We both got a bit of a fright in our last lesson slithering over the skinny arrowhead brush so the aim this time was to build confidence. Previously Louisa had commented that C was very stiff and fixed in his neck which is what we have been working hard to fix with Aimee. This time round she commented on the difference she could see, and the he was looking more flexible and less locked up in front. Nice to know the hard work is paying off.
She commented that our canter still needed work, getting him to work from behind on the small canter circles but that is the next challenge.
The lesson was good fun – we jumped lots of show jumps to start, working on different related distances. I struggled as usual to always land on the correct canter lead so this is something I’m also going to have to work on at home.
To finish we tackled the formidable XC skinnys again. We started with the wishing well which caused no problems last time……so, this time C took a couple of shots to realise it was a jump. He ran out to the side twice which wasn’t good start. Louisa then got me to walk him up to the jump to look over it – hey presto it worked. He then realised it was a jump and he was flying! I think I backed off a bit too much to start with as was a little nervous after last time (and maybe he was too). We then jumped it a couple to times both ways with no problems. Next we had a look at the next jump, a skinny brush, with a higher section one side. I felt this was more straightforward – and so did C, he flew over a few time and finished feeling really happy and confident.
With the first event of the season looming we are off to XC school over the weekend if the weather holds out. Fingers crossed!
Videos curtesy of Aimee’s mum – thanks!
https://youtu.be/Ng9rsR_zAOQ