2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#38 Another Round of Jumping on Cordell

So I missed the last lesson because I got sick.  This lesson, everyone was there, Vivie, James, and Friend, so that was awesome.  What was also awesome was that we got to ride in the big outdoor arena, since the day was so nice.  Vivie rode Mariah, James Nova, Friend Rugar, and me Cordell.

This past weekend there was a clinic hosted nearby that me, my trainer, Vivie, and Friend had each been able to attend some of.  (I will not be revealing who the clinic was by, as that might lead to the discovery of where I live, but I really liked the clinician and so did my trainer.)  Thus, my trainer wanted us to think of one thing that we'd learned / had stood out to each of us that we could talk about.

I mounted up on Cordell and walked around for a bit, doing some circles and halts, before my trainer told me to pick up a running walk.  She didn't give me anything too specific to do in the running walk, just that we were looking for Cordell to keep a connection with me without lowering his head.  If he lowered his head, I was to give him a little kick onward.

I'm not sure what she meant by connection, but if she meant a steady contact, we did alright with that.  In the beginning I had to push him up into a good running walk and work to keep it, but things got better as we went on.  We went both directions and did circles both directions as well.

After that warm up was complete, my trainer had us come over to the middle.  She told Vivie to pick up a canter and go over some railroad ties for a jump.  She told Vivie that she would have to be careful about how she steered to get on the line to the jump, and that it would actually be better for her to come too far in instead of going too far out.  Because if she went too far out, she might overcorrect, and then she'd have to correct again, and then maybe again...  And who knows, that could lead to falling off, that janky side to side correction on the way to a jump.

Anyhow, Friend and I waited out of the way, and then it was our turn to do some jumping.  It was the same course I'd done before on Cordell.  First you go over the telephone poles heading southwest, then you make a wide sweeping turn to the left to come over the flower box / log standard jumping going northwest, then you go on a little ways before making a right turn to jump the tires.

With the tires, you had to be especially careful that the line they took you on would take you past the flowerbox jump, because if you didn't, you could end up jumping that at a weird angle.  So, you had to choose to either line up to the left or right of it.  That was pretty much the only advice my trainer gave us before she chose me to lead us off.

I'd watched a lot of jumping at the clinic, and so I was like "Yeah, let's do some jumping!" Usually I'm not like that, but I felt pretty confident.  Plus, I was on Cordell, and I knew that if I did things right, things would go well.  

Sure enough, things pretty much did.  We went over the telephone poles good, then came around to the flower boxes.  At the flower boxes Cordell kinda stopped on me, but I don't think he got all the way stopped, and my trainer told me to kick and I did, and we made it over.  Then we came around to the tire jump and I picked a line that took me to the left of the flowerbox jump.  My only problem there was I jumped ahead of him.  

My trainer was pleased with that round, and told me to pick up a canter.  I was close to where I'd need to turn to make the line to the telephone poles, so I was going to circle to get the canter, but she said she thought I could pick it up from where I was.  Sure enough, Cordell was sensitive enough to my leg that we were able to do it.   

We went over the telephone poles and had the lead we needed for the turn to the flowerbox jump.  My trainer was saying that we did, but for a moment I thought she was saying that we didn't and started to bring Cordell down to running walk to get the lead.  But at the last moment I realized that was not what she was saying and managed to kick Cordell on before he lost it.  

What she was actually telling me was that I needed to be looking and telling Cordell we were going to make a turn to the right, so he would know to change leads over the jump to make it to the tire jump without having to do a change through walk.  So I did, and what do you know, Cordell changed leads over the jump! That was pretty neat and so we stayed in canter.

I decided to take a line that would put me going to the right of the flowerbox jump, so that way I could make a wider turn and that would help Cordell keep the canter. It wasn't the best jump of the round, as I was trying to hold that line, but we made it.

That was all the jumping we did for today. After that it was Friend's turn, and then Vivie went again, but I just stayed halted watching them, which was fine. I was happy with both rounds of jumping that I did and also pleased with Cordell.

My trainer asked Friend and I after our jumping rounds if there was something from the clinic that had changed the way we'd felt something or done something as we were jumping. For me, I said that keeping up a steady pace on Cordell was  something, and something else was that I always needed to be ready to use my leg. Even if I never used it, my leg needed to be there, ready all the time to push on. I suppose this is something that I've had in the back of my mind but the clinic really brought it the forefront and showed me I need to focus on that.

My trainer was very happy with what I said, and she said that it would always be that way. That we could hear the same thing how many different times, but someone saying it a different way or in a different context is what would make it click. So long as we were learning, that would always be happening to us. And she's right. The clinician said a lot of things that I've heard my trainer say. Having my leg always ready is something I guess I've kinda known, but not until that weekend did that really standout to me. I guess it put words to a vague idea in the back of my head.

So it was a pretty good lesson (for everyone, not just me) and I'm happy with how Cordell and I did. The main thing my trainer told me not to do is to tip / lean forward /jump ahead of him. But I didn't do that too badly this round. And it just overall felt really good. Cordell grabbing that lead change was also awesome! He's such a good boy.

Actual lesson 12/12/2023