Buck Davidson Clinic

Today, despite the fact that it was 22 degrees when I pulled into the parking lot at Chattahoochee Hills, we went and rode in the Buck Davidson clinic! It was bitter bitter cold, but a blast. We got warmed up (and by warmed up I mean we walked and trotted and cantered... not warmed up physically!) and then met with Buck. He said that he wanted us to go out and canter and gallop. He wanted us to do 6 strides of gallop, 6 strides of collecting, back to 6 strides of gallop. And he wanted our horses to be anticipating almost. HA!! It was basically chaos. At least for me... Fleck pretty much bolted and ran off with me. He felt GOOD!! And I'm pretty sure a few others were having the same issue. I was sorta able to get Fleck back but once I tried to let him out again, he'd bolt again. Goober. Oh well. It was fun. So then it was time to jump. 

We started over the log and started with a low fence. We did all three canters to it. Gallop, show jump canter, and coffin canter. Then we did all three logs with each one at a different canter. Then we moved on and did some technical stuff. Buck had us jump a skinny and a roll top after a little tiny mini course. He noted (as did I) that Fleck's left drift was pretty drastic. More so when I collected him, which makes sense... you let him go forward and he goes straighter. So I had to really focus on correcting that. Buck said to think more of landing right and jumping a little left to right to help correct it. So then he had us do a combo. Buck was great because he does not like the single jump schoolings, so it was a lot of mini courses! Which helped with the flow. It also meant Fleck got to gallop a lot! And he LOVED it. But anyways, back to the combo. It was a few other jumps and then a roll top, four strides to a skinny. Only he wanted us to jump the roll top and then halt just before the skinny. HA! Surprisingly, most of it were able to do it, though it took two tries to really get it like he wanted. The trick was to ride the first jump like you knew you had to halt (ie more show jump/coffin cantering than gallop). He said "I promise I'm not teaching them to stop!"... He said that it helped with the balance and the commitment. It was essentially an aggressive half halt. So then we went through and jumped the line without the halt. And it was smooth and easy to ride the line. :) 

Then we moved on to the water jump. HA! It was frozen! The horses walked in and were having to crunch the ice. It was funny. They were all snorty and bug eyed at the skittering ice pieces and it took a lot of goading to get Fleck in. But we broke it all up and then only did the novice line because of it. So he had us do another little course and this time we went back to the roll top to skinny and then around to another roll top, around the mound, and over the corner. (Along with some other fences). The first time I didn't ride my line great and so I had to speed him up to the corner and I threw myself at him a little. Buck said it was because I didn't swing out enough so to try again. This time I picked. Argh. So we tried it again and I rode my landing and then it was much smoother. I was able to balance with my shoulders and we got our distance. That was Bucks point throughout the day. FOCUS on the LANDING!!! As his pilot trainer said "Take off is optional, landing is not". Meaning.. anyone can take off, but the landing is the important part. And if we focus on making the landing good, the take off will be. He also said that the canter and balance are the most important thing. If you have the right canter, you can pick your spot. 

So basically... the thing that really helped me was the "ride your landing" part. I really think that my problem with the technical stuff and the combinations on bendy lines, etc... is because of the left drift and me not riding the lines. I think I ride the first jump... then the second jump... Rather than riding the landing to the first jump and the line to the second landing. In other words.. I'm chopping it up to much. For whatever reason, the ride your landing helps me ride the whole combo at once, rather than in pieces. We didn't try any super technical stuff so I'm excited to try out my new "theory" and see how helpful it is. I also need to REALLY work on that left drift. And my leg. Every time I would close my left leg to prevent the drift, my heel would come up and I'd pinch with my knee. Argh. Although I was quite surprised that the rest of the time my leg did okay.

It was fun!!! Freezing!! Most of the ride my lips were so cold they were numb and I could hardly talk. But I had a great time and it was good catching up with some old friends. And Fleck obviously had a blast! He took every opportunity to gallop and even as we were done (2 hours later) he wanted to canter/gallop back to the barn. Dingbat!! hee hee. So I poulticed him and we went home. The next day he looked great! YAY!!!!