Lesson with Jaime was good. We warmed up over trot poles making sure I kept him straight etc. Then just did a small x on a 20m circle and again correcting him when he started to drift.
I was pleased that Jaime saw a big difference from last week as we have been working really hard to get this habit knocked on the head so very happy with that.
We then did loads of grid work with me trying to keep my upper body super still. That was quite hard for me but the difference once I really concentrated was amazing. One thing I can say are my legs are HEAPS better. Yay.
Once we got the grid sussed we then worked on our canter down to an oxer. Pretty proud to say we got the right spot every time :) Super super happy with that.
No photos from the lesson as it was videoed for me to see the difference in my riding etc.
So off to Greenhithe we went on Sunday. I entered the 85cm and was thinking of doing the 95 if things went well.
When they were setting up the double they could not figure out the striding at all so I got myself into a complete tizz about it - it was either going to be a hugely long one or a short two so I thought I would go for the short two.
Did the first three jumps nicely and then came round to the double. I just didn't ride him & dropped him into it so he stopped. He came round the second time & did it nicely but the striding was way off so the second jump was not pretty. Then did the last & went out onto the XC course.
He absolutely stormed round that - I was a bit worried about the last fence as it was rather ugly but we got the right spot & he flew over it. Yay! Back into the SJ ring and we dropped the rail on the first fence.
Although we had a stop I was very happy with him as I know why it happened. I honestly believe that if the striding had been right I would have had no issues with it at all.
I decided to try the Training class. Our warm up was very unusual as he felt SO tired. I guess three lessons in 7 days has taken it out of him. First three jumps were fine - I came round to the double, he stopped and I just went past it then. I was not feeling confident enough and it was all just training to me & I don't care that we eliminated ourselves at all!
So the first xc jump was nice but Cobs was too busy paying attention to something far more interesting so did a hideous jump over that. I cantered past the second fence as it was HUGE & went to do the sunken road. Jumped in nicely, out great, lovely forward canter to do the jump out and then WHACK. He flew straight into the jump & I fell off and landed on my feet! I have no idea what happened - we have photos of us coming out of the sunken road & everything looked good? Who knows.
Anyway I jumped back on, went round and did the pre-training sunken road and then galloped over a little intro jump just to get our rhythm back. The last jump scared the beejesus out of me but I thought what the hell, already fallen off LOL! He absolutely FLEW it - I was so stoked with him!! I then stopped as I thought that was the best note to finish on. Definitely the biggest jump we have done XC and he did it absolutely super!
So yeah - mixed day. I have to remember that it was our first XC since December/January and not to loose too much confidence over things. I am gutted that I let myself get psyched out about the double but its too late now to do anything about it! I am pretty proud of myself for even giving Training a go. Although we only did a few jumps its still a start.
85 round
Training Round
1 comment:
He's looking awesome. LOVE the last photo!
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