Started with warming up making sure he was really listening to me, lots of trot-halt-trot, keeping him soft. Then into canter, getting him moving on, coming back but keeping the hindleg quick - when he collects he wants to just slow down so really important to keep the hindleg moving and active so he has power out of the collection. Razzed up the canter so he was thinking nicely forward. We warmed up over a vertical then an oxer which we met nicely every time. Moved onto some more verticals, planks, bigger oxer with a gate underneath and a double. He jumped all of these really nicely. Was really chuffed with myself for riding a good corner to a related 3 strides and rather than holding, I put my leg on round the corner, brought the shoulders round and got a lovely shot.
Then I think he went to sleep a bit as we came to do a vertical then curve round to a double and I clearly didn't have the right canter round the corner as no distance appeared, I flapped and pushed for a long one and he chipped in. Corinne said they will do that every time - if you lose the canter and let it get long they will chip in as they haven't got the power to go on the long one. You can only go on the long one if you have a good quality canter - if you find yourself not seeing a stride, flapping and pushing is the worst, think control the canter - supporting legs and lift the hands rather than pulling back and then it shouldn't matter if they get in a bit deep. Flapping will lead to chipping in or flailing over a fence which could even bring them down, so concentrate on the rhythm, keep the quality of the canter round the corner, outside aids to bring the shoulder round and sit and wait. Quality of canter as ever is key. She also said don't kick on the last stride as it just distracts the horse from the jump and causes them to have it down. Supporting legs but no kicking. Also when they get disunited again just keep them balanced and once round the corner they will change back in front and sort themselves out. She also said to think about turning my toes out during the jump which helps to relax the knee.
We then jumped it all as a course and I managed to get in deep to too many of the verticals - was pleased with the related distance, the double, and the oxers but I lost the canter round the corners to the verticals and he was charging at the fences rather than sitting back and waiting. She said it's important with a horse like him who tends to speed up during his round and the canter loses its quality that when I walk the course I must think about adding in regrouping points. Think 2 or 3 fences then find a regroup point, sit him back on his hocks and start again. Definitely something I will try and do as it seems whenever I jump 2-3 fences as part of a lesson I'm fine but when I string together a whole course I'm messing it up by halfway round so need to split it up into bits, get his attention back, get his hocks underneath him and then tackle the next section. Sounds easy - bet it won't be in practice!
Goring BE100 Regionals tomorrow - hopefully Chris Burton is going to have time in between his horses to come and help us warm up which should be a big help as he knows my numpty tendencies well enough by now and he can really help me get the right canter which is so key. Also I remember doing some lateral work in canter during my lessons with Carl over the winter really helped the quality of his canter so I might just try and do a little bit of that in the warmup, try and get that bum underneath him and working hard!
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