Saturday Riding Lessons

This morning we did a couple riding lessons, one with Alice on Beauty and one with Gillian on Silver.  Alice was working on counting strides to get the correct distances between jumps, as well as changing leads over a jump.  These things are both important for accurate course work over fences, and I happened to already have a couple exercises set up in the arena to address these. 

The first was a simple cross rail set up in the middle of the arena so that you jump it across the arena.  First you jump it at the trot or canter, circling several times to the right.  Then you do it several times to the left.  When your horse is reliably landing on the correct lead for the direction you're going, then you switch to doing it as a figure eight pattern.  There is some finesse for helping the horse and rider to get the balance and bend correct so that the horse changes leads in the air over the jump.  A simplet way to make this happen is to keep a very regular canter rhythm and have the rider change their gaze so they are looking in the new direction one stride before the jump.  That lets the horse know which way she will be going after they land, and when the horse is relaxed and thinking she automatically changed to the new correct lead to make the turn easier for herself.

Then, to help the Alice learn to get various distances between jumps, I had a couple lines set up in the arena.  The distance between the two red cross rails rode as five canter strides, and it gave us a chance to help Alice remember that you count the takeoff stride, not the landing strides.  So when counting out loud she jumps in and says, "land, one, two, three, four, five" where five is the takeoff for the second fence.  I set a couple ground poles at appropriate canter stride distances to help Beauty and Alice get the correct five strides, and I had Alice halt in the corner of the arena after the second fence to make sure Beauty wasn't rushing through the exercise.

Next Alice and Beauty cantered through the green line of fences, which were set at a distance that could be done in either four or five strides, depending on how long a stride Beauty had at the canter. The shorter her stride, the more strides she can fit in between jumps. The longer her stride the more ground she covers, and so fewer strides fit between jumps.

To help them get the five stride line I had them come into this line at a trot, then proceed at a slow canter between jumps.  Coming in slowly helps the horse to settle and the rider to feel how the five stride line feels.  Next I had them enter the line at the canter, and squeeze a little with her calf as she landed.  That encouraged Beauty to take longer canter strides between the jumps, and got them through in a four stride line.  The key to this type of work is to set the horse up before you enter the line, that way it all goes very smoothly.  If you wait until you're in the line to decide whether you'll do it in four or five strides it can get kind of hectic, and it stresses out the horse (and the rider!)  It's always easier to make corrections to the pace early rather than at the last minute.

Lastly we put the whole thing together with both lines, one at each distance, and a lead change. 

It went so well!  Because we created this course slowly and let Alice and Beauty accomplish each element individually, when they rode the whole thing all the pieces came together and they had a beautiful round.  It is so satisfying to see all the parts come together!

The next lesson was with Silver.  I've got his saddle situation sorted out again, and while we're waiting on some flocking adjustments to his jumping saddle we're riding him in my dressage saddle with a very similar tree.  I got on first and warmed him up for Gillian, and he was amazing.

 

Next I put Gillian on Silver.  She mounted after I punched some additional holes in the stirrup leathers, and while we're on the subject let me put in a strong recommendation for the Herm Sprenger leather hole punch.  It was expensive, but WELL WORTH the money for the time and effort it saves me.  It's no problem at all to add extra holes in english stirrup leathers, bridles, billets, even western stirrup leathers and latigos!  It's one of my better finds and I'll probably have this the rest of my life.

Anyway, once we had accommodated for my ridiculously long leg and made the stirrups four inches shorter Gillian got on Silver.  Because it was a dressage saddle and she's used to riding in a jumping saddle we made some very minor corrections to her position, which allowed Silver to really engage his core.  Consequently his trot became very springy, and he traveled straighter with much more lift in his back.

I was very pleased with how the two of them rode today, and extremely happy with how quiet Silver was and how confident Gillian was riding him.  It's always a little bit of a head game with a retired racehorse when you're trying to get them to settle mentally and use their bodies differently than when they were racing.  Silver is Gillian's first OTTB and she's doing all the right things with him, from having him in training with someone who has restarted many retired racehorses to making sure his tack fits him correctly.  With tack that he likes, Silver is an incredible quiet and confident athlete.  If the tack isn't right he makes sure to tell us!