Back in October I signed Ludi and I up for another jumping weekend with Grand Prix rider Hyde Moffatt at Noble Touch Equestrian. A jumping clinic at the end of December is something I'm not sure I would do again; it is very hard to ride seriously during the holiday season!
Hyde quickly took away any of my apprehension with his coaching style: up-front, friendly, enthusiastic and spot-on with his observations. He was going to keep it easy for the horses, and hard for the riders to get away with old, bad habits. Hyde praised me for sitting right in the middle of Ludi's centre of gravity, but also picked up on my asymmetry in the saddle. My left leg is good for dressage (toe points forward) and my right leg is good for jumping (toe points out)!
His notes for every rider were similar: keep your legs close to the horse and encourage bending of the ribcage so the horse has room to step underneath his body with his back legs, which will improve the canter and jumping efforts. Ride with shorter reins. The rider must not take a pull in front of fences because it makes the horse think about the rider behind their heads, when they should be thinking of the fence in front of them. The rider must take care that when they think they are correctly waiting for the horse to get to the jump, they might actually be shoving their seat in the saddle and pushing the horse forward. He repeated 'Legs' and 'Fix You' over and over, to remind us to focus on correcting our own positions, which time and time again improved the horses way of going. When we effectively use minimal aids, we're probably on the right track.
Here's one of our rounds:
Hyde quickly took away any of my apprehension with his coaching style: up-front, friendly, enthusiastic and spot-on with his observations. He was going to keep it easy for the horses, and hard for the riders to get away with old, bad habits. Hyde praised me for sitting right in the middle of Ludi's centre of gravity, but also picked up on my asymmetry in the saddle. My left leg is good for dressage (toe points forward) and my right leg is good for jumping (toe points out)!
His notes for every rider were similar: keep your legs close to the horse and encourage bending of the ribcage so the horse has room to step underneath his body with his back legs, which will improve the canter and jumping efforts. Ride with shorter reins. The rider must not take a pull in front of fences because it makes the horse think about the rider behind their heads, when they should be thinking of the fence in front of them. The rider must take care that when they think they are correctly waiting for the horse to get to the jump, they might actually be shoving their seat in the saddle and pushing the horse forward. He repeated 'Legs' and 'Fix You' over and over, to remind us to focus on correcting our own positions, which time and time again improved the horses way of going. When we effectively use minimal aids, we're probably on the right track.
Here's one of our rounds:
Ludi jumped his heart out, and was tired by the end. Hyde knew that moment was coming and made sure we had a great clinic. Many thanks to Kim at Noble Touch for hosting!
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