them (remember we already jumped this last week, just in a different setup) and it was the one we were coming to at the end. (so we came in the top zig zag and jumped the barrel last at the one on the bottom).
Again, about three strides out he cantered but the jump was an "oh, shit!" jump. It wasn't pretty. It threw me out of the tack. If I hadn't thought to grab mane right before I might've actually totally lost it or at least really hung off his mouth and not meant to. But still...he went over. He didn't refuse, he didn't even think about it.
Jessica said the problem was that he made a mistake. He thought he could do that canter thing, but he was really like...two and a half strides away so suddenly he was right on top of it and hence he just had to wing it.
Anyway, she gave me the option of ending there because...hey, he did what we asked, even though it wasn't pretty, he didn't even touch the jump despite the awkwardness. Or she said, we could do it again. Not the whole thing, just the last bit with the barrel.
I really had to think about it. On the one hand, it wasn't a bad spot to end on, again...he did exactly what I asked him to do. On the other, he's got a history of the first time we do something newish tends to be awkward and then the second time through he's figured it out and it tends to be better. So it really came down to me thinking I might mess it up and then if we did it "wrong" that would be a bad note to leave it at.
Well, I just decided we wouldn't do it wrong. That I'd be with him and we'd go again. Heck, I even asked him, "are you ready?" and I could feel him kind of push forward a bit like he does when he's excited about something. Might be in my head but I took that as a yes. So we trotted another circle like we were coming out of hopping over the previous pole and I thought, "look ahead, keep your leg on, stay with him!" and we cantered the last few strides up to it and he jumped over the dang thing like he was at a show and about to win a blue ribbon. No lie, I almost cried afterward because it was pretty much perfect.
Jessica said he looked good, knees tucked up to his chin, and I looked good right there with him and if we jumped like that every time, we'd be winning in shows, no question.
I only wish there was a picture, but hey, I know how it felt. Jessica also said he might be ready then, considering today, to start cantering jumps more instead of trotting them and that we'll likely find it easier.
I'm pretty excited. :)
Today Jessica tells me, "I've got an exercise he's really going to like today!"
So she has us warm up by trotting circles in all the corners of the ring in both directions. I threw in doing a bit of cantering down the long sides the second time around, then back to trotting for the circles and short sides.
So we started with poles on the ground in a zig-zag pattern, like so:
/
\
/
\
The idea being that you'd come in from the left and after going over the pole, do a circle so you'd come around straight at the next pole, then another circle going the other way so you'd be going straight at the next pole, and so on.
First she had us trot a few times over them. The first trot was fine, okay but just sort of...okay. So Jessica was like, "this time, I want you to get him engaged and really thinking about what we're doing because that time he was totally tuning it out."
And she's right. I mean...I was thinking, "hey, we've done this before, no big deal," and so that's pretty much how Kieran felt about it. So we went through it again and I thought, "we're going to be engaged and paying attention and do it right" and wouldn't you know he was really using his hind end and forward and it was just....lots better. Who knew? LOL
Then she had us do it again but this time she wanted us to do it cantering. So we talked about it because obviously, Kieran doesn't do flying lead changes, so we'd have to trot over the poles themselves to do a simple change and the circles would be a lot bigger than we could do with the trotting. So the idea was that I needed to plan ahead of time how this would go so we could do it.
It...wasn't pretty.
We could do the first circle okayish, but we'd get to the second pole and we'd have to go down to a trot and then I'd be thinking "okay, change the bed, push for another canter but you've got to circle too! omg!" and it would all kind of fall apart.
Didn't help that Kieran kept picking up the left lead coming into the first pole and we were supposed to do a circle to the right. One time I didn't even feel it even did the full circle and Jessica was like, "that was totally on the wrong lead". Usually I can tell, but that one just...felt really put together. Anyway, I ended up switching which side I was coming from and we did it from the top instead and once we got through three poles with no mishap, I skipped the last one, because I didn't want to mess it up so we ended that exercise on a good note. It was really difficult! It's hard because you've got to do the "plan" thing but you can't overthink it (or at least I can't) or it just...doesn't work.
Anyway, so we went back to trotting the poles, but Jessica used my jump blocks to slowly raise them. First they were just low cavaletti, basically, then she made them all half a low crossrail. Then she raised them to very low verticals (or the tall setting for a cavaletti). Then she'd make one side be the tall setting for the jump blocks and the other side be the medium setting but only the ones in the middle. Then she made them all the tall setting, basically 2ft verticals (and added ground poles under them). Theoretically, he could still trot over them but at that point he was more likely to jump them. Here she said if he wanted to canter in or out, I could let him, just...mostly trot.
As they got higher she also said I was really going to have to work at being serious about it (like we talked about with the first exercise) and giving him a boot to push him forward and be like, "yo, they're getting bigger, you've got to give me more effort, dude).
One time she quickly stuck her coat over one to make it more "interesting" and he was like, "oh....she wants me to jump, okay!". LOL So that one got some more effort. That was one about three strides out he started cantering (not rushing, just...cantering) and gave a pretty good jump for.
Anyway, finally we ended up sticking a barrel under one of them (remember we already jumped this last week, just in a different setup) and it was the one we were coming to at the end. (so we came in the top zig zag and jumped the barrel last at the one on the bottom).
Again, about three strides out he cantered but the jump was an "oh, shit!" jump. It wasn't pretty. It threw me out of the tack. If I hadn't thought to grab mane right before I might've actually totally lost it or at least really hung off his mouth and not meant to. But still...he went over. He didn't refuse, he didn't even think about it.
Jessica said the problem was that he made a mistake. He thought he could do that canter thing, but he was really like...two and a half strides away so suddenly he was right on top of it and hence he just had to wing it.
Anyway, she gave me the option of ending there because...hey, he did what we asked, even though it wasn't pretty, he didn't even touch the jump despite the awkwardness. Or she said, we could do it again. Not the whole thing, just the last bit with the barrel.
I really had to think about it. On the one hand, it wasn't a bad spot to end on, again...he did exactly what I asked him to do. On the other, he's got a history of the first time we do something newish tends to be awkward and then the second time through he's figured it out and it tends to be better. So it really came down to me thinking I might mess it up and then if we did it "wrong" that would be a bad note to leave it at.
Well, I just decided we wouldn't do it wrong. That I'd be with him and we'd go again. Heck, I even asked him, "are you ready?" and I could feel him kind of push forward a bit like he does when he's excited about something. Might be in my head but I took that as a yes. So we trotted another circle like we were coming out of hopping over the previous pole and I thought, "look ahead, keep your leg on, stay with him!" and we cantered the last few strides up to it and he jumped over the dang thing like he was at a show and about to win a blue ribbon. No lie, I almost cried afterward because it was pretty much perfect.
Jessica said he looked good, knees tucked up to his chin, and I looked good right there with him and if we jumped like that every time, we'd be winning in shows, no question.
I only wish there was a picture, but hey, I know how it felt. Jessica also said he might be ready then, considering today, to start cantering jumps more instead of trotting them and that we'll likely find it easier.
I'm pretty excited. :)
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Making things Interesting
Kieran's getting bored with little, cavaletti-style jumps. But we're not really ready for anything much bigger (I know I'm not, at least in terms of my position and my riding). So today we tried to make things more interesting. Jessica ended up dragging over some lattice things that someone had once used for jumps for one of them because it looked "scary" compared to regular poles...then she hung her jacket over one of the other ones...then finally she had us jump over one of the barrels on its side.
But before that...warmup!
Part of our warmup after walking and trotting is to do some short "handgallops" I've mentioned before, I think.
Then, we did some trotting spirals, both directions.
Then, Jessica had us canter, then make a circle cantering and as we came out of it, to come to a halt. And she wanted it to be a nice halt, not a "fall forward on your face halt". So the idea being that I had to think ahead about what I wanted and prepare him properly so we could actually do it.
Then, since we've only been hopping over single fences, she had set up three in the center of the ring. First time, she had us trot over the middle one, down to the fence, then turn right and come back for the fence on the left (it was slightly catty corner so coming out of the corner meant we were on a straight line for it).
So Jessica progressively made the jumps more interesting (but not too much higher) with what we had on hand because Kieran was not really impressed with them, mostly. So we ended by going over the center one (now a vertical across the "tall" setting for the blocks), then came back around to do the lattice jump, then around for the barrel on the far side. :)
Looking at the videos, I know I need to have quieter hands and really work more again on using my legs. My toes are sticking waaaaaaay out and I suspect my stirrups are too long since in a lot of places when I'm getting out of the saddle, my leg is almost totally straight. (I need to punch holes, those stirrups are as short as they can go without me wrapping them around the irons)
Anyway, what do you think?
But before that...warmup!
Part of our warmup after walking and trotting is to do some short "handgallops" I've mentioned before, I think.
Then, we did some trotting spirals, both directions.
Then, Jessica had us canter, then make a circle cantering and as we came out of it, to come to a halt. And she wanted it to be a nice halt, not a "fall forward on your face halt". So the idea being that I had to think ahead about what I wanted and prepare him properly so we could actually do it.
Then, since we've only been hopping over single fences, she had set up three in the center of the ring. First time, she had us trot over the middle one, down to the fence, then turn right and come back for the fence on the left (it was slightly catty corner so coming out of the corner meant we were on a straight line for it).
So Jessica progressively made the jumps more interesting (but not too much higher) with what we had on hand because Kieran was not really impressed with them, mostly. So we ended by going over the center one (now a vertical across the "tall" setting for the blocks), then came back around to do the lattice jump, then around for the barrel on the far side. :)
Looking at the videos, I know I need to have quieter hands and really work more again on using my legs. My toes are sticking waaaaaaay out and I suspect my stirrups are too long since in a lot of places when I'm getting out of the saddle, my leg is almost totally straight. (I need to punch holes, those stirrups are as short as they can go without me wrapping them around the irons)
Anyway, what do you think?
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Today's Lesson Report
Lesson tonight. Spent most of it riding over poles and a good chunk of that doing so without reins at both a trot and a canter. Also did some jumping and got video of the last couple times through. We did not end on the second jump you see in the video below but went back through and did it once more where he didn't knock the jump before we ended. Anyway, stuff I noticed watching myself: my elbow angle doesn't change at the canter so I'm not really following his mouth (hence there's points where I have contact and points where there's slack in the rein). Also, my legs are way in front of me and I can't seem to properly get my heels down (okay, these are things I've known, but they're annoying. I always feel like I'm keeping my heels down and then I watch myself and no...not down).
And some screencaps:
Kieran is pretty! I...am not. Everything I hate about my position. Feet too far forward and pretty level. Shoulders kind of hunched. Ugh.
And the first jump from the vid:
And some screencaps:
Kieran is pretty! I...am not. Everything I hate about my position. Feet too far forward and pretty level. Shoulders kind of hunched. Ugh.
And the first jump from the vid:
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Kieran Torture
Proof of what a terrible horse owner I am:
Yes, those are blue sparkly fairy wings (I love the dollar store!). Yes, Kieran is wondering why someone won't rescue him. ;)
In other news, I free jumped him a bit tonight. Set up the chute with first a low crossrail, the cavaletti, and then the jump at the same height we had on Sunday. Ran him through a few times and gosh, he was being lazy! So I changed the crossrail to a vertical and did it again and he did better. Then I added a single barrel to the middle of the last element, and changed it so the crossrail was the second element and just put a ground pole as the first element (since I was adding in the barrel, I wanted to make the other things simpler, and use the crossrail to kind of funnel him to the middle of the chute).
So he comes through and totally puts on the brakes at the barrel. Like, "wtf, mom, don't you remember that thing might eat me?" So he tries to go around, but there's a wall on one side and a rope on the other and me over there telling him to "go over, okay!"...so he did, from a standstill. Heck, I would have taken him just bulling through it like he's done other things. So then he figured out he was capable of jumping over the one barrel and we did it a couple more times, but I noticed he was trying to jump to the far left of the jump (next to the rope, where there was no barrel).
So I added a second barrel, and at that point the jump was set up the same way as it was on Sunday (except that Christina only had it as a single jump, and I still had my chute set up).
Hah, he ran right on through for me, but when he got to that last jump, he totally cleared it with a few extra feet than he needed to. So I sent him through a couple more times until he did it more reasonably and ended there with lots of praise and a cookie. Now, at least, he knows he can do it. I'll probably do it again with him at least once more before we try tackling it under saddle (and when we do again, I'll probably ask Christina if we can't set up a similar grid since I think it helps him find his spot).
Oh yeah, I also had finally remembered to bring a tarp up because I just wanted to get Kieran to walk over it at some point (one of the obstacles at a judged trail ride some of the barn folks went on had a tarp that the horses had to cross). Well, as soon as I shook the thing out and just laid it on the ground, Kieran came over to inspect it. One hoof on the edge and a snort. Then he looks at me. He paws at it. Snorts. Paws. Looks at me. And I coax him toward me from across the tarp (I had been planning on leading him but since he was so willing to come over on his own...) with a treat. He streeeeeeeeeetched his neck as far as it would go but didn't move his feet. So I just put a little pressure on his halter and he came right on over. Then I led him over again (no hesitation that time). Good pony!
I feel it was a pretty productive horsey day.
Yes, those are blue sparkly fairy wings (I love the dollar store!). Yes, Kieran is wondering why someone won't rescue him. ;)
In other news, I free jumped him a bit tonight. Set up the chute with first a low crossrail, the cavaletti, and then the jump at the same height we had on Sunday. Ran him through a few times and gosh, he was being lazy! So I changed the crossrail to a vertical and did it again and he did better. Then I added a single barrel to the middle of the last element, and changed it so the crossrail was the second element and just put a ground pole as the first element (since I was adding in the barrel, I wanted to make the other things simpler, and use the crossrail to kind of funnel him to the middle of the chute).
So he comes through and totally puts on the brakes at the barrel. Like, "wtf, mom, don't you remember that thing might eat me?" So he tries to go around, but there's a wall on one side and a rope on the other and me over there telling him to "go over, okay!"...so he did, from a standstill. Heck, I would have taken him just bulling through it like he's done other things. So then he figured out he was capable of jumping over the one barrel and we did it a couple more times, but I noticed he was trying to jump to the far left of the jump (next to the rope, where there was no barrel).
So I added a second barrel, and at that point the jump was set up the same way as it was on Sunday (except that Christina only had it as a single jump, and I still had my chute set up).
Hah, he ran right on through for me, but when he got to that last jump, he totally cleared it with a few extra feet than he needed to. So I sent him through a couple more times until he did it more reasonably and ended there with lots of praise and a cookie. Now, at least, he knows he can do it. I'll probably do it again with him at least once more before we try tackling it under saddle (and when we do again, I'll probably ask Christina if we can't set up a similar grid since I think it helps him find his spot).
Oh yeah, I also had finally remembered to bring a tarp up because I just wanted to get Kieran to walk over it at some point (one of the obstacles at a judged trail ride some of the barn folks went on had a tarp that the horses had to cross). Well, as soon as I shook the thing out and just laid it on the ground, Kieran came over to inspect it. One hoof on the edge and a snort. Then he looks at me. He paws at it. Snorts. Paws. Looks at me. And I coax him toward me from across the tarp (I had been planning on leading him but since he was so willing to come over on his own...) with a treat. He streeeeeeeeeetched his neck as far as it would go but didn't move his feet. So I just put a little pressure on his halter and he came right on over. Then I led him over again (no hesitation that time). Good pony!
I feel it was a pretty productive horsey day.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Ouch, my pride
Jumping lesson today. Christina set it up so there was the caveletti on one side of the ring (at B) and then on the other wall (at E) was an actual jump (started with a crossrail, then made a vertical. Jump cups were set at 2'6") and in the middle on the F->H diagonal there was a "crossrail" with very ghetto plastic chair standards (the other set of proper standards is still frozen in a pool of ice. I threw some road salt around them today in hopes they'll unfreeze at some point this week. Problem is that they're sitting in a spot that stays shady most of the day).
Anyway, warmed up, then trotted over everything a few times from different directions. Then Christina asked if we wanted to canter and I was willing to give it a shot. (for this, we just stuck to the stuff on the rail and didn't cross the diagonal. He doesn't do flying lead changes yet and those would be some pretty sharp turns) I noticed it was easier to jump when Kieran was cantering, but looking at the few videos we got? I was still jumping ahead and coming back down too soon and just generally not looking good. Kieran was his normal saintly self.
Then Christina decides to add barrels in front of the jump with the comment that it wasn't actually any taller than what we were just jumping. Which, it wasn't.
So I steeled myself.
And we went.
And I stared at those barrels like they were going to eat me if I took my eyes off 'em!
And Kieran was, quite naturally, convinced they'd eat him too!
So he whipped out of the way at the last second and remember how I said I was jumping ahead? I was already halfway out of the tack when it happened and so...
...off I came! And landed right in front of Kieran's path somehow (I had a fleeting vision of his huge hooves trampling my poor, mangled body). Saintly, again, he stopped as soon as I hit the ground and so...I did not get trampled.
Nothing hurt, in fact, but my pride. Dusted myself off, got back on, Christina removed the barrels, but left the jump up and we went and did it again. Got jumped out of the tack this time (he jumped higher than I was expecting. Those invisible barrels might eat him!) and the Christina turned it back into a crossrail and had us trot through/over a few times just to give Kieran something easy to end on that we know he does well. By that point, the lesson was over.
I told Christina I could make a jump out of the barrels to free jump him over to give him a chance to learn how to do it without me on his back messing him up and then we could give it another shot.
And here's one of the videos. Not of the fall (we didn't get it on camera, alas) but hey, there you go.
EDIT: Video didn't look like it was working, here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150380374455062&comments
Anyway, warmed up, then trotted over everything a few times from different directions. Then Christina asked if we wanted to canter and I was willing to give it a shot. (for this, we just stuck to the stuff on the rail and didn't cross the diagonal. He doesn't do flying lead changes yet and those would be some pretty sharp turns) I noticed it was easier to jump when Kieran was cantering, but looking at the few videos we got? I was still jumping ahead and coming back down too soon and just generally not looking good. Kieran was his normal saintly self.
Then Christina decides to add barrels in front of the jump with the comment that it wasn't actually any taller than what we were just jumping. Which, it wasn't.
So I steeled myself.
And we went.
And I stared at those barrels like they were going to eat me if I took my eyes off 'em!
And Kieran was, quite naturally, convinced they'd eat him too!
So he whipped out of the way at the last second and remember how I said I was jumping ahead? I was already halfway out of the tack when it happened and so...
...off I came! And landed right in front of Kieran's path somehow (I had a fleeting vision of his huge hooves trampling my poor, mangled body). Saintly, again, he stopped as soon as I hit the ground and so...I did not get trampled.
Nothing hurt, in fact, but my pride. Dusted myself off, got back on, Christina removed the barrels, but left the jump up and we went and did it again. Got jumped out of the tack this time (he jumped higher than I was expecting. Those invisible barrels might eat him!) and the Christina turned it back into a crossrail and had us trot through/over a few times just to give Kieran something easy to end on that we know he does well. By that point, the lesson was over.
I told Christina I could make a jump out of the barrels to free jump him over to give him a chance to learn how to do it without me on his back messing him up and then we could give it another shot.
And here's one of the videos. Not of the fall (we didn't get it on camera, alas) but hey, there you go.
EDIT: Video didn't look like it was working, here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150380374455062&comments
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Exercises in the round
Today ended up focusing mostly on "reprogramming" Kieran to not think that he can come into the middle of the ring and not work.
Okay, lemme back up.
My saddle is currently with the saddle fitter lady getting the billets fiddled with. So I started the lesson in a borrowed treeless (English style) saddle. I'd ridden in it before (not long after I got Kieran actually) and thought it would do okay, but...it kept slipping over to the right. We tried having me ride in it with stirrups, without stirrups, checked the girth...wasn't working. I even know [i]I[/i] was sitting straight because my butt wasn't following the saddle over to the right.
So we switched out for a treed saddle (Thornhill Pro-Am) and got back to work. It felt rather weird after being used to riding in my Duett all this time!
Anyway, what we ended up doing, I don't think was what Christina had started the lesson intending having me do but [i]someone[/i] was not riding nicely on the rail. I know I've talked about having issues with this before but today it was like...I was doing everything right (inside leg, not pulling too much with outside rein, etc etc) and he was still just steadily going inward. So we talked about it and decided that today, he'd have to work on the inside track and he'd only get to rest on the rail.
Christina set up a big circle of things for Kieran to trot over in the middleish area of the ring. So like, a pole at 12o'clock, another one at 1:30. A low pole set up on blocks at 3. Another ground pole at 4:30. A low vertical (barely deserving of the name...became a crossrail later, but the middle was the same height as the vertical had been) at 6. Another pole at 7:30, a medium-height cavalletti at 9, and another pole at 10:30.
So she had me walk him on the rail, then bring him to the inside track and start trotting over all the poles and things. Then, when she wanted to adjust something (like when he knocked the rail on the jump or whatever), we'd go walk on the rail. Then we'd come back in and trot over stuff again. At one point, he figured out it was a bit easier to actually jump over the jump at 6 and we got a little hop out of him which was funny (I hadn't been expecting it, since we'd been just trotting over it previously). Christina had me mostly do it all posting, but we went around a couple times with me in two point (and I commented that it's easier to do in a saddle intended for that) or posting, then going up into two point over the "jumps" and a couple times around with no stirrups (but still posting!).
By the end of the lesson, Kieran was walking pretty nicely on a loose rein straight on the rail without too much encouragement from me. He's a smart horse. ;)
Okay, lemme back up.
My saddle is currently with the saddle fitter lady getting the billets fiddled with. So I started the lesson in a borrowed treeless (English style) saddle. I'd ridden in it before (not long after I got Kieran actually) and thought it would do okay, but...it kept slipping over to the right. We tried having me ride in it with stirrups, without stirrups, checked the girth...wasn't working. I even know [i]I[/i] was sitting straight because my butt wasn't following the saddle over to the right.
So we switched out for a treed saddle (Thornhill Pro-Am) and got back to work. It felt rather weird after being used to riding in my Duett all this time!
Anyway, what we ended up doing, I don't think was what Christina had started the lesson intending having me do but [i]someone[/i] was not riding nicely on the rail. I know I've talked about having issues with this before but today it was like...I was doing everything right (inside leg, not pulling too much with outside rein, etc etc) and he was still just steadily going inward. So we talked about it and decided that today, he'd have to work on the inside track and he'd only get to rest on the rail.
Christina set up a big circle of things for Kieran to trot over in the middleish area of the ring. So like, a pole at 12o'clock, another one at 1:30. A low pole set up on blocks at 3. Another ground pole at 4:30. A low vertical (barely deserving of the name...became a crossrail later, but the middle was the same height as the vertical had been) at 6. Another pole at 7:30, a medium-height cavalletti at 9, and another pole at 10:30.
So she had me walk him on the rail, then bring him to the inside track and start trotting over all the poles and things. Then, when she wanted to adjust something (like when he knocked the rail on the jump or whatever), we'd go walk on the rail. Then we'd come back in and trot over stuff again. At one point, he figured out it was a bit easier to actually jump over the jump at 6 and we got a little hop out of him which was funny (I hadn't been expecting it, since we'd been just trotting over it previously). Christina had me mostly do it all posting, but we went around a couple times with me in two point (and I commented that it's easier to do in a saddle intended for that) or posting, then going up into two point over the "jumps" and a couple times around with no stirrups (but still posting!).
By the end of the lesson, Kieran was walking pretty nicely on a loose rein straight on the rail without too much encouragement from me. He's a smart horse. ;)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Kieran might make a jumper yet!
Tonight, we warmed up with serpentines (walking and trotting). And then Christina had me either walk or trot Kieran until we got to A or C, then turn on the centerline, and when he was straight, do a canter transition, then canter down centerline.
Well, that was the idea, anyway. You could tell Kieran was like, "wtf? But there's no WALL!" Still, we got a couple strides of canter out of him, both ways (up and down), and I bet next week when I ask him, he'll pick it up more quickly. Basically, just trying to lesson any dependence on the wall (and hey, it makes it so he's "working" in the middle of the ring too and not just out on the rail).
After that, Christina set up a jump at X, starting out with another low crossrail and a ground pole leading in to it. Basically, we just trotted over it with me having to go into two point when he did. Then she would play with the configuration. Ground poles on both sides or a low vertical. Or low crossrail followed by a ground pole a stride away, followed by the cavaletti. Just doing different things to get him to raise his feet, basically.
At the end, it was just between a foot and 18 inches high and we got him to "jump" over it from each direction instead of trotting over it.
I told Christina that if we'd tried to do this six months ago, he'd have kept knocking poles down, but tonight he was doing really well at not just bulling through it and trying to get over it. Yay!
Oh yeah, she also pointed out it looked like he was listening better tonight when I was pushing his butt over while we were on the wall (see my complaints in the previous lesson post about him drifting in and cutting corners). And she said it looked like I was doing better too myself with keeping my leg still and going into two-point without having to think as hard about doing it.
Well, that was the idea, anyway. You could tell Kieran was like, "wtf? But there's no WALL!" Still, we got a couple strides of canter out of him, both ways (up and down), and I bet next week when I ask him, he'll pick it up more quickly. Basically, just trying to lesson any dependence on the wall (and hey, it makes it so he's "working" in the middle of the ring too and not just out on the rail).
After that, Christina set up a jump at X, starting out with another low crossrail and a ground pole leading in to it. Basically, we just trotted over it with me having to go into two point when he did. Then she would play with the configuration. Ground poles on both sides or a low vertical. Or low crossrail followed by a ground pole a stride away, followed by the cavaletti. Just doing different things to get him to raise his feet, basically.
At the end, it was just between a foot and 18 inches high and we got him to "jump" over it from each direction instead of trotting over it.
I told Christina that if we'd tried to do this six months ago, he'd have kept knocking poles down, but tonight he was doing really well at not just bulling through it and trying to get over it. Yay!
Oh yeah, she also pointed out it looked like he was listening better tonight when I was pushing his butt over while we were on the wall (see my complaints in the previous lesson post about him drifting in and cutting corners). And she said it looked like I was doing better too myself with keeping my leg still and going into two-point without having to think as hard about doing it.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Poles and other fun things
Lesson tonight!
After warming up, started out with lots of trotting. I was complaining to Christina about how he drifts in and cuts corners and doesn't seem to listen to my leg when I try pushing him with it though in other contexts he understands leg pressure means move over (like when we did the backing up exercise and I had to move his butt around, or when we've done turns on the forehand, or the bits of sidepassing we've worked at and so on). I can't decide if he just doesn't understand in the "going on the rail" context that inside leg pushing him means "move away from pressure nao plzkthx" or if he's just being lazy.
Really, it's probably the latter combined with the fact that I've been pretty inconsistent about really making him go deep in the corners (especially if I'm concentrating on other things at the time) so he doesn't feel like he "has" to. Anyway, we worked on it for a while but he was still cutting corners and Christina said from the ground it looked like I was doing the right things so she got on to see what it feels like and how he responds.
1. She commented on how much of a workout it can be to keep him moving/get him moving. ;)
2. She rode him around the ring and the started riding him, basically, straight at the wall in the corner, stopping just before he'd "hit" it, then turning him into the wall and going back the other way. Basically, so he'd have to listen to what she was telling him to do and where to go instead of just going on autopilot around the corners.
The conclusion is that for a while, I'll have to be really conscious of not just going around on the rail and when I do, I have to really think about taking him deep into the corners. Otherwise, I can do the sort of thing she did, stopping, turning in to the rail and going back the other way. Also, if I want to do circles, probably better to do them in the middle of the ring rather than on the ends (since a 20 meter circle on the end is basically cutting the corners off).
I got back on, went around a couple more times and when he was not leaning on me as much as before, we called it quits to that particular part of the lesson (partly because I was getting tired of working so hard pushing him around and keeping him moving and partly because we didn't want to repeat the exercise too much where he just got irritated about it).
After that, Christina set out trotting poles and we went trotting over them on one side of the ring, then she set up more on the other side. Then one side was just trot poles and the other was a very very tiny crossrail (like...6 inches). Then after he was trotting over that without hitting it, she raised it to be a vertical (so probably like 9ish inches high? I don't know, it was higher *shrugs*). Then she added in a cavaletto in the center of the ring on the diagonal. (most of the trot poles were being used to make the "jump" and one each was in front of the "jump" and the cavaletto. One pole was left out of the original trot pole group so basically, the ring looked like:
__________________
|
|
|
| __
| |--| x ___
| __ x//
|
|
|_________________|
Where the thing on the left was the vertical, the x's in the middle are supposed to be the cavalletto, and the lines are just poles.
Then, finally, she raised the "jump" again so it was another crossrail but this time about a foot high. Once he went over it both directions without knocking it over (only did that once), we called it a night and I cooled him out. He's not really been exposed to jumping, so it was just really good he was paying attention and picking his feet up (instead of bulling through the jump as he has done in the past). He actually seemed to like it and a couple times I could feel him kind of picking himself up...not jumping really, but kind of raising his shoulders as he trotted over.
Christina also pointed out the times he'd hit the jump (not knock it over so much, but not lift himself enough so he'd get over without hitting it) even though I was in two point and had my eyes up...my shoulders and chin were pointed down. She pointed out the last couple of times that he did really well, I had not only my eyes up and looking ahead but my chin up and my shoulders back and that really helped him be able to trot over it nicely.
Oh, and he stood completely still for mounting without my hands ever touching the reins till I was read to go. :)
After warming up, started out with lots of trotting. I was complaining to Christina about how he drifts in and cuts corners and doesn't seem to listen to my leg when I try pushing him with it though in other contexts he understands leg pressure means move over (like when we did the backing up exercise and I had to move his butt around, or when we've done turns on the forehand, or the bits of sidepassing we've worked at and so on). I can't decide if he just doesn't understand in the "going on the rail" context that inside leg pushing him means "move away from pressure nao plzkthx" or if he's just being lazy.
Really, it's probably the latter combined with the fact that I've been pretty inconsistent about really making him go deep in the corners (especially if I'm concentrating on other things at the time) so he doesn't feel like he "has" to. Anyway, we worked on it for a while but he was still cutting corners and Christina said from the ground it looked like I was doing the right things so she got on to see what it feels like and how he responds.
1. She commented on how much of a workout it can be to keep him moving/get him moving. ;)
2. She rode him around the ring and the started riding him, basically, straight at the wall in the corner, stopping just before he'd "hit" it, then turning him into the wall and going back the other way. Basically, so he'd have to listen to what she was telling him to do and where to go instead of just going on autopilot around the corners.
The conclusion is that for a while, I'll have to be really conscious of not just going around on the rail and when I do, I have to really think about taking him deep into the corners. Otherwise, I can do the sort of thing she did, stopping, turning in to the rail and going back the other way. Also, if I want to do circles, probably better to do them in the middle of the ring rather than on the ends (since a 20 meter circle on the end is basically cutting the corners off).
I got back on, went around a couple more times and when he was not leaning on me as much as before, we called it quits to that particular part of the lesson (partly because I was getting tired of working so hard pushing him around and keeping him moving and partly because we didn't want to repeat the exercise too much where he just got irritated about it).
After that, Christina set out trotting poles and we went trotting over them on one side of the ring, then she set up more on the other side. Then one side was just trot poles and the other was a very very tiny crossrail (like...6 inches). Then after he was trotting over that without hitting it, she raised it to be a vertical (so probably like 9ish inches high? I don't know, it was higher *shrugs*). Then she added in a cavaletto in the center of the ring on the diagonal. (most of the trot poles were being used to make the "jump" and one each was in front of the "jump" and the cavaletto. One pole was left out of the original trot pole group so basically, the ring looked like:
__________________
|
|
|
| __
| |--| x ___
| __ x//
|
|
|_________________|
Where the thing on the left was the vertical, the x's in the middle are supposed to be the cavalletto, and the lines are just poles.
Then, finally, she raised the "jump" again so it was another crossrail but this time about a foot high. Once he went over it both directions without knocking it over (only did that once), we called it a night and I cooled him out. He's not really been exposed to jumping, so it was just really good he was paying attention and picking his feet up (instead of bulling through the jump as he has done in the past). He actually seemed to like it and a couple times I could feel him kind of picking himself up...not jumping really, but kind of raising his shoulders as he trotted over.
Christina also pointed out the times he'd hit the jump (not knock it over so much, but not lift himself enough so he'd get over without hitting it) even though I was in two point and had my eyes up...my shoulders and chin were pointed down. She pointed out the last couple of times that he did really well, I had not only my eyes up and looking ahead but my chin up and my shoulders back and that really helped him be able to trot over it nicely.
Oh, and he stood completely still for mounting without my hands ever touching the reins till I was read to go. :)
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