I think I sweat 7 gallons today. It was so sunny…not too hot, just sunny. Weird I know. In fact there was a breeze going, but I really don’t like anything above like 60.
Yesterday Yanks and I did some gallop sets and he was HYPER. I also brought Cowgirl (CG) home for the summer again, and all the horses were riled b/c of it. I think Yankee smelled the oncoming storm and was hyper about CG, so I just said F-it and quite after 4 laps. Lil mad, but he really doesn’t need any conditioning since he is a TB and maintains it pretty well.
Anyways today, I hauled over to Lauren’s barn today to school some stadium before Spring Run. I was trying to school today in a hackamore since his 3 ring elavator is a bit much going stadium, but nothing less severe works. Well, the warmup and first few small jumps went well (while I was practicing my half seat) with some minor bucking…
Nice canter w/ the hackamore
What a cute face!
Did very well with hackamore over low fences. Practicing my automatic release too!
BUT after we started jumping higher Yankee said, “NOPE, I will blow through this hackamore like its a peice of string”. Literally, he broke it. Well, I’m glad I brought his jumping bridle, so we switched and raised the jumps. Lauren was also schooling on Patchy who was a firecracker.
ROCKETTT POOOWERR!
My goal for the day was to get Yankee to calmly school some stadium fences, work on rollback turns, and possibly work a bending lineall while maintaing soft contact and a rounded back. He jumped everything beautifully, except that damned bending line from a vertical to the oxer. I just couldn’t get him to collect enough after the jump to make the turn and jump it well. Sad face. Everything was set at or almost 4 ft once they were at their highest and he never hesitated over the height. This made me happy seeing as I hope to go prelim with him by the end of summer.
Over the verticle
I was practicing my automatic release but I notice now that even though I got the release, I let my fingers go too far and I need to work on keeping them closed. Also, my body is a bit crouched eve my seat and legs are stable. Least I’m not ahead of the motion. Yankee is jumping well here..
The oxer from the right lead
You can tell that this is his weaker direction. Any jump we take off the right lead he just plain doesn’t jump well. I know this is from running on the track for three years to the left, which makes for amazing movements to the left, but sucky ones to the right. His legs are atrocious here and is my seat, a little forward. OOPS!
Oxer off the left lead
Much better this direction! Both of us look nice and my legs look very secure. Still crouching a bit but it’s such a hard habit to break! Near the end of schooling he was acting very much like a gentleman but am still worried about stadium. It’s our worst phase and we almost always pull a rail. *fingers crossed* Lauren and Patchy I think will do fine, maybe they’ll rocket around at lighting speed but I’ve never seen him knock a rail..
After we were finished drilling our poor horses to death, we decided to switch and take a gander at riding each others beasts….
As you can see, we were both having issues with each others horses…I was not used to Patchy’s adorable pony strides and the way he CHARGES at fences. Thus I wracked him in the mouth a few good times. Poor baby, but he took it all in (fast) strides. Lol. He about ripped my arms off too, I give Lauren props for riding him, he”s tough and she makes it look easy! She on the other hand forgot what it was like to ride my big strided TB, and forgot how to sit back apparently. LOL we look retarded. good thing we stick to our own mounts for shows.
Our tired boys