Almost every weekend since I started training with my new instructor Amanda Brewer I have tried to take Soap for a Saturday lesson with her. This has meant that I haven’t done as much competing as normal at the start of the season as I have redirected my ‘horsey budget’ towards instruction rather than entries (a new tactic for me) but it is starting to pay off! Amanda is a total stickler for accuracy and intelligent riding, and is really helping me hone my skill to become a more knowledgeable, subtle rider. On the flat Soap is really coming on and we are concentrating on pushing him (and me!) that little bit further out of our comfort zones in order to move our flat-work on, and work through any areas of stiffness. The improvement in all paces but especially the canter is having a fab knock on affect on his jumping and he is enjoying his new found power too. He grunts, squeaks, leaps and squeals in excitement much more now than he ever did before!
To finish all our ‘flat work lessons’ we always jump a few fences, and last Saturday we strung together a little course of 6 jumps. Now that the canter is more uphill and active I have to concentrate on…
- keeping him up to the hand
- in a good rhythm
- re-balancing him whenever he becomes flat or too forward
- maintaining a light almost 2 point seat
It’s amazing how easy it is to ‘see a stride’ when all this falls into place! The course we finished on was the best he has jumped yet, and because I rode properly (doing as I was told!) it went well, and weirdly I felt like I suddenly had loads of time to breath and think, seems I can multitask after all!