Kathy and Dylan came over this morning to ride and set fences for me and Lynx. We took a walk around the fields and neighborhood, with Mahzi the dog right alongside us. Pascal got distracted chasing the barn cats again so he joined us later for the jumping exercises.
Once we were ready to work with the jumps, we started with walkibg over ground poles as our first step in this progression. The pivo was convinced it should be tracking Dylan, so Kathy went through the gymnastic line of ground poles too.
We went through it both directions at the walk, then we each trotted through. The basic idea is to start small and go slowly, then gradually raise the jumps and increase the speed. I did make a couple adjustments to the distance between jumps as they got higher so Lynx would have an easier time getting the strides right.
Lynx had looked at these jumps yesterday during our ride, and I could tell he was interested. I wanted to wait until I had someone here before tackling this particular exercise, and Lynx was definitely eager to work on this today!
Once he was cantering through the line accurately we raised the jumps again, making the blue crossrail quite a bit larger on the sides. It was no problem for Lynx, he jumped right through.
I did notice that he was getting a little flat over the last fence, though. This is a common thing as a horse is learning to jump. He jumps harder to get over the bigger obstacle, but doesn't realize he needs to change the shape of his body in the air. We want more of an arc, less of a flat back.
The easiest way to teach this body shape over fences is to make them wider, with an increasing element. So I set up the last fence as an oxer, with a smaller crossrail in front of a slightly higher horizontal pole. This was Lynx's first oxer, but because I've introduced jumping to him so systematically, it seemed to him like the logical next step in the progression.
Here are the videos of the jumping efforts, this is so exciting! Lynx really does like these thinking exercises, I'd love to get him out on a cross country course!
I'm not entirely sure how Lynx knows what I want when we get to taking selfies, but somehow he manages to turn on the charm and smile for the photos!
We were working at home this morning with some of the gymnastics. Lynx remembered jumping at Lena's over the weekend and started out strong over the blue crossrail.
I'd set up a bounce (no stride between the jumps, just land and then jump again), but it was a little confusing for Lynx. The first time through we did what I like to call "jumping by braille", where he hits every pole in order to determine where they are. This is super common as I start horses with this kind of work.
Because his eyes are on the sides of his head, the jump actually moves into the blind spot immediately in front of him, just as he needs to take off. Sort of gives new meaning to the expression Flying Blind! You can imagine how he might feel the need to hit every pole if three jumps repeatedly appear then disappear right when he needs to takeoff! This is why I always try to walk the horse around the jumps first, with his side parallel to the poles, so he can actually see and assess the jumps before I ask him to go over them.
As I go back over the video and photos from today it's also remarkable that Lynx tries SO HARD to do this jumping thing right. He is still determining whether things are cavalletti to be taken in trot stride, or a jump to be hopped over. He's athletic enough that he can lift individual legs quite high! Once he figures out that he can canter these jumps much more easily than trotting them, it will be a real game changer.
Look at how high he lifts that right hind to clear the pole!
Check out his right front leg, knee to nose, hoof to chest! And note how high the sides of this crossrail are. I often set this up so the jump will look bigger to the horse and he'll clear it easily in the center. Lynx is smart and attentive enough that he was trying to get over the oddly angled poles at the trot, not realizing it was ok to canter in and jump.
Here he's stepping equally high with his left front- this is some serious athleticism and try.
This crossrail's sides are a little smaller, and you can see him "sitting" more in his hind end with this jumping effort.
This is the bounce, after I changed it to be ground poles to a vertical because he needed something simpler. I'm always happy to simplify an exercise for him, I want him to end a session feeling confident and accomplished.
Now he's getting the idea! Next I'll set some fences on a long straight-away in the fields. I'll let him pick up a little speed and see if I can get him to break into the canter and go through the bounce that way. In this little ring it's difficult to get much impulsion before needing to turn, and he happily canters in the pasture all the time.
This small ring/round pen has been useful for getting him started because the smaller space has made him think about his balance, without him ever needing to pick up much speed. Lynx has terrific brakes with a breathing halt, so if the rider exhales and shifts her pelvis into a more posterior tilt, Lynx will shift his pelvis and slow down then stop in response, doing the same thing with his body as the rider does. He'll quietly halt like this anytime, after a jump, when trotting downhill, it's a great tool to rebalance him when riding on terrain. I also use a variation of this method to teach my western horses how to slide.
Not bad at all for a horse who's only been under saddle and riding for five weeks!
In a severe storm last night, my place was dumped on with rain. The thunder felt like it was sitting on top of my house, and a couple times I thought I should check to make sure none of the nearby outbuildings was hit by lightning!
Everything was fine, and my horses were nonplussed. They just enjoyed the cool rain after a hot day, my three grazing in the storm, with Son of a Lynx hunkered down in the shelter of a tree. I reminded myself that they were in thunderstorms like this all the time in Colorado, so no big deal to them being outside. We got several inches of rain in a short period of time, and my place still had standing water the next morning. Good for the pasture, not as good for footing to ride in!
Thankfully my photographer friend Lena O'Brian invited us to ride at her place again, and while she'd had the lightning and thunder, no rain had fallen to make the fields slick. She was kind enough to not only set up some jumps for us, but also be ground crew while we rode, fixing poles we knocked down., AND she took photos and video of us! We're so grateful to have her nearby!
Son of a Lynx has seen jumps and poles many times now, but because of the footing situation at my place, today was the first we really could really have a proper jump school. I introduced him to distances, bigger crossrails, small verticals, even walking over tires. It's a lot to learn how to balance while carrying a rider, trotting around turns, and then adding obstacles to hop over! This made for a complicated enough ride that Lynx was definitely interested in the questions I was asking him.
It started well, with us walking around each of the jumps in both directions so he could see everything out of each eye. We also had the good opportunity to ride with Lena's daughter as well as our friend Kathy, so Lynx is getting the experience of riding with other horses in the ring with him. It's important that he sees others working and occasionally jumping over fences, and doesn't get worried or excited about what the others are doing.
Once he had a good look at everything I got him warmed up with some trotting, which he pretty much picks up right away now without pacing first. We then trotted over the small verticals and crossrails so he had a chance to jump each thing individually. You can see in the approach photos that he's really starting to "hunt" the fences, which means he's begun looking for which jump is next, and focusing in on that one.
Because we've done the ground pole work and so much incorporating cross rails into our regular rides around the fields, Lynx is very adept at lifting each foot high enough to get over the obstacle. He can trot over most of these like they are cavalletti, taking them in stride. I don't mind this at all in the beginning. When we're just starting like this I'm only asking for forward and straight, and to go over each thing. It doesn't have to be pretty, he just has to get over it calmly and learn how best to maneuver his body, including each of his four legs. It's always a little humorous to watch them at these very beginning stages, because you can almost see the horse counting in his head, "one, two, three.... now wait, there's a fourth leg to get over this pole?!" Eventually as I raise the jumps higher and he physically MUST jump to clear it, he'll actually do more "jumping" and less "stepping", but for now the goal is to go over them calmly and straight. The jump will come later once they are bigger.
I let him do it however he wants the first couple times we try it, and then I start offering suggestions to him to make it easier. For example, this crossrail was small enough that he COULD trot over it in stride, but he could also jump it. I helped him to see his distance to jump it by using my voice, repeating the word "ready?" with each stride, and then making a kissing noise when he should take off for the jump. This helped him a lot, and he started hopping things once I assisted him like this.
As with every horse new to jumping (and in his case, even still very new to riding itself!), there are always a few bloopers. This cross rail he did fine a couple times, and then he got distracted on an approach and forgot about steering for a second. I don't let them go around it in these situations, I kept him aimed at it even though he was too crooked. He ended up hitting the poles and the standard with the side of his body, knocking the whole thing to the ground. Then he calmly walked over what was now oddly spaced ground poles.
No big deal, it's all learning how to play the game. In general horses don't like to knock things over or hit things with their feet and legs, so there's no need for me to discipline him or make a scene. I just had him try again, and look how he focused in on the jump this time on the approach!
He zoned in on the jump, found the middle, and hopped right over. This horse is a problem solver, and as long as I, the rider, don't stress him out about mistakes, he figures it out and does it right on the second try.
He's figuring out how to lift feet together, first the fronts, then the backs.
I'm happily starting to get a few nice canter strides after we land from some of these jumps. I think this is how he'll start cantering under saddle. When he figures out jumping and gymnastics are more easily done from a canter I'll encourage it when he makes that realization. When he was harness racing he was pulling a cart, and the horses aren't allowed to canter in that situation. He doesn't yet realize that he is allowed to do it in this new riding job, but when he does he'll have it. He's given me a few good canter strides so far, and I'll continue to encourage it. He's very naturally picking up the correct leads for which direction we're going, which tells me his balance is coming along well too.
Here's the video from his last "course" today. He was getting a little tired, which is why he knocked down the fences he did, but ended well with a good effort over the last one.
After we were done, Lena had us line up like at a horse show at the end of the class for ribbons and placings to be announced. We all had a little giggle at the size of Lynx's personal space bubble. He didn't want to walk up too close to Dylan, even though they know each other. When Kathy rode Dylan a little closer to us, Lynx would carefully and politely sidepass away until he had the space he wanted between them. This little scenario played out several times just like that, and then Lena just took the photo while we all laughed.
We cooled out with a ride around Lena's farm, Lynx was in the back this time. I want him to learn to be in any position in the line, front, middle, or behind, so if his future owner wants to trail ride with him he's good in any spot.
Once we got home I let him loose in his stall and run area, and he had himself a long drink. He's been good about drinking when we travel, but there's nothing like your water in your tank at home.
It's been soggy here since we've had some rain, which is fantastic news for my pasture and has also made my place kind of a slick and muddy mess. I try to be careful with footing when even small jumps are involved, especially for a horse still figuring out the footwork.
As a result we only did a very little bit today, though I did introduce cavalletti, and the idea of a bounce through crossrails. We started just walking through the poles, then did a little trot through.
Here's a little gopro video from the ride this morning. Apparently I still need to angle the camera down a little more so that you can see Lynx's head and ears and not just a screen full of cloudy sky.... But at least it's something!
I'm suspicious that Raven has something going on with her teeth again. She really isn’t jumping well.She’s flatting ok, but refusing even small crossrails again.I videoed the whole ride today. Over thanksgiving Jasi showed me how to edit video and add commentary (ah, youth!) with my iphone, so I created this video today that explains what I'm feeling and seeing in Raven.
I sent it on to Dr. Landes so he could see what I'm trying to describe. Raven's just not "right". Her natural jump form is incredible and she's always been confident and powerful over fences. For her to be stopping at jumps is highly uncharacteristic of her. Watching the video has been immensely helpful, I can see that even when she has loose reins she's doing odd things with her head on landing. I also noticed in the warmup video that she bucks when she tries to move her head and slide her jaw, but it catches.
You can see over this blue crossrail that she has a loose rein, but she's still holding her head up and twisted on landing.
Over this orange cross rail she jumps really flat through her back - almost hollow with her back dropped rather than lifted in bascule. She's lifting her legs to get over, but not using her trunk/torso at all.
Then again on landing she lifts her head way up.
We did some work over the verticals, too. I was able to get her to be obedient and jump the fences I asked for, but she never really jumped WELL. It's frustrating, as she's normally such an incredibly athletic and eager jumper. Hopefully we can get it sorted out again with her teeth next week.
