SJL lesson Parwood 11-11-15

Need to sit on my arse!  He has this ability to pull me out of the saddle without me really noticing - must remember this, sit up and ride him up in front of me.

Generally still need to keep him softer and rounder.

In the changes need him to be soft to the new lead before asking for the change.

In the canter half pass if think am struggling to get enough sideways then collect.  Use weight in direction of travel.  Use inside leg for more jump.

Trot was good - more uphill and more cadence.  In the shoulder-in, make sure not to have too much inside bend on the left rein and enough on the right rein.

Planned the floorplan for my Advanced Medium Freestyle next weekend.  Fingers crossed it comes off!

Priory BD. 08-11-15

Under the floodlights tonight - fortunately Monts is used to that so managed to behave himself.  I was really pleased with how he went.  His trot work felt much more secure and we even had some moments of feeling that he was really uphill and through and easy to sit to!  This is definitely progress. We do need to do some more homework on the counter canter though as he managed to throw in another unrequired flying change just before the simple change so no chance of doing the simple change which meant 4's for two movements.  Both flying changes came off well though and generally it just felt much more established than our last attempt and still only our third try at this one.  Chuffed to score 64.852%.  Without the two 4's (assuming same marks as on the other rein) we'd have finished on 66.4%!!

We scored 7's for the entry, both 10m circles in trot, the extended walk, the first simple change, right canter half-pass and both flying changes plus 7.5 for first bit of medium walk.  Collectives - 7, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5,  Despite the 4's we still improved 3.5marks on last time we did this test under the same judge 2 months ago and without the 4's would have been 9marks!  Huge improvement and so excited as still so much more we can improve on!  Especially pleased to get a clean right to left change worthy of a 7!

Didn't have long before going back in for AM92.  Lost him a bit in the canter work and fluffed the 2nd change totally so had to walk.  Pleased with left trot SI again - they both really flowed tonight - right not so good today.  Canter half passes could be better too - he was a bit resistant.  I felt he really went for the extended trot for once - it was fab for him!  Needs refining but at least he was giving it a go!  It got a 6 which I'm happy with at this level.  His first medium trot got a 6.5 which is fab!  Rare we get anything more than a 6.  Consistent 6.5's with a 7 for the extended walk and 7.5 for medium walk on the first page of marks - big improvement from last time (3.5 more marks just on the first page).  Next set of marks - got a 3 for our change that didn't happen (it didn't happen last time we did this test either but judge didn't notice that time and gave it a 6!)  Got a 7 for walk to canter, otherwise mix of 6's and 6.5's.  The changes got 6.5, 3.0, 6.5, 5.5 (last time got 6.0, 6.0, 5.0, 5.0).  Finished on a 7 for the final halt.  Collectives: 7.0, 6.0, 6.5, 6.5.  Finished on 63.918% so half a percent better than out last attempt.  5 more shiny points and finished our Winter Regionals qualification at this level!  Eeeeek!  Regionals at Advanced Medium.  Didn't see that one coming when we did our first Medium one year ago to the day.  He just keeps on surprising me with how much he improves every time I ride him.  What a horse!

Chris Burton SJ clinic. Parwood. 5-11-15

Started with a bit of loosening up on the flat while the previous lesson finished.  He was lovely and soft and he gave me a line of three 4 time followed by three 3 time changes on first ask.  Clever boy!

We moved on to work on the pole exercise with 2 poles and varying the strides between it.  Started with 5 then moved on to 4 which was the only one we struggled with which showed up my weakness of seeing a stride at a faster pace (something to work on!)  We got it up to 8 strides without trouble and I think he could easily have done 9 or even 10.  Had to work on keeping the connection and not letting him stick his head up in the air and run which is what happened when I aimed for less strides. (More homework)

We then moved on to our favourite x pole to oxer exercise.  Ended up with a decent sized oxer which he was pinging no probs.

We then moved on to jump a course.  He was super keen and we got all the stridings fine, just fluffed up the turn to the big purple oxer as was over-thinking the tight left turn afterwards and didn't keep the power up through the turn.  Even managed to mostly land on the correct leads and the one time we didn't we got a change sorted fairly quickly.  Chris said it was super and we were the only ones not to have to repeat any of the course :)  Love him when he's really taking me forwards and just makes it all feel so easy!

Chris is off back to Australia now until the New Year but he said next year we will try and work on keeping him that little bit more connected so he's not running around with his head stuck up in the air quite so much.  I think I'll need to watch how he manages that one with Monts as at 16 he is rather stuck in his ways.  His canter and general softness has improved heaps though so will certainly give it a go as will allow me to adjust him round a course a bit more rather than him just running on his forehand more and more.  He said it would also help us XC.  Tentatively planning entering a Newcomers off the back of this lesson - just have to hope we don't go clear in the first phase and need to do the jump off!

Bill Levett Step up to Novice BE course Tweseldown 3-11-15

We started with SJ in the morning. A group session with 5 of us.  Started with a x-pole then an oxer.  Had to try and aim for the deeper spot.  He didn't want us to be pushing them for a longer one but holding them with power for a deeper take-off point.  Said this is important as the fence height goes up as you don't want to be diving at fences and they will be more likely to chip in as fence gets bigger.  We jumped a course a couple of times, but it was only at BE100 height with no combinations which was a little disappointing as the course was billed as working on the skills to be able to go Novice and I didn't really feel we did enough on this.  It was good practice to jump on grass though as the undulatons definitely make a course more challenging.  Was told to try and keep the canter more forwards through the turns then just sit down and wait for the fence.  Video below - course wasn't really big enough to get me riding him as forwards as he needs to be to go well.  I tend to resort to my old backwards riding when they don't give me the fear factor!

XC in the afternoon which was fab.  Key point was to only go as fast as you can slow down to tackle the fence safely. Speed comes later.  Monty was thinking otherwise.  There were 3 of us and he thought this was rather like team chasing and got rather excited!  I quite like him like that though :)  Tweseldown have built several new coffin complexes which was awesome for the ditchy orange one.  First one with hanging log either side I rode quite strongly but will never trust him at this kind of fence and wanted to reinforce that his only option is to go!  He made that easily so turned round and came back through with a log to ditch to triple brush 4 strides later - aced this one too.  Clever boy!  Then we did a step down to a meaty right corner on a left hand curve.  He jumped this brilliantly.  A real test would be to do it the opposite way though - right curve to left corner could prove more tricky - sadly wasn't set up to try this.  We flew the big fence with the roof on it then a little arrowhead off a tight left hand bend no probs.  This was all in the schooling area.

We then set off round the course which was flagged from the hunter trials still.  Just doing the 100 fences as no Novice ones but working on solid foundations so if the fences got bigger the basics were there.  The theme was still not to be pushing for any long strides. We had to slow down enough that we could get a nice, powerful jump not a long, flat one as if they try and chip in from that kind of canter it could end in trouble.  We even did a trial start from the start box and true to form Monts bounced around like tigger as one of his friends had already gone first - daft pony!  Lots of fun though.  Managed the duck out of the water no probs this time (his eyes were out on stalks last time) and we also did the log drop into water, curving line out to the duck which was more of a Novice question.  Got told to ride more forwards to the drop as would result in a more comfy jump into the water.  I tend to back off at the last minute with drops but can ride them more boldly, especially when followed by another fence.  We then had to gallop down the racecourse to a log pile with an upright front going as fast as we wanted but making sure we steadied up in time to make sure we were going a safe speed for the log pile and didn't tackle it on a long one.  Finally moved on to a table followed by a 90degree left turn to a hanging log under trees to a ditch round a right hand bend through trees to a left hand corner.  Got a little close to the left corner but really pleased with how he tackled the hanging log to ditch.  Kept my shoulders back and rode positively forwards all the time.  He feels super confident at the moment.  Long may it last!

A week of dressage lessons

On Wednesday we went for our first lesson with Eileen o'Connor.  Aim of the game being to work on me and really sort out my position which I feel is letting us down at the moment.  Thankfully she very kindly said it is nowhere near as bad as I think it is and should definitely be able to improve it.  She also complemented me on my feel - not the first person to say such a thing which is positive. Main things I had to think about were bringing my bum underneath me more, shoulders back and down and hands up.  She had me hold my reins a different way with them running through my hands from top to bottom instead of bottom to top as said it was much harder to fix them that way.  She put my stirrups up a hole as said that would help stabilise my lower leg instead of me reaching for the stirrups.  We did lots of trot-canter-trot transitions on a circle - need to move my legs around less to give the aids for the transitions.  They are already in a good position, don't move them around.

Then took my stirrups away - don't think I've ever taken them away on Monts before!  I had to maintain the same leg position as with stirrups but without gripping up with the knee - that used a lot of leg power!  We did lots of turns on the forehand, walk and trot on a circle getting him to cross his inside leg over as then he's softer and easier to sit to.  Then we did trot SI on the 3/4 line, making transitions to and from walk, all in SI - pretty hard without the wall to lean on.  Always thinking about shoulders back and down.  Mustn't let him bear down on my hands in the transitions - short, sharp aid to say no he must carry himself.  Homework to reach behind my shoulders with my hands, use a teatowel if needed initially and open my shoulders to stretch the muscles that have become tight.

Then yesterday I had my second lesson with Damian Hallam at Parwood.  In the warmup he said he could already see we'd been working on getting the trot more powerful, needed to remember to keep shoulders back and swing hips forwards but much better.  Quick look at the walk piris - he's still not taking me forwards through them - need the walk to be really going somewhere so I can concentrate on just bringing the shoulders round, not energising the walk in the actual piri.  Really had to sharpen him up to get this.  Also worked on when we pick up from the free walk not to have 2 circles worth of conversation about straightness and outline in the walk - must pick up and be sharp with him if needed as need to be ready to go into trot/canter as soon as I want to.

Then we focused on the canter having done a lot of trot work last time.  We really worked on the gears in the canter and making sure he kept the same outline and didn't bear down in front and tip onto his forehand when we changed gear.  Generally it was ok when we went downwards but when we went up a gear his instinct was to run onto his forehand so really had to think about lifting the front end in the transition.  We then moved that on to a proper medium canter really thinking about carrying the front end up throughout the medium canter and he did some brilliant ones.  Damian said after the medium canter he always does a 10m circle with his in training so they are always thinking about the fact they will need to do a 10m circle after each medium and start to bring themselves back at the end of the long side.  We did a couple of changes - first one left to right caught him by surprise and was early in front but 2nd one was good and even the right to left was clean, if not quite as through as it could be with the new inside hind.  Damian said no need to keep working on them, they were just fine!

Finished with a bit of trot work.  On a similar theme to Wednesday we worked on SI on a circle to mobilise the inside hind and keep his back soft.  Leg yield across whole diagonal to also soften the back and it all became a bit easier to sit to.

Generally very pleased with him.  He is a little superstar and gets better with every session!  So much for me to think about though.  My poor brain!

Onwards to jumping this week - will pick up the dressage again the following week in time for our Advanced Medium freestyle debut the following week.