As I work toward my goals and continue improving my riding, I find it sometimes helps to seriously focus on what I learned during my lessons. Taking the time to write down the important concepts helps even more! Here are a few notes from my lessons this past week.

I find it important to write down notes from my lessons as well as my daily, monthly and yearly goals.

hope others can learn something too (or remember to focus on something you tend to overlook). If someone out there has some additional pointers or notes please comment!

Cadence

Allow the horse transition time, so in going from canter to trot think – one, two, three – trot (or three beats) same for trot to walk, etc.

Transitions should look and feel very smooth, never abrupt. Count out loud the cadence when trotting, walking or cantering to help focus and relax me and my horse. So that would be a cadence of one beat at the walk, two at the trot and three at canter.

Practice cantering ten strides, then transition to trot for six beats then canter again for ten strides, and so on all in a smooth and effortless manner. Be ever so light on the rein and leg with your requests. Think finely tuned movements, no jarring of the horse, just a whisper.

Leg Yields

Leg yields to the wall. Use your inside leg (heel) and outer rein to bring and keep the horse to and on the outside wall. The horse should move willingly away from your inside leg while the rein helps keep her straight.

Circles

Practice coming into a tight circle, then expanding to a larger one, filling the space, using the heel of your inside leg and outer rein. Practice having the horse turn in on the center line from a large circle, gracefully.

When engaged in circles make sure they are the circle is always the same size (unless you are intentionally bringing them in or out). Keep the same circle shape when changing direction, too. When you ask to move up and the horse doesn’t respond, use two quick movements with both heels to get them to listen and keep doing it until they respond.

The Three Key Elements to Jumping Courses Successfully

The three most important things to consider when jumping a course are track, pace and balance. In order to perfect your track, look at your fence early. Most riders wait until it’s too late. Trying to overcome the wrong track is difficult at best, you can correct for pace and balance pretty fast, but fixing your track quickly is challenging and without the right track the horse will be off balance and not able to perform optimally going over the fence.

You should have an even pace going to a fence and in between fences. Make sure that your stride distance is equal in between the fences, too. So if you want to achieve four strides between the fences, they should be four equal strides.

Figure it Out

If you get your distance wrong twice in a row (or more) then figure out what the problem is and fix it. Same with uneven strides between fences, fix it by going in with the right pace from the start or correct it immediately after the first fence. Do not wait to adjust it at the last fence. You want the horse concentrating on the jump at that point, don’t distract her.

In trying to figure out the problem, ask yourself, did I have the right pace, track, point of take off, equal stride distances, etc.? Where was I off? You should know. Then fix it.

Worth reiterating, correct where you are off early, not at the jump. You need to let the horse “be” at this point. Your conversation with the horse must be a whisper when approaching the fence. If she is on the wrong lead then so be it, leave it and let her jump the fence as is. Horses are fine jumping on the wrong lead or in cross canter. More important is fixing the problem immediately after the fence, especially before the next turn. Just focus on the jump and getting her to land on the correct lead over the fence.

Hands “On” at All Times

Keep your hands in constant contact with the bit until you are through riding. They should not be too tight but taunt enough to feel tension. Keep the contact elastic especially through the elbows. Only when you are done should you relax your reins. When in forward motion give up the rein (towards the horses head) about four to six inches at each stride whether walking, trotting or cantering.

It is important to keep an even pace before AND after the jump…

After the Jump

When moving towards a jump (and after a jump) your pace should be smooth and consistent. Don’t go into half seat as it can cause the horse to increase speed. You want to keep them in a relaxed, collected, frame with their pole up. Causing them to speed up can lead them to pull their head down and forward. This is not optimal for balance for the rider.

Keep the pace smooth and stay in your seat in a relaxed manner. If you land hard over the fence when sitting back in your seat it can accomplish the same thing as going into half seat, i.e. it will cause the horse to move faster. With some horses landing hard after a fence tenses the horse to the point where she’s harder to control, i.e. slow down.

Homework

Practice figure eights over a pole and look soon when switching leads back towards the pole. Practice circle work.

Jaliska being away has unintentionally brought with it several new opportunities.

Happy to look at the bright side…

First, I have been able to focus more on my business since I’m not riding as much during the week. This is a really good thing since I’m the boss and primary source in identifying and securing new revenue. Revenue is important if only that it is the sole means of my being able to continue my Quest and, yes, to pay my employees, feed my kids, cover the bills, etc.

Second, now that I’m the full time parent during the week, I would not have been able to ride Jaliska every morning as I previously had since I have to get both kids on the bus. Therefore, J being in Aiken training has actually been a blessing as I would have felt terribly guilty about not being able to ride her often, or would have done so during the day which would have affected my company’s bottom line and ultimately mine. Once summer hits, Jaliska will be back and I will be able to ride her everyday once again!

Third, I have to say I’m really enjoying riding more experienced horses. This combination, to my delight, has taken me to a whole new level of riding ability. OK, I know that when you are starting at the bottom, as I have, this “new level” isn’t very high; however, for me personally, it has been substantial, if only incremental.

Happily, I feel that my unplanned plan seems to be working out really well. So while Jaliska is learning and improving, so am I.

I am the first to admit that my dream is insane
but I sure am enjoying “the ride.”

I admit that I have been outright laughed at, scoffed at and told point-blank that, “Yes, you could do it once, but then you would be dead,” (the latter a response to my request to jump “just one” five foot fence), and this all coming from my trainers, no less.

Riding is my best mood enhancer. Me on Diamond’s Daylight, last summer.

Riding is the best therapy that I can think of (albeit not the cheapest) for I can be in the worst mood and after only few minutes on a horse I feel like a different person.

I remember how I used to (and still do sometimes) get so uptight when I first began training. One day, upon hearing me complain for the umpteenth time about how “awful I was at this,” or ”well that didn’t go as planned,” or “when will I ever learn how to do this right,” my best riding buddy, Katrina, gently pointed out that there is no such thing as bad ‘horse time.’

Fast-forward to today.

I found myself, once again, hyper-focused on learning how to do “this” exactly right. In this case the “this” was a certain dressage technique. (Full disclosure, all dressage techniques, and dressage in general for that matter, are new to me.) The point is that when I was done with my lesson and ultimately stopped thinking for a moment, I was suddenly overcome by a feeling of sheer happiness. It took over my body, like some alien being and the magnitude of it was almost overwhelming. Without realizing it, I was not just smiling, I was beaming and a calm, peacefulness filled my soul.

Hmmm, I thought to myself, this is what it’s all about, not jumping a Prix, or having perfect form, or winning a competition, but the pure joy that comes from “horse time.”

So I finally get it; this is what my good friend was talking about. I must simply enjoy the time and everything else is, well, just details.