Over the weekend it was a mild 12 degrees in the day and with a busy Saturday of mucking out, riding early so I could be back to mine to gather up and clean all my equipment ready for hosting RoR lessons at Palace House in Newmarket with the wonder Delphine Tay before I went off to the Retraining of Racehorses End of Season Party all the way up in Doncaster! It was some drive and Chantal and I didn't get home til 2.30am so when I got a phone call from one of the clients booked in for the lessons telling me she had to cancel last minute and had a slot booked for later on that day I had to rush to get my riding kit ready, hitch up the trailer and get Erik in from the field and clean ready to fill the slot!
After only 5 hours of sleep I was finding my nerves giving me jelly legs and the tiredness only exasperating that when I was on and warming up but once I started my less and I had done some trotting poles but nerves gave way and I was able to be more focused at the task in hand!
For those of you who don't know this jumping lesson was our very first one and only our 4th time jumping over fences. In the summer I had asked Georgie if she'd give me some pointers on Erik and I's first time popping over a fence. He was of course very good and didn't mind popping over a small cross pole, then made in to an upright and then very boldly over an upright with a barrel underneath it. I personally wasn't a fan of the barrel and when Erik jumped it so big I lost a stirrup it definitely knocked my confidence a bit and I began to 'psych myself out' as they say and get worried after previous accidents. It seems these accidents can affect you mentally more than you think!
Since then I had popped a couple of small other jumps at home when playing around in the school but not actually had anyone give me official guidance.
Delphine was of course great and noticed right away I was still a little nervous, as when I came to my fences I seemed to hold my breath. I must have been subconsciously trying to focus so much that I felt breathing came second to jumping, and I was looking down in to the bottom of the fence! A big no no, but when you're as rusty as I am and on a horse you hadn't really jumped yet the urge to look down to make sure you're going to get the right stride is hard to ignore!
I soon started putting in to action the helpful comments and improvement suggestions and we were popping fences easy peasy and I was remembering to breath, ride more forward and the strides were easier to see and feel. It seems Erik, being a big horse, much prefers to stand off a fence than to get close to it and for me that suits!
By the end of the lesson we were both quite tired but apparently from the look on both of our faces it was clearly we both absolutely loved it! Seeing Erik to happy and excited to be somewhere and doing something different was lovely. He's such a smart horse so a stimulated brain is a happy brain!
I am looking forward to our next lesson and doing even more. It isn't about the height of the fence but about the technique of jumping the fence.
He's such a cutie right! So proud of him and of myself too, I got some real courage and didn't feel frightened at all. In fact we drove home afterwards with me grinning like a Cheshire cat!
Love this big horse!
Sophie x
No comments:
Post a Comment