Jumping Lesson

Brego and I had a jumping lesson this morning and the goal was to work on small courses with turns and bending lines. The height of the fence is no problem for Brego, but being back and balanced enough to power through a corner without dislocating my shoulders is a feat yet to be mastered.

We ended up with a very successful lesson, culminating in a 5 fence course with two 180 degree turns and finishing over a 3' oxer. He even threw in some automatic changes, if I didn't lay on his neck too bad. The best part of the whole lesson was that Brego saved my bacon twice when I completely blew it for him (and he left the poles up). It's that kind of heart and kindness that makes me think Brego is a really special horse. As much as he is conformationally ill-suited to eventing and with as little jumping experience he has, he never gives up and takes good care of me.

My riding had improved since the last time I had jumped. My trained watched the videos I posted and had plenty of advice for me. But during the lesson today, I seemed to have fixed a lot of what was wrong. She even commented that as the ride got more complicated, I did even better. Something about forcing myself to be effective when a big, heavy, tired Percheron is barreling down towards a 3' oxer... There is definitely still something amiss with my right knee, but that's the knee that's been giving so much trouble recently. The x-rays came back clean and I ice it after every ride. So hopefully as the knee improves, my weird one-sided stiffness will work itself out as well.

So I think we're in good shape for the show in three weeks. The current plan is to get another dressage lesson next weekend and one more jumping lesson before we go to the show on September 14th. In the meantime, he gets some time off and hopefully a mini-camping trip for everyone's mental health. The heat and intensity of the workouts are too taxing for his current fitness level. I want him fresh and eager in three weeks, not burned out and sore.

Alternate Career for the Eventing Percheron?

Inspired by a post on Chronicle of the Horse, I brought an exercise ball out for Brego to play with today. He sort of got it...

Video of his first attempted pass.

At least he could have a fall back career if this whole eventing thing doesn't work out!

Jumpity Jump Jump

More jumping training yesterday. We worked on canters between two 2' fences set on a circle at 3 and 9 o'clock in the arena. It was very hot and humid and the footing in the arena was pretty deep so all in all, very tiring work.

Brego did well and we worked on maintaining a quality canter between the fences and I attempted to correct some of my more glaring jumping faults, like poor release and falling back in the air. I was only mildly successful so I am really grateful I have a jumping lesson this Saturday.



We finished up jumping a 2'10" jump and Brego did wonderfully. He had a lot more impulsion and power than during free jumping and didn't even flick an ear at the fence. He's very brave, just not very coordinated yet. He cleared everything with ease until he tripped and we nearly had a crash. He hit the pole both with his front legs and his back legs and nearly rolled on himself. I managed to stay centered or else I would have been a goner. Miraculously, everyone stayed up, including the pole (he knocked it down later just to prove it could be done!). I trotted him out and he was fine, but the next time over the fence he over jumped by about 3 feet. Poor guy, just not overly coordinated.

He worked hard under hot conditions so he gets another day off, then a light hack on Friday. Saturday it's my lesson with my jumping trainer.

Additional video.

Ugly Is As Ugly Does

Since I am addicted to the Fugly Horse Blog, I decided to see just how, er, lovely Brego is. Here's a marked up photo of him taken today for those playing along at home (Click on it to get a big enough version to see all the lines drawn).


What I see... Nice shoulder, pretty even build, not downhill. Nice neck meeting chest, although topline of neck is weak. Back at the knee. Way off on his back legs, stands under himself. Ok pastern angle (maybe too long on the front), very sloping croup, short canon bones. Cow hocked, short neck, big head. And I hope his back doesn't get one inch longer! :)

All in all, I think I'll keep him!

Free Jumping

To get Brego back into the swing of jumping, I spent the morning putting together a free jumping chute and letting him work out the jumping kinks unencumbered. And there were lots of kinks to work out. Putting it delicately, Brego is "enthusiasm-challenged" these days. It's hot and humid and he doesn't really like me chasing him around with a longe whip. Which is unfortunate, because it's darn good for him and his, er, dominance issue.

After a rousing session in the round pen, just working on walk/trot transitions interspersed with his predictable bucking temper tantrums at said longe whip, we attempted the chute. The course was a three jump gymnastic with a leading 9' canter pole. Each jump was a one stride. The first two jumps were set a 2'2" and the last was an oxer that I eventually raised to 3'1".

So Brego figured out how the chute works pretty quickly: You trot away from human with the longe whip (occasionally throwing in a buck to show your displeasure at being chased), jump over a few piddly jumps and then stop and eat luscious grass and a nice big cookie at the end. Not a bad way to earn a living.

Short video of the first two fences set up.
Angry Brego makes down all three set at 2'2".

After the first couple of times through the chute, it was very obvious that the original spacing between the jumps would only work if Brego was a pony. They were set according to a 12' stride ala Wofford's excellent treatise on the subject. Brego has something like a 14' stride, even bigger if he's really moving forward. And one of the fun things about being green is that you can change your stride every time through the chute and the silly humans can never set it just right for you. So at the beginning, when Brego was full of himself and still interested, the distances were too short and so I pushed them out to 21' between fences instead of the 18' described in my handy book. Towards the end, when the heat really set it, he was reaching to make those distances, so I brought them back to 20'. Finally, when I raised the final oxer to 3', he setup for it more, and the distance was tight again.

Anyway, I managed not to kill or maim him during this exercise and he did get more proficient towards the end. Although I will be the first to agree that he needs lots more work of this sort to really use himself properly. And it would help if I could work him out of his sulking phase, he looked downright angry most of the time. Even at 3', he was jumping ok, but he was not really pushing off from his hind end with any power, just sort of popping over the fence. And there were plenty of sloppy knockdowns. But at least he proved that 3' doesn't phase him in the slightest, and it is the highest I would expect him to compete at, so now it's all about refining his form and strengthening his hind end.

I think I will ride him this week over a small course and see if I can get a little more impulsion out of him. And then he'll be back in the chute next week to nail down those distances.

More still pictures on Flickr.

Conditioning

It's about a month out from the show and we got a break in the heat so I decided to do some conditioning work to see how far Brego was from being able to complete a Beginner Novice course. We did two 5 minute-trot sets, 3 minutes of walking between. Then 2 two-minute canter sets finishing up with a nice little gallop across the field. He did wonderful, although he was confused why he needed to continue cantering for that long and kept asking to stop. A little leg on though and he finished fine, sweating even less than during our normal dressage workouts. So I think he'll be good to go.

I saw this fun video of a very athletic horse at a Baby Novice in Fair Hill and I was a little intimidated. Brego has some jumping work to do before we go out there and run a course. He can definitely do the height, it's barely above a canter stride, after all. It's just I don't know if his baby brain knows he can do it. I am hoping for a really inviting course at Indian Creek next month, but I am very worried we might have to jump The Wall!

Methinks we might start back into jumping once this bout of rain from Tropical Storm Erin has passed...

Countdown Begins...

Indian Creek Farms has published their September schooling show bill and Brego's entry went in today. So in a month's time, Brego will be making his Beginner Novice debut. It's a schooling show and not USEA-rated, so the pressure is off and it will be just one big positive experience and learning opportunity. I am so excited to see how he does on a real course.

I am also very appreciative to Indian Creek Farms for providing such a lovely facility for a schooling show so close to my home barn. Many thanks!

Anyway, I have decided to start him back into jumping slightly early in prep for the mid-September show. I will start free jumping him in a couple of weeks and then school a couple times a week over fences until the show. His fitness over a full course is of some concern since the heat has made us both super lazy. The bright note is that his dressage continues to improve every ride (now that his rider has lessened her interference with him). But the most important thing is that he competes safely and happily in accordance with his ability. I anticipate a lot of trotting through cross country and definitely simple changes through jumping.

I've got show nerves already!