Apologies for the late post, but here's a post about how my lesson went last Saturday. I was hoping to have a jumping lesson, however the weather wasn't the greatest being very windy and rainy so we popped inside and did some flatwork for the majority before venturing back outside to where the sun was making an appearance again to pop a few fences.
For the flatwork we mainly focused on parts that are in my dressage test this Sunday, in particular our centre lines and canter circles, especially for Prelim 7 where you do a 20m circle and in the second half ask for canter which Pea has been finding a bit difficult. I always feel that our centre lines aren't very straight, however my dressage results and my instructor beg to differ, so fingers crossed they continue that way - though our halt at the end has gone a bit rubbish but we're still working on it and hopefully Pea will eventually understand to just halt straight and quit fidgeting! The first canter we tried was rather shocking, but when we tried again it was much better. He tends to rush down the long side but then finds it hard to keep going to my instructor suggested keeping my outside leg back a bit to help it along and it worked really well and he's been managing a lot better. When we then do a downward transition back to trot it goes a bit wrong as he rushes in the trot or just falls to walk as he's no energy so I've been working on keeping my leg on for the downward transition and to keep the energy there but contained.
We then popped out to do some jumps and he jumped so well! Think that over the past year all our hard work with the flatwork has really helped our jumping and i'm riding him at jumps more effectively and not holding too tight which caused him to get in too deep and scramble over the fence. He's now really starting to get the striding right and jumps unbelievably and I'm starting to get my confidence back so fingers crossed we get back into the jumping again soon and maybe do a few show jumping competitions next year! We finished by jumping the planks which I was a bit worried about as he's not too keen on them but I decided to be brave and just go for it and remember to ride and he had a look but jumped it (hence in the photo he's giving it a funny look!) so we finished on a good note and I can't wait to jump him again for a change.
Thanks for reading,
Laura & Pea x
For the flatwork we mainly focused on parts that are in my dressage test this Sunday, in particular our centre lines and canter circles, especially for Prelim 7 where you do a 20m circle and in the second half ask for canter which Pea has been finding a bit difficult. I always feel that our centre lines aren't very straight, however my dressage results and my instructor beg to differ, so fingers crossed they continue that way - though our halt at the end has gone a bit rubbish but we're still working on it and hopefully Pea will eventually understand to just halt straight and quit fidgeting! The first canter we tried was rather shocking, but when we tried again it was much better. He tends to rush down the long side but then finds it hard to keep going to my instructor suggested keeping my outside leg back a bit to help it along and it worked really well and he's been managing a lot better. When we then do a downward transition back to trot it goes a bit wrong as he rushes in the trot or just falls to walk as he's no energy so I've been working on keeping my leg on for the downward transition and to keep the energy there but contained.
We then popped out to do some jumps and he jumped so well! Think that over the past year all our hard work with the flatwork has really helped our jumping and i'm riding him at jumps more effectively and not holding too tight which caused him to get in too deep and scramble over the fence. He's now really starting to get the striding right and jumps unbelievably and I'm starting to get my confidence back so fingers crossed we get back into the jumping again soon and maybe do a few show jumping competitions next year! We finished by jumping the planks which I was a bit worried about as he's not too keen on them but I decided to be brave and just go for it and remember to ride and he had a look but jumped it (hence in the photo he's giving it a funny look!) so we finished on a good note and I can't wait to jump him again for a change.
Thanks for reading,
Laura & Pea x
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