Cob Jockey

In the warmup, my trainer said, "Whoa, he is really stretching from the base of his neck. Have you been doing something different?"

YES.  YES I HAVE.  THANK YOU FOR NOTICING.


I could have gotten off my horse and danced.  Everything I talked about in my forward thinking post is working, and she said she noticed my softer, following hands too.

The actual lesson was jumping, and we're continuing with the general theme of challenging him to think ahead and be more autonomous.  We are jumping jumps at diagonal angles, from all different directions, and doing lots of gymnastic lines.

It's like that time I audited the Jimmy Wofford clinic, and he was talking about challenging our young horses.  He said something to the effect of, "Your eventer just needs to accept that people are crazy and are going to put crazy jumps in crazy places.  Your eventer can't be approaching a fence asking 'Why would a human put a fence there??!?!?!??!!!!'"

Jimmy Wofford, everyone.  The man knows what he's talking about.

Connor is doing really well with this concept.  I feel like our jump training is entering a new stage (with the previous stages being: This is a Jump and Yes You Have to go Over it Every Time, Jumping Straight Up Into the Air is not Okay, and Sometimes I'm Going to Give You a Bad Ride Because I'm an Adult Ammie Please Save Us).  Now we're into "We Can Do This, Now Let's Do it Better".

My trainer set up three verticals on the diagonal from H to F, like so:

Not to scale, and not exactly H-F, more like in the middle of space, but you know.

But most of our courses started with jumping one of them parallel to the long side (diagonally over the fence), then continuing on the same rein to take the line, then turning immediately onto the other rein and making a tight turn back to finish jumping another one parallel to the long side, like this:

Green line is the start, grey line is the finish

One time we finished by circling over the center fence parallel to the short side, like this:


It was really really hard, and we very nearly took out the standard of the other fence with my foot the first time we did it.

At the end, we spent time working on my lower leg, because now that Connor is more autonomous, I can think more about myself rather than getting him through the line (so excited to be here, by the way.)   The big breakthrough happened at the trot, when she said, "You're fine on the up beat, but the downbeat..." I couldn't feel it til she said it, but as she was saying that I felt it, and I changed the way I posted so that the stirrup iron didn't change position.  "YES!" she said, "I have to take a video of this for you, it just changed the whole way you went."

I am interested to see where that change takes us, especially in the new saddle.

After three really tough, soul-searching rides (and, thank you karma, one of them was immediately after it took me 45 minutes to catch Connor, the day I put up that post) I was ready for my lesson today.  I just needed some guidance and confirmation that what I had done was right.  I got it in a big way when we had the best jump lesson ever, AND it was in the pouring rain because we have no jumps in the indoor in the summer.  Rock on.


This was the exercise, which started out as all poles, had an oxer for the last element when we were going off the left rein, and had that vertical as the final element on the right rein.  In my warmup, I did the square and little circle exercises to get him on my aids, off my hands and not blowing through my outside aids with his shoulder, and it paid off.  He was between my leg and hand, adjustable, and gave me something to work with in the jump exercises.

Plot summary:
- She had me focus on keeping my heels deep and my core engaged so that when he put his nose down to look at the fences, or launched over the oxer (what is it with this horse and oxers!) I didn't get pulled down with him or fall forward.  Eventually he won't put his nose down anymore, but for now, I have to deal with it gracefully.
- She said it wasn't a gymnastic in which you just get him there, that I had to keep him active each time we landed and in between so that he didn't lose steam.  When I did it right, he felt like he could've jumped a 4ft fence on the out fence.
- I'm so bad about jumping ahead at times, I need to think in my head that I am leaning back and letting the reins slip through my fingers.
- Speaking of height, I am pretty sure that vertical is the tallest fence we've ever jumped together, and I expected it to be a big effort from him, but I almost didn't even notice him jumping underneath me.  He also didn't really put his nose down to it because, well, it was not that far below his nose.  My trainer put it up a couple holes while we were in the opposite corner approaching and not looking, as usual - surprise!  Not sure if she does this on purpose or not, but it's really effective.  I was afraid of crossrails not that long ago, sometimes I still get nervous when I see the fence go up.
- We did this over and over and over, which gave me a chance to fix things and really get comfortable over fences for the first time in a long time.
- I noticed that the amount of core and leg engagement needed for a good jumping approach feels really similar to the amount needed for our baby collected gaits.

After the lesson, we discussed our next move, which looks to be the Leg Up Horse Trials at the Hoosier Horse Park on June 29th.  Just a local schooling HT, going Starter.  "And this time," my trainer said, "You're good on the Dressage test and now you'll go double clear everywhere else!"  As if there was any mystery that we've been in jumping boot camp since the last show!  It's made a huge difference, and I am having a blast.  Today was one of those days that makes the 45 minute catching session bearable.  Love this little guy.

Shiny shiny.  (This nap took place before our ride.)

As I was untacking Connor in is stall last night, my trainer was chatting with another boarder and checking Facebook.  She walked over to Connor and showed him this photo:


"This is you!" she said.  He sniffed the phone in response, trying to figure out if it was a treat.  I looked over and said, "Plus a few hands and several years!"  She laughed and said, "We do have a lot of work to do, but he is coming along nicely.  The fences will start to look smaller for both of you very soon."

After months and months of Dressage, we have finally gotten Connor's fundamentals to a point that she is ready to start some serious jumping training.  Last night's lesson was Dressage for the first half, but it was Dressage as a means to the end of getting him on my aids for a jump school.  She had me introduce the rein-back last night, now that he has an established forward.  We would back three steps, then walk, trot or even canter off.  Since he's so sharp to the canter aid right now and has decided that cantering is easier than using himself in the trot, he regularly tries to canter off in this beautiful contained canter when I ask for the trot.  It kills me to bring him down, but I have to, and then re-ask for the trot with the same aid as the time before, to teach him that cantering is not the appropriate response to that aid, but trot is.

The rein-back really served to lighten him in my hands in all three gaits.  That, plus turns on the forehand in both directions before approaching a line really gave me an engaged and forward, yet contained, pony.  The line of fences was small, and morphed from four cavaletti at first to ground line > small X > raised ground line > slightly larger X by the end.  She wanted me to feel what a good approach felt like for him.  It feels electric, and contained, and I absolutely have to remember to shorten my reins and raise my hands over where they would be for Dressage.  That's hard for me, but when I remembered, we flowed through that line like water.

After my bareback ride on Sunday, I realized that I am reverting back to pinching with my knees and bracing for downward transitions.  I self-corrected this throughout the night, and when I remembered, my trainer always complimented me on "keeping my leg underneath me".  So there is a balance and position correlation there, as well as a correlation to how well he raises his back and steps underneath himself for downward transitions when I remember not to brace.

I am almost disappointed that, with the Dressage show next weekend, we will certainly put jumping to the side for my next lesson, but I am ecstatic with how he felt tonight and the jumping we'll do over the next few months.