Challenge schooling with Mia Palles-Clark

What a lovely sunny weekend, it really is starting to feel like summer. Yesterday we had an impromptu lesson over in Chippenham at Oaklands with instructor Mia Palles-Clark and it turned out great.

For a couple of weeks now Georgie and I have been discussing this years show season and with B doing so well at his jumping we decided that a good thing to do more of this season is the ROR Challenge classes, as well as continuing to do some ridden showing classes, just not as many perhaps.

We got to Oaklands and got B ready and had a quick cup of tea before the lesson. Frankie came along with us and had a lovely time watching, patting dogs and eating cake Grandma made that morning. 

Frankie had a bit of a soft spot for Mia's dog Milo. They had plenty of cuddles while watching her Mum.

The lesson was to take place in an outdoor paddock school rather than a surface school, over a variety of rustic working hunter type fences which were a nice full up 90cm.

After a little warming up, schooling started testing the horses jumping over a smaller box roll top which B flew over giving an extra 2 foot or so of air. He was very pleased to be working, even after a long ride out Friday down the Roman road. He's so fit at the moment and is thriving on work.

Once all the horses and riders abilities had been viewed by Mia over the warm up fence, she then asked everyone to take it in turns to come over the back of the paddock to jump a set of upright fenced made into a double. 

Annoyingly, B's enthusiasm to jump everything like a professional show jumper meant he rushed into the double, flew the first part, but by jumping it so big meant he landed in the middle of a stride and he got a bit too deep into the second part and knocked down the top pole. 

But that meant Mia could now start giving Georgie things to work on to stop him rushing. E.g. Looking for the fence earlier, this allowing B to focus further away on what jump he's being asked to do, which in turn meant he could lock on and focus earlier without rushing. 

G came round a second time and with more focus and control he cleared both parts perfectly.

Above Mia gives Georgie advise on using her hands to bring B's head up and stop him pulling so he can see the fence earlier out.

Once everyone had jumped the double and given advise, it was time to focus on learning and linking combinations.

First over a smaller upright, round a slightly right corner to a skinny rustic upright.

B flew these beautifully and with Mia's advise about looking to the fence earlier on and using her hands to get B's head up he saw the fence earlier and popped over it no problem.

All was going well, so round the red upright, over the skinny again and onward to this wide oxer.

One thing Beanie is definitely not lacking in is scope and be flew over this no problem.

Now, saying that, B was evidentially having a lot of fun and with the standing waiting for other horses he just started to loose focus and when presented with this  big spread oxer, he rushed again and knocked the front part with his front legs.

Frustratingly G was about to come round the represent B at it hoping to clear it, only for another member of the group falling off into the fence, when their horse refused and demolished it. Subsequently it was not put back up to how it was (photo below) so we didn't get to cross the t and dot the i on this fence which Georgie would have liked to. We all know it's best to finish a fence you've knocked down previously, clear so as to set it in the horses head that was what you wanted them to do, but with group lessons you have to go with the flow.

After another wait while a fence was rebuilt after being completely knocked down plants and all, by a second fall from aforementioned rider in the group, G set up to see how B would go and hope he hadn't switched off. 

First jumping the upright, to the skinny with plants above, over the oxer, then came round to the middle section of the original filled oxer on it's own - 

Fine so far.. round along the long side over two large uprights with a white pole over hedges and flew them.

Then steady up round the corner to get straight at the upright skinny arrowhead and round to the oxer. Fine over these..

Then, dammit...

Annoyingly, we've seen before B struggles with focus in group lessons. He's a bit of a lone wolf when competing as he naps. We've all had it, horses are in the end, pack animals and he was naughty and ran out napping to the horse  directly next to the fence..

After some words of annoyance to B he soon realised he had been a little sod and sorted himself out. Mia advised Georgie on what she needed to do and she represented to the fence.

No horses next to it, no problem! Perfect position, perfect strode.. Spot on.

Finishing off the lesson on a good note.

It's frustrating when little things you think you should have pre-empted happen but that's lessons. Lessons are just that, learning from your mistakes and changing them for the better.

I know Georgie is pleased with how he went overall and will be much more focused on being aware of these things before they happen. No letting him rush at jumps (easier said than done with a horse as strong as B) and no horses next to jumps when jumping!

I have to say, I am really proud of Georgie lately after both her lessons with Russell at Centaur Biomechanics and then yesterday with Mia. She has listened carefully to their advise and her riding has improved dramatically. Her hands and position when schooling are now ten times enter than they were! And B goes better because of it.

And jumping, she listened to what she was told yesterday, took it on board and used it. Yes, she had 2 hiccups with a that run out and a couple of poles down through exuberance. I know for certain Georgie will learn from that.. and the poles. Well, that comes down to Beanies enthusiasm. He has oodles of it and he enjoys himself so much, but Georgie just needs to keep a check on that and not let him run at fences and bring him back onto his hocks and listening to her when being presented with fences. 

It's all about learning and molding your horses into something better with that knowledge you've gained.

I hope you had a lovely weekend with your horses too!

We have a busy long weekend next weekend so until my next post, have a good week!

Sophie x

Centaur Bio-mechanics Lesson

Yesterday we had a lovely sunny morning which was perfect to watch Georgie have a lesson with Russell Guire from Centaur Biomechanics over at Fenning Farm in Ely

We couldn't have asked for better weather! Gorgeous blue skies, nice cooling breeze, and not too hot! Since Sunday we've been leaving B out in the field at night and it seems to be working. He was very chilled... See?

The clinic was very kindly organised by our Retraining of Racehorses Eastern Region representative Colleen Salmon with some subsidy from ROR which was very kind of them! 

The aim of the lesson was to watch the rider ride naturally and watch for any quirks, problems or mistakes that they make and then analyse them. The rider is required to wear a black jacket, which has green lines down the spine, shoulder blades, the length of the arms, across the collar bones and down the sternum. The use of these lines is to look if any part of the torso is wonky, off balance, weaker etc and watch it back through footage taken on a slow motion camera.

Some white motion capture dots were placed on the back of the saddle and at the very top of the horses tail to capture the straightness of the riders position.

By the rider having the ability to watch themselves back, up close and in slow motion it makes it really easy to see the problem(s) that they have and then spend the latter half of the lesson working on correcting it.

As mentioned in my blog post from Sunday, Georgie has a problem with her right shoulder. It is wonky and means she does not sit straight in her position. Her strong shoulder is pushed forward from muscle memory and 'leads' over the weaker left shoulder. Due to this Georgie also has been found to sit much more right on Beanie, rather than central.

A side effect of this stronger right shoulder problem is that is causes Georgie to look into her inside when riding, instead of looking straight and in the direction she is going. This is a lot more prominent when schooling in circles as you'll see from the videos.
It's not a huge problem, it does not drastically affect Beanie's going and performance, but for a small problem it does cause some little knock on effects that Russell pointed out to us. 

Once this shoulder issue is sorted and Georgie stops her right shoulder muscles from being stronger than the other, all the little things will fix themselves.

Once the analytics part of the lesson was completed it came to Russell giving Georgie a lesson and helping her work on different aspects of her riding. 
Beanie is quite behind the leg when it comes to schooling. Georgie will agree that Beanie is a bit of a lazy horse somewhat and will be a bit dead to the leg at times. Russell picked up on this and helped Georgie work on getting him moving forward and without having to continually be kicking him on. As you can see B is a little naughty, even if you tap him ever so slightly with the whip to remind him, he bucks. Not big, but he protests to actually have to work harder! He was however very impressed with Beanie's self carriage while schooling. Since we've had Beanie G has worked really hard to get him off the forehand and leaning on her all the time. I think that will have come from building up Beanie's back and neck muscles over time with lot's of schooling and lunging, thus allowing him to carry himself.

B has also really gained strength all over and with this it allows him to really use his hocks and have a nice powerful gaits which today really showed through and was impressive to look at. I know I am bias but it was commented on quite a lot and I think Georgie should be really proud of that!

As well as working on Beanie, Russell helped Georgie work on correcting her position while schooling and therefore creating a much more balanced picture overall. As you can hear from the video Russell states to Georgie about flashlight and chair. He used these example that when Georgie moves, she should invision a flashlight on her tummy and that she should move her whole torso, not just her head to the direction she'd like to go. So with turning she needs to be more fluid in her turns and turn with Beanie, rather than just moving her head. With that it will encourage Beanie to move around Georgie's inside leg and round off. As he says, Beanie needs to be a bit more round in his turns.

We went away from the lesson seriously impressed with both how Beanie and Georgie got on, but also how quickly and how well Russell picked up on Georgie's faults, he has a very keen eye for what is correct in riding. He has a wealth of knowledge which really shows through, no wonder Centaur Biomechanics work with Team GB! We also noticed and appreciated just how much Russell understood retrained racehorses. A lot of instructors either don't expect much from an ex racehorse or simply do not get that they are made, act and work completely differently to a warm blood dressage horse specifically bred for dressage. 
Russell commented on just how much thoroughbreds are a really underrated breed and that they, when retrained properly fit extremely well into their new careers and are extremely versatile.  
Colleen is looking to organise some more of these lessons through her Speech Partnership page so do join the group and mention that you'd like to try a lesson.  

Georgie is now going to put steps into action to adjust her muscle faults. Russell recommended seeing a chiropractor to check there isn't an injury to Georgie's shoulder, and also help with movement and exercises which will lengthen the shortened muscle, allowing it to line up with her left shoulder. 

I must say that I am very proud of Georgie, she does incredibly well with the time and resources available to her. We don't have our own school and have to borrow one, most of G&B's schooling is while out hacking, or lunging in the field. She also does not have regular lessons, in fact I cannot remember the last time she had a proper lesson from someone with a lot more knowledge than our Mum and I. 

I hope this post and the videos helped you and if you have the opportunity to have a lesson with Russell and Centaur Biomechanics, snap it up quick!

Over and Out, Sophie x