Next was warming up over the crossrail at the end of the arena. I had Jasi ride a figure eight using that half of the arena, and hop over the crossrail in the middle each time she changed direction. This is a great steering exercise as preparation for the grid. It's a good way to keep a horse slow and focused as well because the horse was jumping towards the wall. The horse has to listen to the rider to see which direction they will turn after the jump before they come to the wall.
This grid was a series of four jumps. They were each about 9' apart, which creates something called a bounce. That means the horse lands from the first jump and then immediately takes off for the next jump, with no strides in between. As the jumps get bigger you have to leave a little more room between them for takeoff and landing, but a series of four bounces is a fun exercise to teach the horse footwork and to teach the rider to stay balanced over the horse. The rider's upper body should be still, with the ankles, knees, and hips acting as shocks to absorb the horse's movement. When done correctly the rider looks totally still from the waist up, while the legs and joints take care of the horse's movement. In this exercise the way Jasi rode it, the rider's only job is to steer and control speed. The horse is responsible for all the footwork.
It only took a couple times through the grid each direction and Rain understood the game. We raised the last fence to a small vertical and Jasi cantered her through, and by pressing with her leg just a little as forward encouragement, Rain hopped through the entire thing, foot perfect! This was such a fun lesson with an athletic mare and a very natural rider!
Some video of Rain and Jasi can be seen here:
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