This week

It was interesting last week, how much it caused an issue to have jumps (albeit small ones) so near the corner. This shows how much the corner is destroying the canter quality, and also how much room riders want to prepare for a jump. Having jumps close to the ends will continue this week so  we can work on this. A key is to not be lazy! Keep the horse active in the corners: this doesn't mean fast as you actually do need to compress the horse so it can balance in the short ends of the indoor, but it means using leg into hand to create contained energy that keeps the horse ready for the jumps.

We are also going to try counting 3-2-1 to jumps to help work on that idea of rhythm and power to the jumps.

And because last week was so fun, we are going to do MORE work without stirrups! Yay! This week it will be working on a serpentine over poles. For riders on horses that can handle the stirrups being left down, we will leave the stirrups hanging so you can get the idea of your LEG holding the leathers and stirrups, and also the idea of picking up and dropping the stirrups while trotting.

Karen