X-Country... can you believe it?
o jeez, i am SORE tonight. i landed on ... my back/hips area and neck & also somehow twisted my ankle, so i'm feeling a bit like a nanna.
anyways. so the X-Country training. i was originally signed up for the afternoon session to do pole work & when i got there in the morning i decided to do 60cm jumping. then after the bullcrap in the morning decided that maybe 2 hours in the bush might do beejy some good, so i swapped to that. it was for beginners & it's pretty low key - find a jump, instructed on how to approach it, then one after the other... do it.
so the instructor, jenny, asked me about my jumping experience & his x-country experience (none as far as i know) and she also asked, "what are your plans with him?" and i responded with, "to sell him" LOL! i was like, "i wanna ride him like he needs to be ridden," and she was like, "o that's funny cos so many ppl ride their horses like THEY want to." haha. goes to show how pony whipped i am by my horse, right?
anyway. he was VERy quiet and relaxed after his full on (and i mean... FULL ON) workout in the morning - he was literally sweating all over & had only had an hours rest before we started in the afternoon. there were 5 of us in the class - 2 quite game & relatively experienced ppl & 3 greenies, including kelli, on benito who has very little jumping experience anyway.
Jenny had us crank our stirrups up - she was like, "5 holes from dressage length" and i was like, "OMFG NO WAY" so only went up 2 holes. i do remember that from when i was a kid. 2 holes extra for jumping, 4 holes up for x-country. it's alright when you're used to it.
she also explained that we need to do 3 point over the jump & 2 point when galloping between jumps to get off the horses back. and ALSO for effective x-country, legs have to be FORWARD and braced, much further than for jumping. she talked about if they're back then it's much easier to fall/lose balance etc.
so first we tackled this little log - about 40cm tall. had to get quite the run up & trot vigorously over it. beej did it like a champ & i grabbed mane. then back over it again. ben refused so jenny said she'd get kelli to practice her first jump on something a tad smaller. another girl, isabella, cleared it, but tumbled off the side (and landed on her feet) when her horse (a lovely big standy called Data) swerved to join the group.
we saw a little mob of 4 kangaroos & most of the horses nearly died from eye bugging. because it's just a thin strip of bush, we saw them quite a few times throughout the lesson & they were SUPER tame - coming easily within just a few metres of the rest of us. the horses were used to them by the end tho, thank goodness.
kelli was very interesting through this as well. she was all out of wack because her stirrups had gone up & she literally said to me, "i can't! i'm going to change my stirrups back" and i just said, "shutup!" and she was like, ":X" but then got on with it. by the end of the lesson she'd gotton over herself tho & was having a good time & stopped the "i can't" stuff, because she COULD!
we went further into the bush and found a series of jumps - a little log (about 30cm), a white picket fence (about 45cm) & another upright about 45cm. Jenny watched us all jump them one at a time & then she got us to do it as a line. there was a big 3' picket fence at the end of the line & the other 2 more game riders were to go over it & then she said to me that she reckoned i could do it too as i was riding well & beej was pretty honest. soooo.
i went 3rd after the other 2 (kelli & this other young girl, isabella were behind me) & he went like a total pro. we did the first 3 & he approached the big jump at a nice canter & took off PERFECTLY & it was fricking AWESOME. BUT my lower leg slipped back & i guess i looked at the ground on landing, so my whole body pivoted forward and i just lost my balance and tumbled off the side about 3 strides after we landed. ARGH!
the other 2 riders & jenny were like, "OMFG WHAT HAPPENED! you cleared it!" i was laughing, tho i had sand down my pants & i knew i'd landed a bit roughly on my hip/neck (dunno how both of them were affected). the next second tho, Data came galloping up, horseless & isabella was on the ground just after jump #3!!! we yelled out for kelli to stop. later she thought we were cheering for her, lol, but then she saw that isabella had fallen off.
same thing with isabella - bit harder for her to get her jumping position right as she was jumping in a dressage saddle. she'd lost her balance AFTER the jump & tumbled off (again!). anyway, kelli came thru & cleared the jump with ben & it was all good. i had to find a log to climb on from too.
went further on to find another jump - i sorta wanted to try the 3' picket again, but jenny wanted us to do something smaller to build up confidence again (good idea!).
anyway. we then tackled a small log, then found a ditch & one of the other ladies did an apex right after that too. then further on to find a bank/drop.
the bank/drop thing was SCARY. there were 3 levels - about a 2' jump up, then another 6' and then another 1' or so and then bloody 3'6" or so drop DOWN. omfg. we practiced just doing the 2' jump up, then turning sharply right and jumping down, which was fun & easy! then jenny was like, "ok, you 3 go straight and do the jump down" (i was one of the 3) and the other 2 had a choice about if they wanted to or not. *LE SIGH.
beej was so good, just straight up, up, up and... DOWN! a drop is scary tho because his head just disappears & jenny said, contrary to popular belief, you don't bend back, but bend slightly forward to pick them up straightaway on landing. omfg - this means you SEE THE GROUND headed towards you at high speed. i jabbed him the first time in the mouth - nothing to hold on to except reins! and felt like i did the same the 2nd time around, but jenny was happy with how we did it. i think next time i might have a neck strap because his mane is useless! there's not enough!
both kelli and isabella ended up doing the big drop as well, so that's awesome. kelli gets real mental blocks sometimes & was holding ben back, but he was super keen. once she realised he's pretty happy to tackle things, she relaxed a lot!
after the bank we found a coffin. basically, ride down a bank, over a small upright (like, really small), then across the coffin thingy, then step UP onto a bank, and UP onto the next level and away. this was the one obstacle that beej was not too confident about. he didn't refuse, but he wasn't as forward & happy to approach it as he was with everything else. the first attempt was a bit harried & crazy, but i refocused quite a lot and the second one had a LOT more impulsion - so much that he zoomed off quite a long way down the track on the other side before i was able to pull him up.
beej was SUPER good throughout. quite happy to stand & watch the others go away from the group & then past to tackle an obstacle, and also happy to do the same. he had a few antsy pantsy moments, but on the whole, very good... *wonders if it was the 1 hour intense workout he'd done just a little while beforehand*
jenny seemed quite pleased with him & us, considering that he's never done xc & i haven't jumped properly for years and years. she also asked about how old he was & if he'd ever raced. later, kelli was like, "and maybe you could sell beejy to jenny!" haha. she said she was surprised that i'd told her i wanted to sell him & i responded that i think i ride him a lot better & more often if i have it in my head that he's going to be sold. so yeah, he's for sale... but i'm not advertising him, lol.
floating
just quickly - i gave beejy the calming paste about 40 mins before leaving home in the morning. i have NO idea if it worked because he got a lot of it back out and over me. anyways. i went to load him up & he just looked at the float and had a tantrum & my brain just stopped working. tried a couple of times more & he barged away from me & i dropped the leadrope & he sort of walked away, then realised he was free & trotted off. Kelli was like, "was that supposed to happen?" and i just started crying! and then i said that i wouldn't be able to get him on now cos i was so worked up & she said SHE'D do it.
so we caught him (but not after he broke into mouse's paddock tho & stirred her up) & kelli led him back & i just followed, still panting a bit & having anxiety (and i'd been giving MYSELF rescue remedy since about 7am).
then kelli was SUPER quiet & relaxed with him & just spent a bit of time approach/retreating. he would stretch right out & get his front feet up, but his hind feet would still be near the end of the ramp. he'd be quiet like that for a while, then have a panic & practically throw himself off.
paul came along to see what was going on & i know he was DYING to try to get him on himself (paul thinks he's a bit of a guru when it comes to floating... maybe...). but beejay just needs quiet time because he just gets so anxious - he really is scared of the float & it freaks him out.
anyway, 9am came and went (when i was SUPPOSED to have a lesson with Jenny - jaana was in that class too!) & beej was still not moving, but he wasn't getting a lot of pressure put on him at all. i dunno if the calming paste helped him relaxed - he certainly was a LOT less "up" than he usually is when it comes to floating, but again, kelli was purposely being as non-confrontational as possible.
eventually, when he'd relaxed enough, kelli wanted to try the lunge rope technique (as in, bring it behind him to apply some pressure). i've always been fearful of doing this with beejay as he can be so explosive & i always felt he would just go UP.
instead, with a bit of pressure from me (released as soon as he would go forward) he loaded up in about 2 seconds.
!@!@#!
we let him off to have a chew whislt kelli went to get ben. then did it again & he loaded up soo easy. he was SHAKING from fear tho, so i drove like a complete nanna to pony club, doing maybe 40-50km an hour and taking up the whole road to turn corners.
we did the same thing going home - he had a moment to think about it, but went on as soon as that back pressure was put on.
huh. i talked about it with my feedguy & he said many horses are used to bum pressure cos they are taught to lead that way. i remember when i FIRST went to pick beej up we used lunge ropes to get him on & it did nothing.
anyways.
so yeah. floating AND x-country and we survived. yay.
lesson today @ 4pm, so he will be well and truly buggered after this weekend.
anyways. so the X-Country training. i was originally signed up for the afternoon session to do pole work & when i got there in the morning i decided to do 60cm jumping. then after the bullcrap in the morning decided that maybe 2 hours in the bush might do beejy some good, so i swapped to that. it was for beginners & it's pretty low key - find a jump, instructed on how to approach it, then one after the other... do it.
so the instructor, jenny, asked me about my jumping experience & his x-country experience (none as far as i know) and she also asked, "what are your plans with him?" and i responded with, "to sell him" LOL! i was like, "i wanna ride him like he needs to be ridden," and she was like, "o that's funny cos so many ppl ride their horses like THEY want to." haha. goes to show how pony whipped i am by my horse, right?
anyway. he was VERy quiet and relaxed after his full on (and i mean... FULL ON) workout in the morning - he was literally sweating all over & had only had an hours rest before we started in the afternoon. there were 5 of us in the class - 2 quite game & relatively experienced ppl & 3 greenies, including kelli, on benito who has very little jumping experience anyway.
Jenny had us crank our stirrups up - she was like, "5 holes from dressage length" and i was like, "OMFG NO WAY" so only went up 2 holes. i do remember that from when i was a kid. 2 holes extra for jumping, 4 holes up for x-country. it's alright when you're used to it.
she also explained that we need to do 3 point over the jump & 2 point when galloping between jumps to get off the horses back. and ALSO for effective x-country, legs have to be FORWARD and braced, much further than for jumping. she talked about if they're back then it's much easier to fall/lose balance etc.
so first we tackled this little log - about 40cm tall. had to get quite the run up & trot vigorously over it. beej did it like a champ & i grabbed mane. then back over it again. ben refused so jenny said she'd get kelli to practice her first jump on something a tad smaller. another girl, isabella, cleared it, but tumbled off the side (and landed on her feet) when her horse (a lovely big standy called Data) swerved to join the group.
we saw a little mob of 4 kangaroos & most of the horses nearly died from eye bugging. because it's just a thin strip of bush, we saw them quite a few times throughout the lesson & they were SUPER tame - coming easily within just a few metres of the rest of us. the horses were used to them by the end tho, thank goodness.
kelli was very interesting through this as well. she was all out of wack because her stirrups had gone up & she literally said to me, "i can't! i'm going to change my stirrups back" and i just said, "shutup!" and she was like, ":X" but then got on with it. by the end of the lesson she'd gotton over herself tho & was having a good time & stopped the "i can't" stuff, because she COULD!
we went further into the bush and found a series of jumps - a little log (about 30cm), a white picket fence (about 45cm) & another upright about 45cm. Jenny watched us all jump them one at a time & then she got us to do it as a line. there was a big 3' picket fence at the end of the line & the other 2 more game riders were to go over it & then she said to me that she reckoned i could do it too as i was riding well & beej was pretty honest. soooo.
i went 3rd after the other 2 (kelli & this other young girl, isabella were behind me) & he went like a total pro. we did the first 3 & he approached the big jump at a nice canter & took off PERFECTLY & it was fricking AWESOME. BUT my lower leg slipped back & i guess i looked at the ground on landing, so my whole body pivoted forward and i just lost my balance and tumbled off the side about 3 strides after we landed. ARGH!
the other 2 riders & jenny were like, "OMFG WHAT HAPPENED! you cleared it!" i was laughing, tho i had sand down my pants & i knew i'd landed a bit roughly on my hip/neck (dunno how both of them were affected). the next second tho, Data came galloping up, horseless & isabella was on the ground just after jump #3!!! we yelled out for kelli to stop. later she thought we were cheering for her, lol, but then she saw that isabella had fallen off.
same thing with isabella - bit harder for her to get her jumping position right as she was jumping in a dressage saddle. she'd lost her balance AFTER the jump & tumbled off (again!). anyway, kelli came thru & cleared the jump with ben & it was all good. i had to find a log to climb on from too.
went further on to find another jump - i sorta wanted to try the 3' picket again, but jenny wanted us to do something smaller to build up confidence again (good idea!).
anyway. we then tackled a small log, then found a ditch & one of the other ladies did an apex right after that too. then further on to find a bank/drop.
the bank/drop thing was SCARY. there were 3 levels - about a 2' jump up, then another 6' and then another 1' or so and then bloody 3'6" or so drop DOWN. omfg. we practiced just doing the 2' jump up, then turning sharply right and jumping down, which was fun & easy! then jenny was like, "ok, you 3 go straight and do the jump down" (i was one of the 3) and the other 2 had a choice about if they wanted to or not. *LE SIGH.
beej was so good, just straight up, up, up and... DOWN! a drop is scary tho because his head just disappears & jenny said, contrary to popular belief, you don't bend back, but bend slightly forward to pick them up straightaway on landing. omfg - this means you SEE THE GROUND headed towards you at high speed. i jabbed him the first time in the mouth - nothing to hold on to except reins! and felt like i did the same the 2nd time around, but jenny was happy with how we did it. i think next time i might have a neck strap because his mane is useless! there's not enough!
both kelli and isabella ended up doing the big drop as well, so that's awesome. kelli gets real mental blocks sometimes & was holding ben back, but he was super keen. once she realised he's pretty happy to tackle things, she relaxed a lot!
after the bank we found a coffin. basically, ride down a bank, over a small upright (like, really small), then across the coffin thingy, then step UP onto a bank, and UP onto the next level and away. this was the one obstacle that beej was not too confident about. he didn't refuse, but he wasn't as forward & happy to approach it as he was with everything else. the first attempt was a bit harried & crazy, but i refocused quite a lot and the second one had a LOT more impulsion - so much that he zoomed off quite a long way down the track on the other side before i was able to pull him up.
beej was SUPER good throughout. quite happy to stand & watch the others go away from the group & then past to tackle an obstacle, and also happy to do the same. he had a few antsy pantsy moments, but on the whole, very good... *wonders if it was the 1 hour intense workout he'd done just a little while beforehand*
jenny seemed quite pleased with him & us, considering that he's never done xc & i haven't jumped properly for years and years. she also asked about how old he was & if he'd ever raced. later, kelli was like, "and maybe you could sell beejy to jenny!" haha. she said she was surprised that i'd told her i wanted to sell him & i responded that i think i ride him a lot better & more often if i have it in my head that he's going to be sold. so yeah, he's for sale... but i'm not advertising him, lol.
floating
just quickly - i gave beejy the calming paste about 40 mins before leaving home in the morning. i have NO idea if it worked because he got a lot of it back out and over me. anyways. i went to load him up & he just looked at the float and had a tantrum & my brain just stopped working. tried a couple of times more & he barged away from me & i dropped the leadrope & he sort of walked away, then realised he was free & trotted off. Kelli was like, "was that supposed to happen?" and i just started crying! and then i said that i wouldn't be able to get him on now cos i was so worked up & she said SHE'D do it.
so we caught him (but not after he broke into mouse's paddock tho & stirred her up) & kelli led him back & i just followed, still panting a bit & having anxiety (and i'd been giving MYSELF rescue remedy since about 7am).
then kelli was SUPER quiet & relaxed with him & just spent a bit of time approach/retreating. he would stretch right out & get his front feet up, but his hind feet would still be near the end of the ramp. he'd be quiet like that for a while, then have a panic & practically throw himself off.
paul came along to see what was going on & i know he was DYING to try to get him on himself (paul thinks he's a bit of a guru when it comes to floating... maybe...). but beejay just needs quiet time because he just gets so anxious - he really is scared of the float & it freaks him out.
anyway, 9am came and went (when i was SUPPOSED to have a lesson with Jenny - jaana was in that class too!) & beej was still not moving, but he wasn't getting a lot of pressure put on him at all. i dunno if the calming paste helped him relaxed - he certainly was a LOT less "up" than he usually is when it comes to floating, but again, kelli was purposely being as non-confrontational as possible.
eventually, when he'd relaxed enough, kelli wanted to try the lunge rope technique (as in, bring it behind him to apply some pressure). i've always been fearful of doing this with beejay as he can be so explosive & i always felt he would just go UP.
instead, with a bit of pressure from me (released as soon as he would go forward) he loaded up in about 2 seconds.
!@!@#!
we let him off to have a chew whislt kelli went to get ben. then did it again & he loaded up soo easy. he was SHAKING from fear tho, so i drove like a complete nanna to pony club, doing maybe 40-50km an hour and taking up the whole road to turn corners.
we did the same thing going home - he had a moment to think about it, but went on as soon as that back pressure was put on.
huh. i talked about it with my feedguy & he said many horses are used to bum pressure cos they are taught to lead that way. i remember when i FIRST went to pick beej up we used lunge ropes to get him on & it did nothing.
anyways.
so yeah. floating AND x-country and we survived. yay.
lesson today @ 4pm, so he will be well and truly buggered after this weekend.