So the second day of the clinic was pretty cold in the am, so I again lunged Millie before we started! She, yet again, was very high. When I got on Bernie said to warm up a bit on our own. Millie was fairly settled by this point and I worked on some canter halt transitions to get her more responsive to my aids. She was MUCH better about coming back when I asked today. We were working on courses today, at the beginning Bernie would just tell me what jump to go to but by the end we had 4 or 5 in a row planned out.
Bernie had me start out with some large bending lines, always trying to add the stride with Millie. Bernie wanted me to have a slower canter than I previously would have had, this helped me be able to add the stride and keep her more together. After she was being responsive and getting her leads with the larger turns he started having me do tight roll backs, sometimes telling me what jump two or three strides away. Millie was really good with this, again the slower more collected canter helped me make these turns and kept her balanced. When we went to the pre planned course with 4 or 5 jumps further apart Millie stayed pretty quiet about it. Coming out of one of the corners I saw it a bit long, Bernie said, especially with a young horse, it is really important that when you see it it may be long or short to always add a stride. From this point on I got better about making the decision to add. On one of the lines Bernie wanted me to halt after landing over the first fence, when I did this I didn't release enough in the air expecting the halt. Bernie said you really need to not inter fear with the horses jump, even if you are going to halt on the landing, give in the air then ask for the halt. I really focus on this and she jumped softer and still halted fairly quickly. Today I felt like I had a much better ride, the horse was more responsive from the exercises we did the day before and I understood what Bernie was looking for.
I also lunged Cordi before I got on just to take the edge off. When warming her up I made sure she would go forward with out protest and that I could get her back by doing some canter walk transitions. She seemed better about everything today, Bernie said that when doing transitions forward and back in the canter that I should match her negative reaction from my leg with how much I ride her forward. If she flicks and ear back and swishes her tail, just press forward with my leg, if she bucks or kicks out, really kick her forward. She didn't do any of the above so I was able to just go forward and back with no protest.
We started cantering up over a jump, when we started off the right we landed left, when we jumped off the left we landed right. Cordi got her lead every time but especially coming off the left, I would cut the turn to early and accelerate through the turn. Bernie wanted me to keep the slow balanced canter all the way through the turn and try to see my distance from further away. I usually try to see from 3 strides but I started to get a feel for where I was to the jump out of the corner. I couldn't defiantly say "I am seven strides away!" but I was more aware of whether to move up a bit or wait more before I saw the 3.
Instead of doing courses Bernie ended up having us work on set lines where we needed to get the appropriate distance. We started with a pole 3 strides from an oxer, this I found was easy, you just land and it is an easy 3. The pole was moved to 4 strides which I found similar, when we got to 5 strides it started getting a little harder for me. I knew from yesterday I needed to go forward the first couple strides so I could steady the last 3 but it wasn't until we got to 6 strides that my problems from yesterday came out. I would again wait to long to see my distance and gun it the last 3 strides. I found if I counted down instead of up that helped me a lot so that I was at my regular 3, 2, 1 the last 3 strides. It took me a couple tries at 7 strides to get the forward 4 to a balanced 3. I kept wanting to sit the last 3 strides but Bernie wanted me to stay in my two point. This was something I was not used to doing at all but, when I did do it the distance worked better. We then did the centerline with a pole, 3 strides to an oxer, forward 7 strides to another oxer. The first time I again did not go forward the first few strides of the 7 and yelled "I'm sorry!" haha. The next couple times I did it right! Then Bernie moved the pole to the oxer we were previously working on, to 8 strides. This took me several times to get right, I wasn't sure if I was thinking I was going forward enough until the last 3 strides or if I was just waiting too late to do anything. I was really trying to go forward but then Bernie said I was doing too much with my hand while asking her to go forward in the line, the next time I came around and really gave my hands she did the 8 strides perfectly!
I was really happy with what we did in the lesson and what I figured out. I think starting with the rail before the oxer 3 strides and moving it further and further away was a really good exercise for me. I want to work on similar exercises so that I can get really good at seeing 6, 7, 8 or however many strides are in a line, rather than landing going a bit and seeing the last 3.
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| Bernie and I last year during his clinic |
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