This week in lessons...

Sadly, but hopefully not surprisingly, it will likely be too muddy to lesson outside still, so we will remain indoors. It is still April, so keeping with my April theme there will be  a spooky jump or two in the ring so keep preparing horses and riders for dealing with the unexpected jumps!

For flat work, we are going to be doing canter and trot leg yields, but moving away from the rail. At the canter this will resemble a half pass, but with a straight neck. This will require a little more preparation by the rider, as you will need to (for the trot leg yield) get the horse flexed slightly to the outside before asking them to step over. You will also need to fight the magnetic pull of the wall! At the canter, you will not do a counter bend, but rather keep the neck straight, and ask them to move over with each jump between strides.

Being able to leg yield at the canter helps with straightening a horse in a line, or fixing a poor approach.

I think we will also work at jumping a fence at a specific point: picking to jump the center, the left, or the right side. This can be useful in the jumpers when a certain side of the jump offers and advantage for a turn or because of  how it is built.

We will also jump a combination as we haven't done one of those in a while! A combination is a series of 3-4 jumps ridden with usually only 1-3 strides in between. Very common in jumpers, but also sometimes seen in jumpers...MLM had a 3 to a 4 stride combination last year in their hunters.

Karen