June's been a busy one! We welcomed a new boarder, received a few ship in lessons to practice jumping, went on some long trail rides near Calabogie, had my first dressage lesson since November on Ludi, and I started my 17th horse under saddle: a young gelding boarded here named First, by Fabriano.
I always have a plan for teaching, but the plan is made well in advance for jumping lessons since the course is set when the participants arrive. Here's a handful of templates that work well in my ring:
I have a Very Important Notebook at home that contains all my clinic notes. Many top rider and coach tips are scrawled within it. I skim through it to pick out exercises to work on, and one line stood out: The inside leg is the first aid, the second is the outside rein. The jumping lessons I conducted focused on turning the horse not by pulling on the inside rein, the way beginners learn like steering a bicycle, but by applying the inside leg like a post for the horse to curve around, and bringing both hands to the inside, like neck reining, to give in the direction that you want to go in. Tighter turns on course expose incorrect technique when the horse fishtails, loses energy and/or balance, and at worst, shuts down when he feels he has nowhere to go. Young First goes around the ring after his first month of training using these concepts and even Ludi, now 11, learned in our recent lesson with Oz Lazzuri how to go more deeply into the corners of the dressage ring through the same application of aids, so that I maximize the space of the ring and gain more time to prepare for the next movement. This concept isn't even just for English riding, as Horsemanship Trainer Josh Nichol explains in this video:
"If you think about it, you're already too late" says Ingrid Klimke from my notebook. And in his classic Riding And Jumping, show jumping gold medalist William Steinkraus says this:
"Concentrate on technique at home, so that your mind will be free to concentrate on your performance as a whole in the show ring. In other words, develop a technique that will continue to function reliably even when you're not watching it. Not a very easy recipe for success - heaven knows, the ingredients take long enough to prepare - but still, I don't know of a better one."
"Concentrate on technique at home, so that your mind will be free to concentrate on your performance as a whole in the show ring. In other words, develop a technique that will continue to function reliably even when you're not watching it. Not a very easy recipe for success - heaven knows, the ingredients take long enough to prepare - but still, I don't know of a better one."
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