Jumping all the things!

NeI have a bit of catching up to do on sharing videos with you all so I am combining this post of my xc schoolings from last weekend and last evenings. We have been a bit busy with me wanting to really feel confirmed at prelim stuff going into the weekend.

Brother and sister stare down

Last Saturday, right from the start Tillie came out warming up super relaxed and waiting on me. It felt super comfortable and set the tone for the entire schooling. Its nice when shes like this because then I ride her more confidentially and forward like she needs to be for this level. This also was my first time schooling without a trainer there pointing at things telling me to go do it.

So picking and choosing was definitely something I had to think smartly about and feel out Tillie.

Here is some of warming up over some of the smaller stuff, but we finished off with the big table at the end! It felt nice and gave me more confidence to try the prelim stuff on my own.  

This was pretty early into schooling after warming up. Tile came right up to this very confident. It was the first skinnier test of the day and she came in nicely without any worry. I knew I needed to keep my shoulders up with the terrain question. 

Next we moved on to this bending line with corner/brush type fences. I knew my ride in needed to be accurate without drifting. We got a bit of an add to the second fence and it really should be a 4 stride not a 5 but we worked on this with Dom yesterday. 

From here we moved on to the keyhole combo. I was very proud with how much Tillie hunted out the final skinny. 

This was a fun combo to try! The first time through I came in too forward of a ride so came back and learned that I needed a better, deeper approach to the first log so we could be ready for the bending line out over the final log. It rode a lot nicer that way!

Then I felt brave and decided to give the big trakhener to the skinny a try. I knew we needed enough power to get over the trakehener but then be able to rock back and focus on the skinny. I was worried Tillie might land from the first and get too wooden before the second, but she shocked the hell out of me and coasted right along to the skinny.

Next up we moved onto banks...the dreaded banks. Its no secret that I dislike riding them despite down banks being fairly easy so long as you sit up and let your reins slip. Sounds so simple right?

But I knew I needed to conquer this because prelim drops, well, are much larger and more prominent on courses than previous levels. So I started with a bank down I did before so had that in the back of my mind to boost my confidence.

Tillie is super keen and has no issues with banks, so of course it rode just fine.

So I ran the house to bank down in reverse to add that shorter combo and timing to make sure I didn't anticipate too much and was able to keep my shoulders up. I knew I needed a deep distance into the house so she landed softly for the bank. Then we circled around to give the skinny a try that we have had issues with last year. Tillie jumped it cool as a cucumber.

We stepped up our game and did this bank complex. I remember looking at similar combos here before (they change jumps around but typically have similar questions around) and thinking wow that looks really scary. Tillie made it feel effortless. Riding this definitely turned a corner in my mind about riding banks!

Last but not least we moved on to water so I started with this slight bending line. Tillie came in a bit powerful to the log and I didn't let my reins slip enough. Luckily I sat up and recovered in time to direct her to the skinny out. NOTE TO SELF: Slip the reins!!!

I knew next I needed to conquer the larger bank into the water. At prelim there will be a combo there so I pulled up my big girl pants and gave it a try.

With that I ended our schooling for that day. Tillie gave me such try!

My kiddies

Up next (below) is a recap of our schooling last night. I don't have as much footage but will walk through the footage I do have. I wasn't feeling super great physically going into this schooling so came out of the gate riding more like a weenie. Which I believe caused Tillie to be a bit more keen to lean on me and be up to some old tricks to start like taking the bit any time she had a moment.

Dom reassured me its normal, we all have those days its just about getting the rideability you want before you go onto course. So it was actually nice it happened here so he could walked me through my XC warm up for Saturday in case she was more like yesterday's ride. He really implored when shes like that not to get too backwards. That I need to learn how to keep the forward and get her more rideable out of that forward canter without shortening it too much.

The first footage I have is this corner which she jumped great after this, but I only have the first attempt where I left her drift so she dropped her shoulder. She was still being a bit wooden at this point in the schooling but Dom talked me through it. 

Up next we did the skinny brush bending line. This was the second attempt since the first one was nice and quiet, but he wanted me to come back and do it out of a more forward canter. While Dom agreed it wasn't as pretty, that's the canter we need to get smoother in these combos. 

At this point I was still feeling a bit defensive and coming into this exercise was able to over come and ride it forward, but as we came to the table with it feeling a tad down hill I got a bit too greedy causing the dreaded gappy distance. We did finally manage to get the right ride, but no video footage unfortunately. This is the point in time we talked more about doing the homework of that forward ride...which until today has been better. He told me not to fret, just try to not make this the habit for Saturday which will likely be my go to with my nerves. 

At this point she got much more rideable though and we gave the roller coaster complex a try. I was fully expecting issues from this one. This is the better take on it, the first one wasn't caught on film...but as a learning experience: I misunderstood Dom and rode the first time on a deep approach to the first jump causing a need to push to get to the second making the third jump just a tad less approachable. 

So instead you want to come into this out of an open canter off the first with a longer take off so making the distance to the second you get that deeper ride. That way the second one backs them off on the landing so you have the adjustability to the final jump. My nit pick is I still got a bit forward in my shoulders here. 

To end we went to the water like usual and we ran through this combo and small bank down. We refined my shoulders for the down bank before moving on but it felt pretty good!

Finally Dom laid it on us and had us finish with the big brush out. I was extremely skeptical we would get over the big brush at the end the first attempt but Dom confidently said as long as I got my right line, didn't let her drift and had the right canter she would do it.

Of course he was right! 

So here's to hoping she feels ready and I feel ready on the big day.

Growth and Comfort do not coexist

I recently had a cross country lesson with Dom this past weekend. Overall, I walked away extremely excited but can't deny there were some hard moments that opened my eyes to how hard this sport can be. Dom reassured me that there cant be growth without pushing the limits and that I shouldn't stress about where we struggled and that the good news is, her reaction is very typical of a green horse at the level...I just need to put on my own big girl riding pants and learn how to help her better.

Like this happened...maybe the dap on horseback can be a new in thing?

Upper level riders certainly make riding through those tricky combinations so easy, but what we don't usually see, is all the training it took to get a horse to that point that they can skip through the questions so smoothly. So it was nice to have the reassurance of Dom telling me this is all par for the course and I will start getting better at reacting quicker the more we do them.

I realize I have been incredibly spoiled to not have ever had a stop or run out on this horse. So this lesson where we had not just one, but a few was mostly due to my lack of knowing how to ride it and just not reacting quickly enough. I thought for sure after the first one, it would throw me off a bit more...but I was so excited about the recent bit change that it didn't deter me one bit.

OMG an actual uphill canter

So onto the bit update: I was practicing galloping Tillie last week which resulted in some not so fun moments including Tillie bolting, getting her head low and bucking when I would try to half halt. It isn't the most warm and fuzzy feeling in the world, and this issue with her has been a recurring one.

It also has been nagging at me. With our move up to Training, going faster needs to be able to happen out on XC, without all the fighting. Its been something I have been talking to Dom about and other trainers, which resulted in the conversation about having her vetted in case it was a pain related issue.

Locking on!

After her vet evaluation, we know we would like to try injections, but it is so mild that it this isn't 100% physical and its the dreaded training issue. At least that's good-ish news right?!

So Dom schooled Tillie for me a few weeks back and had some discussions with Tillie about the half halt. It means NOW, not in five strides and not lean more on my hands...when I say balance or rate yourself it means do it now.

So we can avoid jumps like this

After our galloping incident, I had a horsey friend suggest trying a different bit. Not necessarily a harsher one, but one that applies pressure differently than the Pelham since the Pelham tends to promote lower the head when that's the last thing we need.

Most horses raise their heads when they get hot...mine likes to get down. So after some research and asking around, the gag bit was what came up. I did even more research and looked up some videos of Clayton Fredericks using one with his 4* mare Be My Guest. Low and behold the mare tends to gallop a bit like Tillie tries to and this bit allows him to let her gallop like her natural way of going and set her up before fences without needing to fight with her the whole time.

I read a bit more about it here: http://www.horsenation.com/2012/06/07/a-bit-of-advice-gag-bits/

Yea, no more of this....taken this time last year

Dom was kind enough to let me borrow his (which my inner fan girl almost died when he said it was the one he used on Boly - the horse he just got 6th on in the FHI 2*) and left it with me to play with for a few days leading up to our XC lesson.

Right away, as soon as I took a spin around the track and windurra, I knew it was exactly what we needed. Tillie didn't lean on it at all...and when she would try to test it, all she could do was slightly root, but would quickly come back up when she caught herself in the mouth.

I was able to let her gallop and bring her back...for the first time I felt comfortable keeping my leg on.

All smiles even when going really fast

Dom was quite excited about the change too and was pretty impressed with how quickly I could get her back again.

So now onto the actual XC lesson!!!

Dom had us warm up first in the field inside the track. It was a blistery cold, wet and windy day so we knew it would be a good test for the new bit...also since Tillie had a light two days prior (one day off, one day of 20 ish minutes stretching).

He reminded me to use my turns to get good lines to the jumps, look sooner at my jumps and to not mess with our canter....find a rhythm and stay there. So he had us do a figure 8 exercise to sort of establish where we needed to be.

Once we warmed up, we put a few of the jumps together...Tillie just got a bit funny to the one table resulting in my losing one rein, but we got it together to keep going:

And youll see we had our first run out at the skinny...and let me tell you, it surprised me how large it was as I approached it, so wasn't all that surprised Tillie wasn't sure. Especially since we haven't xc schooled in quite a while.

So we circled back to school the Skinny:

Not the prettiest, but we made it happen.

So next we moved on to a ditch and skinny log...which apparently Tillie doesn't care about ditches anymore and just runs through them:

This run out was totally my error...I was too busy chuckling about the ditch to properly present this skinny, also with brush and quite large. Dom gave me a bit of a talkin to on this one saying I needed to sit down in my tack, widen my hands and not allow her a way out.

So we do it again with some flair:

Clearly it still makes her a bit anxious so her response is to speed up. Dom explained that this is a normal thing and her being green to them and having this reaction is pretty standard so we need to keep skinnies in the forefront of our training. Build some small ones at home in the ring - especially with brush and just do them every so often to keep them fresh.

Next we schooled the corner which I did better and keeping her in front of me even with her anxiety with it:

The next portion of the lesson was definitely the hardest xc combo we both have ever seen...and it certainly gave us some trouble, but it was quite the learning experience for us.

First attempt could have gone better if I was more prepared and didn't lean at my jump:

Second attempt I had to really ride and be scrappy to get her through it...which she basically crawled over the second jump - but we got it done and Dom said that it was the kind of ride that needed to happen:

So he had us come through in reverse and I apparently forgot how to ride all together:

But after a good butt kicking from Dom we went through the whole thing one final time, nicely and in a good place:

WHEW! Shockingly I wasn't super nervous about doing these...even after the trouble we had. But looking back at the videos I cant help but think mayyybe I just turned my brain off because I HATE down hill anything and these are awfully steep downhill!

We moved on next to another line of jumps to a skinny combo around to a half coffin to which Dom basically warned me about the run out and told me to not allow it to happen:

We didn't have a run out!!! woo!! But we didn't quite get the right half halt to the second jump so Dom had us do it again:

Basically, I had the right idea, but I rated my canter a bit too much and needed to keep my leg on and find a more even distance there.

Finally we moved on to the water complex:

Apparently Tillie ignores down banks too! Luckily it didn't phase her from remaining being locked onto the jump in the water but Dom sent us out to try again:

Which resulted in her taking a funny leap into the water again...lol so one more time:

We ended after this with Dom saying he is quite pleased with the progression...I expressed some of my own ability frustrations as well as my excitement for the rideability I now have in the gag.

Dom lectured a bit, saying its all learning and there wont always be pretty moments...but as long as we both learn from them is what counts. So here's to progress! Even when it isn't linear!

Our Novice debut in detail - Cross Country

After stadium, we marched on over to XC. I was feeling very confident as long as Tillie could stay as adjustable and calm out here as she did in the ring and the last event.

Walking the course, I felt really good about most of the fences...there were some pretty cool ones and I was excited to see they were legit novice questions with some good length between some to allow some actual galloping. I realized while walking the course that when I schooled here right before Rolex, I actually had schooled the training level stuff thinking it was novice...No one entered training so they werent flagged except the #15 so I resolved that if things were REALLY amazing we would do it, if not playing it safe and having a clean round would also just thrill me.

Much to my horror there was a HUGE downbank on course that standing next to it was just below my chest. I luckily schooled that one just before Rolex and on accident...but was super glad I did. It wasnt the greatest feeling when I schooled it, but I at least knew I had done it which meant I COULD do it again right?

Everything else looked fine...some I knew I would need to ride more than others, but all in all I knew Tillie could do them.

In the start box I had a mini pow wow with my girl and said lets do this and be calm ok? She flicked her ears almost in understanding, and off we went.

Before I knew it, I was coming up to the chevron and was shocked at how easy it all felt. I was still riding a bit defensively and after letting her go out to gallop in two spots, would bring her back to a slower canter. The chevron, I overheard, was giving a few people some trouble so this is why I decided to really come back for this one, also because the trakhener was a somewhat related distance away.

After the trakhener was the bank bank and I made myself breath and mentally said "we got this"

I told my helpers, mom and niece that came to watch me that if I nailed the down bank and was still on after a stride that I expected to hear the loudest cheer that would be Rolex cheering caliber. They certainly didnt disappoint and it actually rode alot smoother than when I schooled it thankfully!

At this point I was feeling REALLY confident and actually started allowing Tillie to go. There was a coop and black pipe fence right after the down bank that were prefect for letting her jump more forward out of and I even opted to do the biggest of the black Pipes.

The corner was another fence that apparently was presenting some issue, but I was more worried about the narrow railroad tie fence (2nd to last). Luckily Tillie ate them both up and sailed over the last fence without a care in the world.

Here is some footage captured:

Overall, it was super fun and I couldnt stop smiling the whole hack back to the trailer. Tillie was quite full of herself as we tried to sponge her off and took about 20 min for her to stop dancing around. 

I am so hopeful that our next event is so fun which is Loch moy on the 29th!! My plan is to do this event since they run recognized events and start getting myself acclimated to these. 

While I am not ready for training level and not doing them any time soon...I know majority of them are only offered at recognized shows so want to start doing them at novice so I dont have to worry about all that as well as moving up whenever that may be. 

I feel really good about where we are and just excited to keep it that way.