I’ve always hated trotting into fences. I tend to over jump them with my body, not knowing quite how to just sit and WAIT. 
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@ParadoxFarm Exactly!! there was a placing pole and i didnt know what to do before that pole, luckily home boy was pretty good and i didnt have to do anything,
I think over the winter when I ride I am going to do more poles and trot fences. I need to work on my strength and form over fences. And I’ll continue to work on my dressage. I want to master Training Level Test 3 and start 1st Level this spring. And I want to continue doing the virtual trail competitions. Those are just fun and I think it’s good for my pony. I need to get all the horses out there.
I miss you all!! This thread as been getting quieter and quieter. I hope all is well. Check in when you can.
I also notice this has been so quiet! I love your winter plans! My new trainer seems to love working on our over fence form with trot fences, and i love that soemtimes she makes us sit the trot, to ensure we are letting the horse push us to the fold, i have the opposite problem, i have issues folding (i think its an adult learner thing, lack of confidence, a bit defensive), but others sometimes will “over fold”, super exaggerated and lay on their neck, so for me, its a new learning of trust and its okay, this will help with my release and not getting left behind 
My biggest issue is jumping ahead and not waiting for the fence to come to me and for the horse to lift me out of the saddle. I work too hard! haha. But even KNOWING I do this, it’s so hard to fix. I don’t always feel like I am doing it at the time. I plan to do more gridwork and maybe even have my DH lunge me with Tay over a pole on the ground and learn to just sit and wait.
Sounds like a plan!! We had a small grid work today, they are 3 bounces, started with ground poles and built up just to 2ft.
Mental note not to take a long spot into a bounce, he was like oh shit and make huge effort to make over the 2nd and the 3rd, i completely lost my reins, he panicked for a second but regained his cool
Update:
Horrible lesson next day. I don’t think my skill level can get him through one strides and it was just a hot mess. He has always been very easily distracted, and looky, even things that he’s seen a million times and common at the barn, loading trucks, trailers, dogs, people standing by the rail etc. So this time, it was just some harmless people watching. The prob is i have to go by these people and make a turn to this grid about 2 strides past them, cavaletti, one stride to a 2’9 vertical, one stride to oxer, and every time he passes by these people, he sucks back, counter bend away from them, i don’t have the skills to leg him to knock it off, he does not have big strides, so you can imagine the hot mess we get into, while my poor trainer tells me to add leg and push him through, i just couldn’t get it done, my poor horse has to jump really hard to get over the oxer and i lose my reins (hello? close my fingers? ), and eventually led to stops. Sometimes i really think i should pick up knitting instead.
I have a ton of homework to do, i need to figure out how to use my legs correctly. My previous horses NEVER stops, and to be honest, i’ve been quite spoiled, i didn’t need to add massive amount of leg to get them over jumps? Gymnastics are great to work on myself, but it was really headache inducing yesterday. Rant over, hopefully it can only be better from here?
Faye, imho you need to work on his canter, such that he can stay balanced regardless of stride length or distractions. If your instructor is willing, practice cantering over poles, including grids of poles, until you can “hit the mark” every time. It’s not so much about “massive” leg but about having a horse that is forward and balanced. When you capture THAT, the bonus will be that a lot of his lookiness will fade as well because he will feel more confident in his abilities to carry you. 
Take this for what you will, I don’t jump much any more, I’m really a dressage rider with a horse who likes to jump.
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Sue, thank you so much for your feedback, and that’s EXACTLY what we did. After the disaster, trainer put me in a circle and just practice on a forward canter. Then over a cavaletti until we are forward, balance and relaxed. Then we go back to the exercise but at a much lower height (my brain just couldn’t handle that height at that point, and in order to prevent both of us having meltdowns, she made a good choice), and we ended with good note
We always start with poles, then build it up. I dont know if it was the height of the grid , or those poor people showing up then, shit hit the fan when that happened.
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@Faye, yes it will get better. When you make the transition to trot or canter you will learn to ask for the trot or canter that you want instead of going into it first and trying to slow or quicken it to what you want.
If they are sucking back after A because there is a jumper on a chair, people watching, leaf moving on a tree etc etc, etc, then you know it is going to happen, so you do not wait for it to happen at A and then try to fix. You don’t start asking for it at A. You start asking for it before A, so that it doesn’t even happen.
The fledgling is leaving the nest!
Hubby has been to 2 jobs for one shift so far. First was for the bread that I did not realise was over night, but they put on an experienced in bread person instead. I can count on two hands the mistakes this experienced person had made, but I haven’t said anything as no one has asked!
Then he went as a forklift driver at a fertilizer place. Again an evening shift, the dryer broke so he was sent home. He said it was hot, dusty and noisy.
Today he is going to Universal Stables in Colleyville to try out as a stable hand. He will be cleaning stables and yards and filling waters for 4.5 hours. It is a 29 minute drive, and as we will both be working in the morning we will both be home in the afternoon.
I googled it and it looks fantastic. Who knew there was a dressage place so close to us.
They also have a facebook page.
He has never cleaned a stable before. It will be the first time he has handled horses not trained by me. They have young tbs. I have told him to he humble, do things their way and not my way or even mention my way. If he see something that needs doing pick it up, be humble, etc, etc, etc.
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OMG Suzie, i should know that! If there is a spot where they break (say break the canter to trot), we have to anticipate and ask for it before getting to that spot, why did I not think about that?!!?
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I’ve been reading along. No Pony time til the 30th- the good/bad of “the Covig” as Granny calls it, is all my buildings are beyond slammed.
We got a puppy- once we surprise my Mom on Christmas Eve, I’ll post pics. He’s a full lab, raised on a horse farm.
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@Faye every time you interact with a horse you are training it. Remember you said the horse that you pulled the reins on, cantered slower but did not break, and I said that is a trained horse.
The one that breaks is being trained incorrectly. Let’s look at the horse on the lunge. You ask for canter, you see the horse is going to break so you use the lunge whip. It happens again you use it again. It happens again. You use it again.
You end up with a person who lunges who is continually cracking the whip which is soooooo annoying and not just for the horse. The horse learns that the whip has to be used to keep going. You stop cracking the whip, the horse breaks.
So you start in walk and then trot and then canter. You ask for walk and keep the whip still. If the horse stops you use the whip. The same with trot you do not use the whip unless they walk.
Then in canter if they break you start using the whip cracking it behind hitting on the ground etc, etc. You do not use the word canter. You are wanting them to make a decision. The correct decision is to canter. You then praise and the whip is kept still while the horse is in canter. You are correcting that they broke. They are then taught not to change gait until they are asked to change gait. You end up with a horse thst the whip is not used when being lunged.
The same with riding a horse, the horse should not break gait until asked.
The same with holding a horse. The horse puts its head down and you yank it up. The horse learns that it can eat unless you yank the lead rope and they are happy to put their head down 9,999 times to see if they can eat. Especially a pony with a child who is not strong enough to lift their head.
Instead when they put their head down to eat, send a jolt down the lead rope with a snap of the wrist. More than once if needed until they make the decision to raise the head and praise. The horse learns after 3 times not to put their head down.
If I want them to graze I place my hand on the top of their neck and say head down. They all know the words head up. If they are eating their feed and I am putting their rug on. I say head up and they lift their heads while I do up the chest strap and neck rug straps. 2 soft pats on the neck means they are free to eat again.
I have told hubby to not say anything to the people at his work if he goes there he does things their way, if they come here then I expect things to be done our way meaning of course my way. Muhahahaha, Controlling.YES! and I make no apologies for it.
He said he watched a bit this morning. The guy had no idea how to lunge. He had the horse on a 10 meter circle and kept cracking the whip and saying canter. Hubby could see that the horse had no idea what he wanted and couldn’t canter on such a small circle anyway. Another one brought the horse out in a pessoa. The horse did not like it. Hubby stayed to watch when the guy went to mount. His only thought was that the guy must be a really good rider, as seeing the horse on the lunge there was no way he would have gotten on it. The horse started going sideways so the guy dismounted and started lunging again. These are supposedly professionals.
The horses are kept in stables and he puts them on a Walker while he cleans the stable. All the horses on the walker are walking in mud. They are all looking to get off the walker when he goes to get them.
I asked him if Sim wants us to get a walker. He said that Sim doesnt know how good he has it.
Hubby has been twice . He said he will go one more time and see if he wants to keep the job.
Lucky, can’t wait to see puppy!!!
Hope you all had a great Christmas! Our Polish meal was good. Other than that, it was quiet here.
For those not on Instagram, I did get my results for the last competitive trail competition. Tay and I came in first place in our division, and we actually had the highest score of the competition. What a good pony!! It was fun. I’m looking forward to more of these in 2020!
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Hope you all had a lovely Christmas or whatever you wish to celebrate. I think this is the first year in several decades that I did not ride on Christmas day, but it was just too darn cold and windy this year. Ah well. At any rate, out of the wind, I took a selfie to show my sis how pretty her sweater looks on me, and Tio photobombed me. Check out his smile lower left corner! 
(edited to see if photo shows)
SueB, no picture shows for me.
Lucky, Buster is adorable!!!
Sue LOL at the photo bomber. The pic is showing for me and awwww at Buster.
Stars had a week off with me working virtually 24 hours a day. I hoped I’m him and he was good but not quite right. I asked and hubby had trimmed DC his hooves. So I gave him another day off and he seemed better yesterday.
Hubby has given notice as a stable hand. He said it is not enough money. Sigh. More mo eg than I am receiving and he gets to play in the afternoons. I stead he is having a week off and then going to be 2IC at a tyre place that is over an hours drive one way and will be a full days work.
Can he not see that less money means more when you have less travel and more time?
hi! I’m sorry I’ve really lapsed.
PF I’m still struggling with jumping ahead but two things really do help. Trotting jumps, particularly big cross rails. Start with a 9 foot placing pole and ground line to help build your confidence for timing, then just the ground line, then no ground line. It’s hard! You want to start with lots of trot and then compress as you get closer to the jump. It is also so good for their hind ends.
the other thing is having someone at the jump yell at you to look up right when you are at the base. I heard McLain did that in the Grand Prix warm up at Spruce for Adrienne Sternlicht. Told her to look up into the trees. For me, doing that and working on the flat thinking about keeping my hip closed and my shoulders back are good too. It’s a work in progress.
Not much to report on my end. Hudson is starting to jump in really good form, when I remember to really leg hard off the ground, I’m rewarded with a loud tail swish, feels awesome every time. Duty had some shoeing troubles so we didn’t show much, but I did found a super useful tool that’s been life changing.
I have such a hard time keeping my fingers closed and my reins short. So I have open fingers and stiff elbows, when it should be the reverse. So we tried these
They don’t actually help with keeping your fingers closed unless you think of it, BUT, it forces you to stay at one rein length and for your elbow to be more elastic
We put these on and literally instantly, Duty was softer in my hand and stretching over his back into the contact as opposed to bouncing all over the place to avoid me.
My hope is to use these for a while, then get more disciplined about keeping my fingers closed and then go back to normal reins. Duty is so much better in them. I went from flatting in at least a pinwheel gag with a figure 8 to a loose ring snaffle with no noseband happy as a clam.
The other thing that has really helped is a different mindset in how we warm up. Before I wanted to just send him forward from the start and then progressively reel him in to a more upright frame. Well he would just wander around wiggling like crazy and was impossible to have a nice contact with.
Now we start at a very slow trot, where I’m using squeezing him him into the contact but not sending him forward. We sort of jog to warm up and I focus on posting low, which requires me to have more contact with the whole of my leg and not just posting high and having my lower leg come on and off. This is a lot more leg and so much harder, but both horses really respond to it. Then we eventually add more pace and transitions. Duty seems much less pissed off this way.
Anywho, the horses have had this month to just do gentle hacks and trail rides. We will put them back together starting next week. I’m excited to get back to work, but a little terrified how rusty my eye will be.
Happy New Year all!!!
