This week in lessons

This week in lessons we are going to continue on with riding in a controlled manner, getting in corners, and counting 3-2-1 to the jumps. Our course will be longer this week, and it will be interesting to see if rider's can maintain their count as the course progresses.

Things that may help:

1) Make sure you sit up in corners, and keep your eyes up to the jumps. If you start tipping more and more forward it will throw off your eye, and will also change your horse's balance which will change their stride and how the chose to take the jumps.

2) You need to make sure that the horse is approaching the jumps along the path you are visualizing, and that their shoulders are following their nose. If your eye is visualizing an early turn and the horse ends up falling out its shoulder and going wide on the turn, the distance you see is not going to be able to be actualized. This is also the case in a straight line if the horse is allowed to travel crooked as their eye, and your eye will be looking at the jump along a different line than their body is following.

3) For better balanced and less rushed corners leaving the jumps, make sure you prepare your horse for the turn by LOOKING into the turn. You don't have to steer for it, and can actually hold the horse straight with the outside rein while still looking. Why does this help? Think of it this way. Your horse is landing off the jump with forward momentum. It is landing shoulder/front end first and it sees the end of the arena right there, requiring a turn. If you don't help set the horse up for the turn, the horse will remain on its forehand, dropping its shoulder and either cutting the end off, or going around the end with its head tipped outwards. This will result in a rushed and unbalanced turn with the horse thinking you are blind and don't see the turn so it better act asap or risk crashing into the end of the ring.

Now if you look for the turn while holding the horse out with the outside rein, the horse will feel your position change and understand you are seeing and ready for the turn, while you are still keeping them from turning too early. This will give you time to get the horse balanced and off its shoulders so that together you can negotiate the turn in a balanced and controlled way.

Karen