speed: the enemy of adjustability

Phew, finally a post that I can keep fairly brief, after so many days in a row of looonnnnggg pictorials haha. Our first ride post horse trial was a lesson with Dan. No ride media tho, so I'm still working through photos from Austen. Really, I can't get enough of these!

she's not spoiled at all ;)

Anyway, we kept the lesson pretty simple. I told him about our performance at Loch Moy, particularly the stadium round, and he was, er, not really impressed.

He reaffirmed what I suspected too - that I should have given myself more time between cross country schooling and the event to reestablish our slow and collected flat work in the ring.

Essentially, the big takeaway was that speed is the enemy of adjustability. And by not working to fix that and just allowing Isabel to blast through our stadium round, I pretty much guaranteed that we would have rails. Again, Dan wanted me thinking about distinct riding styles between each phase - and that concept of really pushing the mare up into the bridle with hands halfway up the neck was for cross country, not show jumping.

left side: girthy mare glare. right side: sweetness and light

So for the ride itself, he had us start out with that long and low trot work we established a couple weeks ago. Isabel started out very retracted in her neck and it took a while to fix that. And especially through transitions, he said not to let her get so straight through her body. We NEED inside bend.

He wanted me thinking of having Isabel in shoulder in on the circle - especially at canter. By working on that positioning I should be able to do less with my hands, thus also allowing Isabel to lengthen her neck and soften to my hands.

It actually wasn't all that hard to achieve, but it took time and patience. When I'm schooling on my own I just lack that discipline to wait for the mare to soften and stop bracing before I do things like transition up. Theoretically that's something that should be able to fix. Just be patient and disciplined. Easy peasy, right?

Anyway, jumping was pretty basic - just building on the same concepts. He wanted me to continue thinking of that shoulder in positioning while circling over a cross rail, and then eventually a line. And by doing so, I could rate and balance her without being super handsy. It also helped me land the leads (sorta lol).

yes to flying! no to racing around like a bat out of hell

And by the end of the ride Isabel felt much closer to her normal self and was way less reactive and rigid to the legs. So my plan for the week is to keep building on these same ideas - inside bend, longer neck, shoulder in positioning, etc etc - on the flat to really get Isabel back to her normal fancy well-schooled self.

The rain date for the Oktoberfest horse trial at Olde Hope is this Sunday, and I plan to again treat it like schooling. Especially that stadium round - I would like to ride that course as if Dan were watching and critiquing. No racing around getting flat and fast!

So we'll see how the last couple rides go between now and then, starting with tonight! Happy Friday everyone :)