So this weekend I showed up at the barn not sure what I wanted to do with myself. I pulled out the jump tack, and warmed up the naked and muddy BBmonster in the Back On Track ensemble before tacking her up. I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I set up a set of three fences (xrail that became a vertical to two gates) with two strides between and got the princess warmed up. We were rocking the waterford with her grackle noseband / no martingale, and she was very light and obedient the whole warm up. I am still contemplating if that is too much bit for her - it's nice when she's being a brat, but it seems a bit much judging from the way she is tentative about taking a feel of my hands when she's on the flat and being good.
We figure-8'd over the first element and even did the second on a killer angle before I put her through the grid. We had a bit of a motor dispute but after that, she did a nice swap into fiery jumper mode. She gets up and shakes her head coming in, but I could half halt (thanks, waterford) and was able to balance her pace while keeping her balanced. She put in a few lovely attempts towards the end and we exited the arena. I decided we could go for a walk on the road which ended up being a trot and even a canter! For reference, at the walk she would stop and STARE (waiting for the goblins, I assume?) at various things but walked on willingly enough with a cluck and a nudge from my leg. She gets better the higher the gait goes - I finally took my own advice (aka my blog name) and just kept kicking her on when she'd spook at this and that, and the system really worked.
I'm guessing that this is how our final XC round went so well last year - I was kicking for time, and she's not strong enough at the canter to get really rowdy about something. I think I'm going to do for the "trot the first fence with much feeling" approach and then kick her on to canter the rest of the course this year. I have to stay out of my own head and keep looking forward, and for the spooky stimuli. I don't want to "prespook" for her, but I want to be ready for her to put on the brakes so I can be balanced and keep her going forward.
We still have some work to do but I'm feeling really optimistic for this coming season - I mean, my horse did happily (including with a mid-air buck) rock it over a 3'3 gate no questions asked - there's no reason we can't take on BN!
:)
We figure-8'd over the first element and even did the second on a killer angle before I put her through the grid. We had a bit of a motor dispute but after that, she did a nice swap into fiery jumper mode. She gets up and shakes her head coming in, but I could half halt (thanks, waterford) and was able to balance her pace while keeping her balanced. She put in a few lovely attempts towards the end and we exited the arena. I decided we could go for a walk on the road which ended up being a trot and even a canter! For reference, at the walk she would stop and STARE (waiting for the goblins, I assume?) at various things but walked on willingly enough with a cluck and a nudge from my leg. She gets better the higher the gait goes - I finally took my own advice (aka my blog name) and just kept kicking her on when she'd spook at this and that, and the system really worked.
I'm guessing that this is how our final XC round went so well last year - I was kicking for time, and she's not strong enough at the canter to get really rowdy about something. I think I'm going to do for the "trot the first fence with much feeling" approach and then kick her on to canter the rest of the course this year. I have to stay out of my own head and keep looking forward, and for the spooky stimuli. I don't want to "prespook" for her, but I want to be ready for her to put on the brakes so I can be balanced and keep her going forward.
We still have some work to do but I'm feeling really optimistic for this coming season - I mean, my horse did happily (including with a mid-air buck) rock it over a 3'3 gate no questions asked - there's no reason we can't take on BN!
:)
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