Hillside wants to congratulate Chelsea on her new twins, Wynter and William. As I pointed out, she will now have to be careful to never say "I hate winter" ever again! Both babies are a healthy 5+ lbs and are at home. Finally, someone has a girl!
This week will be a short week in lessons as I am not teaching Saturday. Any Saturday clients who really want a lesson can contact Kyla for a Sunday lesson.
We are going to continue this week to work on equitation and equitation type courses. This week though, we will be looking at some of the short "tests" a judge can use once he has narrowed down his top riders. These can include jumping without stirrups, trotting or walking a jump, switching horses among other options as listed in the Equine Canada rules.
How this works, is the riders will have already competed over a full jumping course, and possibly (depending on the class) a flat portion. The judge will then have the top riders come back in for a more challenging test. They perform this in order, so that the "winning" rider goes last. Usually (maybe always) the judge just tells the riders what they want done while they are in the ring: their coach cannot help them decipher the judge's orders, nor come up with a plan. This makes it a good test of how flexible and accommodating the rider can be on their own.
Hopefully the weather continues to warm, and we stop getting these brutal lows at night!
Karen
Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
RIP STORM
It is with overwhelming sadness that I would like to pass on the news that Stephanie lost her boy Storm to colic on Saturday. (for those of you who don't know Storm/Stephanie, they boarded with us until she left for school in the fall). They had far too short a time together and I mourn not only the loss of this very lovely and charismatic equine, but I also mourn the loss of all the tomorrows they should of had. He was quite a character, with his goofy jumping style when the jumps were small.
Karen & Rob
Karen & Rob
This week in lessons
This week in lessons is Equitation week! This means a course similar to last week's Handy Hunter course, only this week you will be asked to take more challenging and bold approaches. We will also work on sitting trot, and cantering from a sitting trot, as well as positional fixes and fine tuning. Be prepared to work! For some of you, this will involve no stirrup work too...
Equitation classes are judged on the rider. These still means you need to find a good distance to each jump, and do the correct leads and striding, but it means a horse that is less talented can still be competitive, while a rider that is typically a passenger on their packer horse will struggle. The horse does still need to be obedient though, as the horse's obedience is a reflection of the skill of the rider.
A typical equitation course is set up to allow a rider to be bold. The entrance is often the rider coming in at sitting trot, picking up a good canter, and then heading directly to the first fence. Diagonal lines and tricky distances give the rider the option to leave strides out, and to carry a forward, but not rushed, pace. The rider should look for places they can do inside turns, or more direct lines, while still looking composed and "huntery". Position is important, but being effective is more important than "sitting pretty". A rider that LOOKS like they are confident will impress the judge and score higher than one that looks uncertain, or too much like a passenger on their horse.
A key element of looking confident is looking up and where you are going, and always focusing on what is next. Another is to have a good and effective contact with your horse, and a hand that does not interfere anymore than needed. The judge wants to see a rider that only does as much as needed, and otherwise remains effectively quiet. They don't want to see a rider who is quiet to the point of being ineffective though, so a tap with a stick, or a cluck, is much better than letting the horse poke around, as would be a strong half halt be better than let a horse get progressively quicker.
As always, it will be fun!
Karen
Equitation classes are judged on the rider. These still means you need to find a good distance to each jump, and do the correct leads and striding, but it means a horse that is less talented can still be competitive, while a rider that is typically a passenger on their packer horse will struggle. The horse does still need to be obedient though, as the horse's obedience is a reflection of the skill of the rider.
A typical equitation course is set up to allow a rider to be bold. The entrance is often the rider coming in at sitting trot, picking up a good canter, and then heading directly to the first fence. Diagonal lines and tricky distances give the rider the option to leave strides out, and to carry a forward, but not rushed, pace. The rider should look for places they can do inside turns, or more direct lines, while still looking composed and "huntery". Position is important, but being effective is more important than "sitting pretty". A rider that LOOKS like they are confident will impress the judge and score higher than one that looks uncertain, or too much like a passenger on their horse.
A key element of looking confident is looking up and where you are going, and always focusing on what is next. Another is to have a good and effective contact with your horse, and a hand that does not interfere anymore than needed. The judge wants to see a rider that only does as much as needed, and otherwise remains effectively quiet. They don't want to see a rider who is quiet to the point of being ineffective though, so a tap with a stick, or a cluck, is much better than letting the horse poke around, as would be a strong half halt be better than let a horse get progressively quicker.
As always, it will be fun!
Karen
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Waving the white flag...and this week in lessons
This last week of cold has finally beat me. And let's add snow and wind chill! Yay! At least it seems the worst is past us, and it should be nice by the end of the week...unless the weather prognosticators are just teasing us...in which case you can find me back in bed.
Assuming it is decent enough for people to show up to lessons this week, we will be doing more along the lines of last week, but moving from a standard hunter course to a handy hunter type, with some simple inside turns and bending lines.
Karen
Assuming it is decent enough for people to show up to lessons this week, we will be doing more along the lines of last week, but moving from a standard hunter course to a handy hunter type, with some simple inside turns and bending lines.
Karen
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Making mistakes
I am in the process of reading Chris Hadfield's book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth". The book started out with a disjointed feeling, but it is starting to come together, and is full of his experiences, and then the life lessons to be taken from them. One of the chapters discusses how Astronauts tend to be high achievers used to success, but that part of the routine of being in the Space program, is that everything you do, in particular mistakes, is analysed to death. So to cope with their "failures" being highlighted and discussed to death, they have to change their mindset to thinking of them not as mistakes, but rather as teaching/learning moments.
I think this is important for riders too. How often do riders just want to pretend that chip never happened, or rush to get the horse cantering again when it breaks? By trying to ignore or cover up the "mistake", you don't give your brain a chance to think about what went wrong, then analyse WHY it went wrong, and finally come up with the fix so it doesn't happen again. And so we end up making the same "embarrassing" mistake over and over again.
We don't want to make the mistake bigger than it was though, by giving it too much importance, and we definitely don't want to dwell on it, but by giving it appropriate consideration, and coming up with an alternative approach to solve the issue, it will increase a rider's ability to self correct, and will result in increased confidence. Think about it...if you consider mistakes to be learning moments, then your ride will only be full of good things and moments where you get your monies worth in lessons!
Here is an example: a horse is cantering, but keeps breaking to a trot at the out gate. One solution would be to just chase the horse forward at the out gate, but this is a "covering up" solution. A learning moment would mean trying to analyse why the horse keeps breaking to the trot at this point. Is the horse distracted by activity in the barn? Is the rider? Is the horse loosing its balance and falling in/out at that point so it is trotting to rebalance? Is the horse acting gate sour? By figuring out why the failure is happening, a more productive solution can be found; more active inside aids to keep the horse's focus; rider looking into turn to keep their own focus; increased rebalancing aids heading into corner, and supporting aids through the corner; using a crop to get the horse past the out gate, but then working on why the horse is sour.
By looking at the problem and solution in depth, the rider can then take that solution, and use it in different locations and situations, and can then come up with their own list of fixes and thereby become a better rider!
So next time you do a crotch jarring chip, don't get embarrassed, be proud that you set yourself up for a learning moment! (and if you are in the lesson with someone who does the crotch jarring chip, try to steal their learning moment so you can avoid the same fate!)
Karen
I think this is important for riders too. How often do riders just want to pretend that chip never happened, or rush to get the horse cantering again when it breaks? By trying to ignore or cover up the "mistake", you don't give your brain a chance to think about what went wrong, then analyse WHY it went wrong, and finally come up with the fix so it doesn't happen again. And so we end up making the same "embarrassing" mistake over and over again.
We don't want to make the mistake bigger than it was though, by giving it too much importance, and we definitely don't want to dwell on it, but by giving it appropriate consideration, and coming up with an alternative approach to solve the issue, it will increase a rider's ability to self correct, and will result in increased confidence. Think about it...if you consider mistakes to be learning moments, then your ride will only be full of good things and moments where you get your monies worth in lessons!
Here is an example: a horse is cantering, but keeps breaking to a trot at the out gate. One solution would be to just chase the horse forward at the out gate, but this is a "covering up" solution. A learning moment would mean trying to analyse why the horse keeps breaking to the trot at this point. Is the horse distracted by activity in the barn? Is the rider? Is the horse loosing its balance and falling in/out at that point so it is trotting to rebalance? Is the horse acting gate sour? By figuring out why the failure is happening, a more productive solution can be found; more active inside aids to keep the horse's focus; rider looking into turn to keep their own focus; increased rebalancing aids heading into corner, and supporting aids through the corner; using a crop to get the horse past the out gate, but then working on why the horse is sour.
By looking at the problem and solution in depth, the rider can then take that solution, and use it in different locations and situations, and can then come up with their own list of fixes and thereby become a better rider!
So next time you do a crotch jarring chip, don't get embarrassed, be proud that you set yourself up for a learning moment! (and if you are in the lesson with someone who does the crotch jarring chip, try to steal their learning moment so you can avoid the same fate!)
Karen
Monday, February 3, 2014
This week in lessons
It looks like we are in for a bout of chilly weather: if you aren't planning to make your lesson, I understand, but please let me know, preferably by text, but alternatively by email or regular old phone call!
For flat work, I will try to keep it simple so that the horses don't get overly worked up. For dressage lessons we will work on some walk-trot transitions in shoulder fore, to get the idea of holding the horse bent around the inside leg and reaching up with their inside hind during the transitions. We may also ride through some CADORA tests.
For jumping, I plan to make you think: we are going to be working on courses and a bit on strategy when it comes to riding that course. For this I will draw out some courses on paper, and you will need to interpret the course and plan the best pattern. We will do this at trot over poles first, so you can try to take what you thought would work for turns and approaches, and see if it worked in actuality, before trying it over fences. This will mean some inside turn options, some complicated diagonal lines, and who knows what else.
Karen
For flat work, I will try to keep it simple so that the horses don't get overly worked up. For dressage lessons we will work on some walk-trot transitions in shoulder fore, to get the idea of holding the horse bent around the inside leg and reaching up with their inside hind during the transitions. We may also ride through some CADORA tests.
For jumping, I plan to make you think: we are going to be working on courses and a bit on strategy when it comes to riding that course. For this I will draw out some courses on paper, and you will need to interpret the course and plan the best pattern. We will do this at trot over poles first, so you can try to take what you thought would work for turns and approaches, and see if it worked in actuality, before trying it over fences. This will mean some inside turn options, some complicated diagonal lines, and who knows what else.
Karen
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