Like I said, it started Friday am on Flecks birthday! We had a good lesson with Beth and then started off on the adventure. We picked up Caroline and Jack and now Fleck has a new friend. Him and Jack hung out all weekend and Fleck decided he thought Jack was awesome. So we headed off to Easy Breeze, a TB training farm. The Lucinda clinic was at the Gibbes Farm in St. Matthews SC, but they had limited stabling so the rest of us stayed a few minutes down the road at Easy Breeze. What a nice place! Fleck had a big stall with tons of fluffy shavings and then there was this awesome gallop track!!! I was soooooo tempted to hop on and take Fleck for a spin. BUT... it was his birthday.. he had already been ridden... and it was getting late and we still had to unhitch and go find our hotel, eat dinner, and sleep! So... now track for us. Caroline and I found our hotel and had dinner with Beth at Fatz. Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed!
Lucinda is AWESOME!!! I really really enjoyed her. Before we started she asked a bit about each horse and rider. I told her that Fleck and I were doing okay but having our issues. Most of the stuff was my fault and just rookie mistakes and fixable. But that at Pine Top and Chatt hills he had his "No" moments. I told her that he basically quit and wouldn't do it. She said that she knew a few appies and all of them were like that. It got to a point where they just quit and said no. I told her he's always been a good guy and tried, but that perhaps this was starting to get hard for him. She agreed that he wasn't really built to be a prelim or higher horse. She asked about veterinary reasons and I told her that he's been poked and prodded thoroughly and should be quite happy and comfy. Then she asked if he was all Appy. I told her he was 3/8 TB and she replied with "well, you have 3/8 hope then!". hee hee.. And then she said that she'd watch and see and we'd go from there. Now... let me add my disclaimer. She is VERY nice and was not rude at all about it. She said that of the appaloosa's she's known... she has found them to be chickens and they will quit. But she also was very open minded and quick to change her mind if it was shown to be otherwise. After we started jumping she said "oh.. there's no reason he can't be a prelim horse!" She was quite pleased with him.
So, the first day was stadium day. She basically says that any horse can jump from the right distance. BUT... EVERY one will get them to a bad spot at some point and the horses that can think on their feet and get through it are the ones you want. It's not always going to be right but you have to make do and do it. So she didn't measure any lines and put stuff out and about. It was looky spooky stuff too! She wanted to challenge them but also build their confidence. And ours. There was a bunch of skinnies, some of those walls that are jump "fillers" - the short 4 foot wall pieces. There was barrels, a plank, and even a chunk of astroturf/fake grass carpet. She had each group trot over everything to show that we could control the ponies. She said that trotting makes it harder for a horse to refuse because he only had one hind foot on the ground at each moment, instead of being able to push off and away with both hind feet. So we started off by jumping over anything we wanted for about 4 minutes.. the only rules were NO cantering and no running out. We could stop, we could back up, and we could go through it... but we were not to go past it unless we went over it. I took Fleck over everything and surprisingly he didn't refuse anything! Even the skinnies... the carpet... whatever. He just jumped over. And straighter than he's ever been before too. I guess our mounting block lesson helped ;) Then she set up a course and we did that and then we were allowed to canter. Then we kept doing courses but she kept making them harder.... At one point we had to jump the arm of a V jump, bending line to 3 skinny bounces then slice the oxer. And then later we did an extreme diagonal line from a corner, to the barrel, to the plank... all very angled or bent. It was a blast! Fleck was a rockstar! The only issue we had was that I got a little too excited and forget to ride and let him get long and flat and so he took a flyer to the corner and then made the barrels but only by the skin of our teeth and then we missed the plank. When I packaged him and rode properly he nailed it. So then she was pretty much out of stuff for us to do with course work and said she was impressed with us. :) Then we did the barrels from a walk. The goal was to get us more comfortable with being in the back seat. Then she had us jump the barrels from a walk, slip the reins, and then keeping the reins long... we had to practice steering with the long reins and our legs and jump them over three more jumps on an curved line. It was great fun. She also stressed always stopping at the end of our lines, or a course, or even just when they were being naughty, and making them halt and telling them they were good (or bad). She said that it was a good way to instill leadership without having to get into it. In other words... it was a dominance thing, but we didn't have to get into it with them to prove it. So...we all finished with a straight line halt and we were done! yay!! Lucinda said that Fleck was lovely and she didn't see any reason so far that he wasn't a prelim pony.
The other groups did pretty much the same stuff as our group did, only not quite as technical. It was great because Lucinda said the same things and had each group accomplish the same goals, but also challenged the higher leveled groups a bit more and demanded a bit more from them. It wasn't so much that the jumps were higher, but the questions were tougher. So it was great fun to ride in because it wasn't just the same ol' exercise but bigger. And it was great to watch all the other groups too. I learned a lot just from watching them. There were some issues in every group and each issue was a learning experience. There was a few bit changes and the why's behind it were very helpful.
So... after a long hot day, we hauled the ponies back to the race farm and get them settled for the night. Then we had dinner with Stephanie (who came up to audit) and headed back to the hotel. I woke up around 4 am to pouring down rain but by the time we had to get up, it had stopped. It was crazy... hot and sweaty and sunshiney on Saturday, and cool, drizzly, and overcast on Sunday. We got super lucky though because despite the forecast predicting rain the majority of the day with storms, we really didn't get anymore than a fine misting for a few minutes. Caroline and I ended up just taking the ponies over that morning and leaving them tied to the trailer. We figured it would be easier and would allow us to watch more. And since it wasn't too hot, we felt okay with them tied up eating hay.
So... Cross country day... Holy smokes.... the Gibbes Farm is magnificant. There is sooooo much space with soooo many cross country jumps. They had a training level rolex looking duck!! There was about 5 ditch and walls, two waters, banks, sunken roads, mounds, coffins, tables, palisades, bendy lines, bounces, bounces in and out of water, and all sorts of fun stuff! Lucinda said she would give us a little bit of a free rein and let us do what we wanted but would also come up with some games for us. So again, I watched the first three groups and learned a lot. Then it was our turn. Eeeks!! I was nervous. But Fleck was great.. He was a bit of a firecracker at first. She had us jump a few jumps to get in the groove and Fleck was so wound up I wasn't sure I'd be able to steer. But once I picked a line, he locked on and started to focus. So.. then we went to the banks to start. She had us trot up the bank, then trot down. I must remember to not jump up his neck on the up banks... Then we added a skinny up top and a skinny at the bottom. I"m definitely getting better at steering and using my legs rather than relying on just my hands. And then.... it all fell apart. She set up a little mini course with a rather hard jump. And I wanted to do it because I sorta thought we might see Flecks' "No" come out and I wanted help on how to fix it. So we did the skinny, down the bank, bending to another skinny, then to a hanging log, then roll back around to another hanging log (only this one was special.... it had a rolled out ground line and in between that ground line was a sunken/buried water trough), then up around to the top of the bank again and over a log stack bounce down off the bank. I was thinking Fleck would say no to the log stack at the top of the bank because I figured he couldn't see the bank behind it but would know something was afoot. Yeah, well... we didn't quite make it that far. He saw the water trough from a stride or two back and said NO WAY!!! I tried a few times and couldn't even get him close to it. Lucinda came to help and we walked him up to it to let him see it and sniff it. He was snorting and blowing and would only get so close. She did say it was brave of him to get as close as he did, as he was obviously scared and that others wouldn't have gotten that close. But.. he wasn't going over it. We then tried following Phinn. I wasn't sure it would work as it didn't at Pine Top, but... she had me hot on his tail. Like... almost on top of him (whether that's what she meant or not... oh well). I honestly thought Fleck just might go over it but at the last minute Phinn stopped too,s so Fleck was like "oh, see.... I told you guys!". So.... we then got Phinn over it by following Cavalier and then tried to get Fleck to follow Cavalier. He still said no. So... Lucinda said that it wasn't going to happen today. And that she didn't know how to fix it because you couldn't break it down... She said to not take Fleck to fences like that because I couldn't help him over it if he decided he didn't like it. Argh... I was frustrated. I admit it. I mean, it was nice to know that it wasn't poor riding on my part... but still. I'd prefer it that it was so I could fix it. So... I'll have to set something up at home that is similar. So, then we went around and did the log to the drop and he saw it and hesitated but only because he was thinking. He went.. he just had to think for a second. So I was proud of him for that. Then we went over to the little water. Fleck was a good boy there too and we did fine. Then we made our way to the ditches. But on the way we jumped two more hanging logs with rolled out ground lines. They had stone and such, but not water troughs. As I suspected (but maybe Lucinda didn't), Fleck jumped those like they were nothing! Lucinda set up a trakenher skinny using poles and had us go over that. Fleck peeked but was fine. Then we did a bendy line coffin. Lucinda said that you always want to go straight over ditches and banks. You do not want to angle them unless you absolutely have to. But usually you can angle what comes before and after and jump the ditches and banks mostly straight. So then we did two more bigger hanging logs with rolled out ground lines and of course, no problem. So then onward to the coffin. It was a funky one with the two rolltops set up on mounds and the ditch down in the trough of the mounds. Fleck and I sorta crawled through it the first time but then I sat up and rode and he rocked it. Then we jumped two more jumps and cruised down to the sunken road, which he jumped just fine. Again though... I sorta expected it. It was downhill, so he could see what was coming. So then we moved onto the big water. Megan was brave and jumped the ditch and wall but I chickened out. I had already had the stop at the water trough and didn't want to hold up the group again. Plus, there were a few ditch and walls that were smaller so I figured i"d work my way up to them when I came back. So we went to the water where Fleck was awesome again. After sitting for quite a bit we cantered into the water and out over the barrels, then around and over a log, one stride, dropped into the water, over a roll top in the water, and then out, and then over a chevron (well, over the chevron on the second attempt when I did NOT throw myself at it and climb up his neck)!. Then around to the drain pipe into the water, then a log bounce into the water... Great stuff. Fleck was great.
.JPG)
Lucinda told me that she was sorry that Fleck and I had our issue and she wished she could have helped us. She said that he's great and I just need to remember to sit up and stay sitting up. I need to be stronger, allowing the reins to slip so he can drop his head and look and not allow him to pull me down. She also said that when I do that I need to keep my leg on and prevent him from getting behind my leg. She said he goes from going, to behind my leg suddenly, and that throws me forward and then he can't jump. So I must figure out how to get stronger and stay back there and prevent it from happening.
So yes.. all in all, a great weekend!!! It was a little bit of a bummer that we couldn't work through the water trough jump issue, but I was glad we did everything else. Fleck was great and game and happy and we had a blast! It was a great learning experience and great fun hanging out with old and new friends. Exhausting... but fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment