I got my schooling head on yesterday with dear Rodney. My plan was to work on walk to halt transitions but we quickly chucked that and tried some leg yielding, transitions and canter.
We tend to rocket into canter, roar along for a bit and then slowly die into a messy trot but yesterday we managed some much steadier transitions, a softer seat on my part and a more rhythmical, consistent canter. I was so pleased I jumped off, gave him a big pat and then walked him round to cool off.
I read in a Kelly Marks book that it's nice to reward your horse for doing what you want by finishing the session rather than just hammering away till it drops to bits again. I hope I've paraphrased that correctly. At any rate, Rodney is not clipped and I didn't want him to be too much of a sweat bucket...
My other horsey news this week is that I did a bit of jumping in public the other day. I'd gone to see my friend Emma compete at Centurion on Tia and she offered me a go at the clear round. I had my hat and boots with me so thought 'why not?' and off we went.
I was nervous, though I'm not sure why, because Tia looked after me very well. We were a bit speedy and I pushed too much for longer strides (that's just habit from riding Rodney) but it was great fun - even when we got lost half way round!
Emma and Tia then went on to place second in the 65cm with a beautiful round. It was a lovely, relaxed set up for anyone fancying a bit of jumping over the winter in County Durham.
And for now, that's it, except I hope you are enjoying autumn too, and getting plenty of riding in.
Happy horsing everyone x
No comments:
Post a Comment