Today was a rare Monday where I went to the barn. Typically Lindsey, my working student, covers the barn and works the few horses that need it and oversees the management for the day. However, today everything fell into place, starting with the traffic. It was smooth, even though I left a little later than normal, I sailed through the tunnel and was on my merry way. I had high hopes that it was in indication of my morning.
When I got to the barn the sky was blue and I was taking off a layer of clothing, amazing considering it is mid-Nov. Regal was waiting at the gate for me, which always puts a smile on my face. We had a lovely dressage school. He was bit annoyed at me as I put a flash on him, which I usually do not ride in expect for shows. So we spent some time walking and giving, carrying himself up and forward. We then do approx. 10 transitions as we went around the ring, all downwards off seat and breathing. I then snuck in a bit of lateral work then on to canter with simple changes. It had to be some of our best canter work in a few weeks. He felt very even and responsive a nice clear 3-beat. Regal was so good I think we’ll trail ride tomorrow then he will have a few days off while I am away in Connecticut visiting family and attending my high school reunion…
The lesson I taught this morning was also a lot of fun. Aston got to work on steady and rhythmic, Kristin really got him coming into the bridle in the trot and after a few small corrections the canter was also lovely. Since both rider and horse have to work on moving slower and steady to keep a relaxed when jumping, I decided to have them warm up over some singles then go through a 4 stride to an in and out. The longer line into the tighter combo sets the horse up to get long and a bit strung out, which can make the A jump element harder as they can get tight and under or over jump and have trouble getting out. As an added element the ring slightly slopes up hill in that direction, which requires a bit more leg without getting carried away.
When everything was warm up height both were good, almost a little too slow to the first element but corrections came easily and jumped out well over the B element oxer. For Kristin we worked on keeping her butt out of the saddle but keeping a little fold in her hips with open shoulders. The results in Aston were amazing, he was relaxed jumped up nice and square and hit the striding. I added 1 placement pole after the first element and the 1 stride before the A element of the in and out. After some mental adjusting both were spot on, as the fences got bigger reaction times got slower when correcting where Aston’s body was, which resulted in a right drift and some interesting distances. Once that was corrected both horse and rider looked great and were even able to quietly canter around and take a nice Swedish oxer without stress.
Mental space has such a large element in the success of a ride for both horse and rider. The rider always has the job of seeing where they are in their own mind as well as how the horse is feeling and making adjustments to the approach plan, etc to get the best out of the session. I see all different levels of riders on different horse personalities all week and one thing remains the same. We as the rider have to control our energy and body if we can’t do that the horse is unlikely to perform to the best of its ability. I highly recommend the Book, The Mind Gym. It’s cheap and very useful, buy it today and see your performance improve. There is a reason our top riders are given sports psychology sessions!
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