Post by racaille on Oct 11, 2008 5:41:49 GMT
Well after watching the approach and position lesson last week, yesterday during my own little group lesson, we concentrated on the horses. There were three of us, including a game elderly lady on her fantastic pony - put a competent teenager on him and he's a whizz, but with her he really slows down and looks after her, quite incredible - and a young woman who is quite neat on a horse but needs to use her legs more, on a schoolmaster.
Each of us had a different 'goal', and mine was to encourage Paco to work the jumps out for himself more, not to rely solely on me, and to lift his front end more.
We worked up to a little bounce jump (we call them saut de puce - flea jump) and this really started taxing Paco when we put three elements in it. My trainer told me to take him up to the jump correctly and then, without letting him fall flat on his face, to let him work it out himself. The first time was really uncomfortable as he blundered through - not knocking anything down, just scrambling over. But I tried again and he'd got it: 'Uh oh, mum, I've got to work this out for myself, haven't I?'
We did it a couple more times, changing an element each time, and I could feel him making a real effort as he engaged his brain as well as his back end. It was a very good exercise for a lazy horse!
To finish the trainer build a whopping spread without a barre d'appel. Sorry don't know what to call this in English - it's a bar on the ground a stride away from the jump to let the horse know what's coming and to help it gather itself up. I looked at that spread and thought blimey, Paco will be hard pressed to manage this! But he'd been sorting himself out well and we had to try ....
So we turned towards it, legs on strongly for a big bouncy canter, straight at it so he could have a good look .... he really had to think about it but he got his legs organised, gathered himself up and just sailed over it. What a good boy! ;D
I really enjoyed the lesson because it made Paco really think about stuff and he was much better (and much less flat) for it ;D
Each of us had a different 'goal', and mine was to encourage Paco to work the jumps out for himself more, not to rely solely on me, and to lift his front end more.
We worked up to a little bounce jump (we call them saut de puce - flea jump) and this really started taxing Paco when we put three elements in it. My trainer told me to take him up to the jump correctly and then, without letting him fall flat on his face, to let him work it out himself. The first time was really uncomfortable as he blundered through - not knocking anything down, just scrambling over. But I tried again and he'd got it: 'Uh oh, mum, I've got to work this out for myself, haven't I?'
We did it a couple more times, changing an element each time, and I could feel him making a real effort as he engaged his brain as well as his back end. It was a very good exercise for a lazy horse!
To finish the trainer build a whopping spread without a barre d'appel. Sorry don't know what to call this in English - it's a bar on the ground a stride away from the jump to let the horse know what's coming and to help it gather itself up. I looked at that spread and thought blimey, Paco will be hard pressed to manage this! But he'd been sorting himself out well and we had to try ....
So we turned towards it, legs on strongly for a big bouncy canter, straight at it so he could have a good look .... he really had to think about it but he got his legs organised, gathered himself up and just sailed over it. What a good boy! ;D
I really enjoyed the lesson because it made Paco really think about stuff and he was much better (and much less flat) for it ;D
)
Always saddle your own horse
