Charlie with the long sought after cooler

Charlie with the long sought after cooler
Spring NWEC 2013 Novice

Monday, June 08, 2020

Jump lesson after a weekend of hard rain

I told John about Duke having one of his fits (well, multiple) when I tried to move him off my right leg (left leg yield) in draw reins. John said "yeah, it's the right leg aids." So now we know what it is.
We started with a warm up where Duke was frustratingly "inverted" - not quite, but he just wouldn't go forward and round. Yesterday, when I rode at home he felt great, so I got worried I can't feel it right at home, but then I realized I can totally feel the difference, I just don't know why he's softer and more relaxed at home (or something).
We went outside, John had us start over a little vertical, made it bigger, told me to bend him to the inside and then use my outside leg to keep him from drifting and look up and over and past the jump, and eureka. Smooth sailing from then on. Except for the time I forgot and stared down the jump.
We did that, then John made it bigger, than an oxer, then a three stride line, then a two stride line to the three stride line, then a narrow four stride line, etc.
The final two fences (narrow to oxer), the last three times we did them, the first time Duke walloped the narrow and knocked it down. So the next time through he went through tight as a tick, but over jumped and so came in a 1/2 stride short and walloped the oxer. So John had us do it a third time to see if Duke would tuck up his legs over both fences. Yes. So John says we have to figure out how to get him to think like that in warm up, so he goes into show jumping with his legs tight like a tick.
He also got cocky, like the third time through the gate to oxer, he was like "oh hang on, I can do this" and so I had to "whoa whoa" in between and also before set him down, but not slow him down.
I think that happens on course too, he gets all excited, grabs the bit, and gets long and flat and then we start screwing up.
John had me "go slow" in between one line and the next, and he talked all these different directions, and it turns out there was time for like 10 different instructions, so there's way more time than I think there is.
The narrow was about 3'7". Duke jumped it without even blinking.

Wednesday, June 03, 2020

Dressage lesson with counter canter

During today's lesson, John had us canter, cross the diagonal, counter canter around the far end, then cross the diagonal back to regular canter (and generally do a 10 meter circle there).
We also did some work on circles around him, leg yielding out, putting his haunches in, and mostly trying to get Duke to be both round and forward at the same time.
Duke got progressively better as the lesson went on; he started flinging his head in the air for transitions and ended with a perfectly square halt.
Last week we had a dressage lesson and jump lesson that I didn't blog about.
The jump lesson's main lesson was that I was incapable - TWICE - of remembering an entire course. Duke did great where I sent him over the jumps and I've started to be able to count strides in between the fences, but I still fucked up two courses in a row.