Forever & Ever: Jump lesson recap!

So, due to the success of last week with my ‘motivator’ spurs I decided to try that one again- conditions were ripe for a very non responsive zombie pony. Hot, draggy, lazy and full sun (even in the evening, when our lesson is).

Oats’ mood yesterday: No.

Oats’ head was literally dragging on the ground. He was NOT having it yesterday.

I had my big spurs on and boy, he did not want to respond to them. He remembered from last week I suppose and was distinctly crankier and surlier about them. He responded well for the first few jumps and then a big F-U! Cranky, bucking, fussing and sucking back. Ahh…shit.

Well, the key to that is to get over with it! Sorry Oats, you are just going to have to deal.

He was very much cranky when I started using a crop for motivation as well, so this newest ‘tool’ is also eliciting a very ‘NO!’ response from him. Ah well, riding is always simple and never easy, eh?

We worked over the course and he was…not great but not horrible. It took a few jumps (like, 4) from the beginning of the course for him to let his drama-llama tendencies go and just get with the program. Of course with his drama-rama on the loose, my fear tendencies also tend to rear their ugly heads when he gets silly like this too…So it turned into a bit of me not wanting to let him have his head, him getting cranky and silly, and blahhhh…

But, progress is progress and I know this is something we can work together on.

It just feel so ugly right now! Gah!

 

Be the one you love: A good lesson update

Last jumping lesson, I was kind of bemoaning the fact that Oats just didn’t have any ‘oomph’ and consequently was grinding slowly to a halt at some pretty easy fences. I just didn’t have it in me to make a change in those last few strides, even though I knew I had to. So how do I manage this? What can I do to help?

Nancy took this photo of Oats sharing a moment with her daughter’s pony and Oats’ twin. So cute! 

A few things actually- I had an equine counseling session to determine why my anxiety was stopping me from being more proactive on Monday.

And in my riding lesson last night, I came armed with something a little more – a pair of my ‘motivator’ spurs (they are pretty long). Now a note about Oats and spurs: I could NOT use them on him for years. He would basically send me to the freaking moon. He had a very hard buck and was not afraid to use it! So, I couldn’t use my ‘motivators’ on him, heck I couldn’t even use my regular small spurs on him.

But now, he is at the ripe old age of 17 and more mature. It was time.

So I came into the ride with some backup to my leg – the long spurs. We warmed up in the arena, and I kind of wanted to have a freakout when he got silly about going through the gate to the outdoor field (where we spent time on Wednesday setting up x-c style jumps…so fun!!) but Oats gets weird about the gate, so he was rearing/hopping up, etc.

With that, I wanted to spiral. Shit!!

But Nicole talked me through it, haha and soon we were happily walking and trotting in and out of the arena to the field with no drama. Phew!! Now on to jumping. We warmed up in canter over a small x-rail to a 6-or 7- stride line. The normal Oats would get 7…and that would be a stretch. The new and improved motivated Oats? 6 bang on. Wow!!

Our ‘x-c’ jumps in the field.

I didn’t realize how much of an impact the spurs would have on our ‘forward to the jump’ at all. It was crazy- my legs got tired because instead of squeezing or kicking, I was having to steer with them, and hold them still! They were burning? Oats also had a few ‘squeal!!’ moments when he realized I was using my spurs to get some forward- a few sassy kick outs but nothing bad.

This one looked weird but rode fine!

And I realized that I was definitely going to have to get used to this ‘new Oats’…He was very forward, but when I was not careful and kicked or squeezed with my spurs too much, he ‘spurted’ forward and would get flat over the fence= rails down. I had to be more careful about maintaining the pace, rather than trying to get ‘more’ pace as I am used to.

We jumped the other hay bales, not these ones.

All in all, it felt crazy, exciting and kind of thrilling. Who is this new thoroughbred I am riding? It’s Oats! We also went into the field and schooled some of the small x-c jumps and he was awesome, but we also faced the forward =/ flat jump issue and he hardcore ignored some half halts and just slammed a rail. SIGH! Oh well. He was very responsive and I was very impressed. Wow.

As with any new power, comes responsibility. I will only use these for jump lessons under supervision.

Such great heights

Jump lesson success! You know how I was moaning about how boring I was finding flatwork yesterday? Well, I can tell you what the solution is: A good, solid jump lesson. It was not perfect- trust me my rides pretty much never are- but it felt so GOOD.

We first worked on a funny exercise, and I was kind of surprised at how hard I found it. My trainer had me knot the reins and lay them on Oats’ neck, and then, without using my reins or anything, I had to put my arms out to the side and work on folding and releasing- as if I was going over a jump. We trotted large around the arena on the track with no reins while I was working on this exercise.

It was tough! I felt like when I was releasing, I was going to eat mane. Land face-first on Oats’ neck haha. We then switched it to slightly easier- still no reins, but hands forward instead of to the side, as if I was giving an automatic release. And then finally the easiest–with reins, hands supported slightly on neck, giving an automatic release.

Oats was as good as gold! He was very content to just keep tooling around, happy as a clam.

Nicole said it was like Oats was one of those automatic ponies you put a quarter in. They keep going until the quarter runs out! hahaha. I said it was true–and the fact that Oats is so calm, steady and easy-going makes me very complacent… (this is not a good thing).

We then moved on to jumping, the small gymnastic exercise of last week: cross-rail to an oxer, and then on to a small course. With a twist- height instead of low-wide oxers!? We finished the gymnastic with the oxer at 2’6”- probably the highest oxer I have done for a little while, and a big X-rail, and the hay bales jump got to about 2’5” I think? And then the other jump was around 2’3” wtih a stretched- out groundrail to encourage Oats to take off a bit further–mimic the feeling of an oxer, without the angst of oxers, haha.

Some of it wasn’t pretty- a wicked right drift caught us out pretty much EVERY time on the haybales? I couldn’t figure out why we never got that one right on the first try. It was very subtle and kept catching me by surprise…But, when we looped back to it after the smaller 2’3” jump, Oats jumped it perfectly. So, there’s that.

But, overall I was very pleased with his jumping efforts, even though I accidentally spurred him pretty hard when we were getting started and boy, he wasn’t pleased with me, haha. Whoops, sorry OAty! He got his favourite treats – herbits- and they make his breath smell soooo good, like spearmint afterwards. A cutie!