Dressage Lesson

First dressage lesson in six weeks....and didn't it show!!

Jesus I am getting so angry at myself that I just can't seem to make improvements with my heels, stop blocking with my left shoulder and actually sitting straight on my horse! Grr!! But luckily I have a few lessons booked so fingers crossed we start to make progress.

Cobs was great today - have hardly ridden since last week and had a horror ride on Tuesday so thought he might be a bit of a brat but he wasn't thank goodness.

We started back to basics and did a lot of transitions etc - getting me to think about things and prepare better. Was good to do all of it again as when the showgrounds eventually become dry enough to ride on I will remember what we need to work on.

Our canter was a bit hairy today. As I have said before with us its always the first thing to go pear shaped so was to be expected.

We did some medium trots and some leg yielding but by then Cobs was abit over the whole thing so started to look for things to spook at. As soon as we got some more nice work we left it at that as he tried really hard & on a whole was great.

So what to work on.....lots of squares, transitions, faster responses from the both of us....and me riding properly!

Liz showed me a great way to stop him from leaning on me and it worked really well so can't wait to practice that a bit more :)

Photos from Woodhill Sands Mini ODE Sept - from Marie Richards

Lesson with Shelley at Woodhill Sands

I discovered Shelley was having a x-country lesson at Woodhill yesterday so quickly organised to have the day off with work and went down today.

Was a good outing for Cobs - I didn't get as much out of it as I hoped but every bit of help is beneficial for the two of us.

He jumped well today - was a bit hard with all the stopping then going again as there were four of us in the group but he coped pretty well. Concentrated on my position and straightness coming into & over the jump so that was good.

I went more for the XC as we haven't had a practice run at it since Greenhithe in January. He was pretty good. Started with some logs then a log onto a training log which managed to get me flustered and in turn Cobs started to get flustered! Once Shelley started to yell at me we got together okay - did it a few times & unfortunately didn't do it as nicely as I would have liked but you get that! We still did it.

Then we went off to the water and had a play round with jumping in & out. I rode like a nana with my reins long after dropping in so Cobs ducked out to the side....always my riding that causes the issues (or lack of riding as this case was!). However once I rode it like I meant it he was great.

He coped marvellously well working round the horses with them jumping around him so that was fantastic. Shame its still an issue for him - however I am sure we will work through that this season.

Not sure of when our next event is - don't think its till November so thats aaagggeeesss away :(

Very messy log jump - but its training height LOL!

Final Results for Winter Dressage Series

We finally got the results for the Woodhill Sands Winter Dressage Series & we got third overall in the Novice Level Accumulator :)

We got a lovely rosette & two ground vouchers which will come in handy.

Cobs with his rosette as we don't get them very often LOL!

Woodhill Sands Mini ODE Pre-Training

Well it was fair to say that I was EXTREMELY anxious about today after my lesson yesterday...thanks to everyone who rang & sent lovely supportive texts encouraging me to get the hell on with it!

We had a good warm up for our test - there was hardly anyone down there which suits Cobs down to the ground so he was far more settled than he has been down there for a while.

I was stoked with his test - we lost our forward button a few times but on a whole he did pretty well. Kept his head together the whole time and listened. Came out beaming as it felt like I had the old Cobs back :)

Then rushed back to the float to get changed for the jumping - as it was a Mini ODE we did a round of SJ's and then picked 10 x-country fences you wanted to do. I walked it and rode it differently to most as I wanted to practice jumping down into the water rather than just trotting through it.

Our SJ was okay - one run out at a jump I thought he would spook at so just sat there like a nana.....we will get there one day LOL! He also dropped a rail on a jump I thought we got a good spot at so not sure what happened there. Was happy with him though as it felt like we both knew our job and I felt confident so slowly making steps forward!

He was great XC. We had one miscommunication where I thought we should go long but he tried to chip in & then ducked out to the side. Stormed round the rest of it though & dropped into the water nicely so was wrapt with him!

Then we looked at our scores and we won the dressage and won overall. YAY!!!

What a great day out we had. He will now be turned out for a few weeks as I think we both need some time to just sit back & relax :)

Jumping Lesson

Went up to Jaimes today to try & sort out what went wrong last weekend....well that was simple....I need to stop mucking around with my horse & hey presto he goes better.

Was a great lesson but I am feeling a little frustrated truth be told. Totally at myself as I just don't seem to get it. I KNOW he goes better when I just leave him alone yet I can't help myself and then wonder why things go wrong.

So today Jaime made me go over a line of two jumps and look at something else so then I couldn't muck round with him. Was a very good exercise to do albeit rather scary! I can see her reasonings behind it though so will have to work on it.

He jumped okay - few hairy moments like me getting totally in front of the movement and he did two HUGE bucks afterwards.....not sure how I stayed on. All I remember thinking was I am going to fast and it will hurt too much so don't fall off.

So yes so many things to work on......really feel like I am letting us both down. Thank goodness the season hasn't started yet so hopefully I can gain some confidence again.

Jaime set up a scary jump for us - he stopped at it the first time as low & behold I was riding like a nancy but once I actually rode him into he he did fine.

Thats it for lessons for a while as the SJ season has started so Jaime is off doing her thing...hope we don't go too far backwards!

Practicing looking away from the jump: