The Master Plan…

After our hairy, sweaty winter TREC day, the pony had a busyish week doing fast work in my field.  I’ve found a nice arching line along the entire length which is a lovely gallop, and if you steady up in time, you can turn and come back without breaking canter.  The uncommonly hot weather meant that even though October was looming, the field was still very rideable.  After his TREC lethargy, I was being very clear about my demands, carrying a short whip (not that I needed to use it!) and wearing spurs, but my fears were unfounded – he was as hot off my leg as I could hope.  Even more so after I clipped him the following Saturday!

On the Sunday, he had the rather unusual duty of giving a friend a taste of riding a more dressage schooled animal that she is used to.  Naturally I spent several days prior to this having a panic about how badly he was going to embarass me – unfounded, of course!  I schooled him before clipping the day before and he was divine – some lovely lateral work in canter and really nice trot work (unusual for him!).  For his jockey on Sunday, he offered as much lateral work as she could hope for (and quite a lot of unintended stuff too!), and generally responded to her requests in a thoughtful and dilligent manner (even if not always correctly!).

She also popped him over some fences and to my delight he didn’t go babyish on her and bury her into every fence.  I think he’s finally growing up!  They did have an unintended parting of company though, which is too good not to share!

Moving on…

We’ve had a few cracking jumping sessions in our field lately.  We had one session where I set up a line of 4 one strides at around 80cm (upright) which he popped through quite athletically  (for Fergs!)…

Then the following week, I set up a small bounce, three strides to a spread.  I’m a total wuss with spreads – partly due to Ferg’s vertical leaps and general inability to deal with width when he was younger, and partly due to my old lad’s eccentricity with big square parallels – so I figured it was time I manned up and did some work with them.  He was ace – jumped a reasonably parallel 3ft monstrosity, which I was more than pleased with.

Having a gallop to get him moving – I’ve found that yelling “allez” at him is surprisingly satisfying…  Oddly…

ALLEZ ALLEZ!

From below, you can see he was being pretty tidy in front and quite careful, which is great.  I’m not convinced he has a lot more scope to go much higher or wider, but that’s fine – I don’t have the balls for higher either!  His shape is so much better than how he used to jump.  And accordingly, my position’s getting nicer too – I may be a little ahead of him in places, and my lower leg is still swinging, but it’s definitely moving in the right direction.

Springy?!

Front on views make him look around 12hh!

We then had a lovely fast work session the following week where he was tackling a smaller spread from a forward canter on a long stride, mid fast work lengths of the field.  Now the weather’s turned, though there’s no more jumping (or schooling) in my field, probably till spring.  I plan to hire out my neighbour’s school once a week and have started taking his lordship to my local clear round venue up the road once a week.  This is the master plan.  Weekly single rounds, just big enough to test us (70-80cm) and make me ride properly (and him actually jump, not step!), but not so big as to cause too many issues or dent our confidence (I hope!).

The grand plan is to desensitise him to going out and about and get him moving forward and tackling fences on a forward stride in new places as this has always been our biggest issue.  This should also allow me to get over some of my irrational fears – jumping courses, panicking about heights of small fences when out etc.  I’m also hoping it will allow me to learn how to ride courses properly – not just to steer round flapping and hoping – to ride lines and be a bit more accurate in my strides and approach.

Our first week out was a good start – his first ever clear out, around a 70cm, though ratty in places with some dodgy strides and approaching the skinny in trot.  Most importantly though, he was forward – very forward.

First fence – nice shot!

Moving on before we start – forward enough to get off his back!

Our second effort the following week (this week!) was possibly more interesting – a very simple course, but I felt the jumps were bigger and less within my comfort zone (not that they look it in the photos, taken from a phone video – so terrible quality!).  I rode the first half of the course fine, he was jumping out of his skin over the first two spreads (and tidily over the uprights).  I then royally misrode a turn, cutting across the school in a moment of complacency and realised I was not on any sort of stride into a sizeable spread.  So I dropped him and left him to fix my mess.  He chipped in a stride and took the front bar out (and was honest to jump at all!) and we wobbled across the school totally off line, and with no steering at all on my part.  I grabbed a fist full of rein and shoved him at the little upright that should come next and then had a wobble over strides again – he took a close one but hopped over it.  We got ourselves back together for the last line, took the upright nicely and rode forward and confidently into the last spread and took it nicely.

This is what I want to learn not to do – learn to be a little more careful to avoid these situations and give him a better chance around the course.  So massive learning experience for me, and a big pat for the honest pony!  Let’s hope next week is as interesting…

Fence 2

Fence 4

Final fence 8