Friday night was spent at the lovely Rockrose Equestrian – they are building at an incredible rate and there is something new each time we visit. This visit was without Corky for a change, we were attending the Nicola Wilson demo which was wonderful. Nicola brought three horses (two advanced and one about to step up to novice). She covered each phase with a different horse but took the same approach in each – breaking it into three phases – warm up, work and warm down. I have started to do this in my own schooling. The dressage was beautiful to watch and I was surprised about how much leg she was using to encourage her horse to work actively from behind – something I am lacking in. The XC phase with the younger horse was also interesting as she had some similar issue to mine – her horse (Tommy) was very keen and locked onto any jump he saw. He also rushed into the jumps when he got more excited. Nicola said it was all about controlling the rhythm, keeping it even and not fighting. The whole demo left me feeling very inspired so I ended up taking a last minute slot in one of her lessons the next morning where she put us through our paces.
The lesson was very useful – she commented on our contact issues and said they were easily dealt with by using far more inside leg to push him into the outside contact from behind. She also suggested more leg yield, shoulder in and flexing his head to the outside, then straight and then inside to loosen up the neck. These are all things we have started to introduce via Aimee so I know we are on the right track. For out jumping she said, like her younger horse at the demo, to concentrate on keeping the rhythm the same, not to chase and to allow for an extra stride before the jump. She said to sit up more towards the jump to slow the pace rather than using the rein which causes a fight. We had our session recorded using the fantastic video facilities at Rockrose which worked via sensor in a wristband we each wore. I’ll upload the footage when I get it.
Feeling very prepared, we then headed off to the BS amateur show at SNEC to put everything into practice. It turns out that sitting up isn’t quite enough to slow C down within a competition environment so we had two poles in our 85 class. The second half of the round felt more relaxed though so that’s a positive. Our 95 round started well, nice and relaxed but then rider error occurred – I missed a jump out so that was that! Maybe I tried to do too much in one weekend. C didn’t know though and seemed pleased with himself – especially after being rewarded with some mints in the lorry.
The lesson was very useful – she commented on our contact issues and said they were easily dealt with by using far more inside leg to push him into the outside contact from behind. She also suggested more leg yield, shoulder in and flexing his head to the outside, then straight and then inside to loosen up the neck. These are all things we have started to introduce via Aimee so I know we are on the right track. For out jumping she said, like her younger horse at the demo, to concentrate on keeping the rhythm the same, not to chase and to allow for an extra stride before the jump. She said to sit up more towards the jump to slow the pace rather than using the rein which causes a fight. We had our session recorded using the fantastic video facilities at Rockrose which worked via sensor in a wristband we each wore. I’ll upload the footage when I get it.
Feeling very prepared, we then headed off to the BS amateur show at SNEC to put everything into practice. It turns out that sitting up isn’t quite enough to slow C down within a competition environment so we had two poles in our 85 class. The second half of the round felt more relaxed though so that’s a positive. Our 95 round started well, nice and relaxed but then rider error occurred – I missed a jump out so that was that! Maybe I tried to do too much in one weekend. C didn’t know though and seemed pleased with himself – especially after being rewarded with some mints in the lorry.
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