Hiya guys sorry it's been a while again,
well I had the most amazing lesson on Gatsby that I have had in a while on Saturday. I'd got the cutest card ever off my boyfriend that morning which just put me in a good mood and I knew I wanted to do some jumping with Gatsby on the Saturday. I told Fiona I was feeling really positive to which she replied where do you want to jump in the school or in the field. We decided to do some jumping in the open field and omg it was amazing! It felt so different but soo good as well. It was something that I had never done before and something that I can't wait to do again. To start with I just had to get used to how much more excitable and powerful Gatsby felt. He used so many different muscles to ones that I've ever used before. We started off walking around the field (which is on a slight hill) and then we moved on to doing some trot work. I had to adjust to keeping him balanced going uphill and down hill because eventually I would be jumping on the hill. We then did some canter work and let me just say that horse is STRONG! It felt amazing but at the same time it also felt really weird as it was something I'd never done before. We kept picking up the wrong lead but soon moved on to doing circles and figure 8 canter work.
We then moved on to doing some jump work, we had two small cross poles that worked out to being on points of the 'figure 8' we were doing. I went over the jumps in trot with no placing pole to get used to him. Then we landed cantered part of the circle of the figure 8 before coming back to trot and linking the second jump in. We would do this three or four times in a row. Then take a break and start again.
We then finally took Gatsby back in to the school and he felt so different, he felt lazy and laid back and I had to pick up a stick/crop for him to get him to listen to me. Doing one jump in the same height as it was in in the field he just trotted over it. He didn't even bother jumping it. So we put it to a straight across, we stayed trotting up to the jump and then cantering away after it. But to get him up and over the jump I had to use a lot more leg and be a lot more forceful with him. Don't get me wrong he was still amazing to ride he was just very different.
Here's some Videos :)
Until Next Time
A Girl With A Dream
How exciting! They are very different riding out in the open than they are in the arena hehe. It looks like you handled him well. I do have a question though... you have some sort of martingale on him right? I've never used one, so I don't know much about them, but aren't they supposed to stop him from flipping his head back like that? Or does it have some other purpose? I would be terrified of getting popped in the face when he does that!! I can't wait to hear about your next lesson. :D
ReplyDeleteI loved it, it was amazing :). He is soo different riding in the field, much more eneergetic and almost playful if that makes sense. Yeah he has a martingale and breastplate on him. I'm not 100% but I am pretty sure they're supposed to stop him flinging his head, he's loads worse without it on though. Was just the flies that were really bothering him that day i think :D I can't wait for my next lesson we seem to be coming on so far
DeleteYep playful makes sense. Chrome is that way when we canter because it's still so new for him. I'm glad he's not normally that bad with the head flinging. I wonder if it needs to be a bit tighter though. It looks like if you had leaned forward for any reason that he could have popped you in the face. I'm probably overly paranoid about that though because when I was a teenager I got hit in the mouth with braces and it cut me. Not pleasant!
DeleteYou haven't posted in a while. Everything okay?
ReplyDeletehiya, yeah it's been a while unfortunately. Just been about all over the place recently and trying to keep busy :) but alls good. i'll be back to posting again now :D
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