Trainer Knows Best
I saw this little gem on facebook a while ago: "If at first you don't succeed, do what your trainer told you in the first place!"
I've been blessed to have several wonderful trainers and coaches over the years, and their pearls of wisdom have stuck with me long after my lessons. Yesterday's Moment Of Truth has been beaten into my brain by the majority of them, and it amazes me that this essential bit of knowledge has only just seemed to sink in.
When jumping, if you have a quality canter, everything else will fall into place.
Or in the words of one college instructor, "Ride the canter, not the jump."
Especially since the end of the summer, it's been really easy for me to get worked up about the jumps themselves. The height of the fence, seeing (or not seeing) a distance, and a fear of my pony stopping have all been thoughts that dominate my brain when jumping lately. While going around at the canter yesterday, I started asking myself if the canter I had was appropriate to take to a fence. It wasn't. So I raised my hand, gave Dino a squeeze, and asked him for a more uphill, powerful canter. I asked myself again, could I take this canter to a jump? Heck yeah. It was balanced, rhythmic, forward, and adjustable. So I pointed him at a jump, focusing on that canter the whole way. And what do you know, the distance was right there and Dino jumped perfectly out of stride. I landed and made a tight turn to the 2'9" fence he had stopped at the other day, again asking myself if our canter was good enough. Nope! Add leg, balance back, and almost magically the distance appeared out of thin air and Dino popped over with ease and confidence. I'm always in awe of how good riding just works.
I've been blessed to have several wonderful trainers and coaches over the years, and their pearls of wisdom have stuck with me long after my lessons. Yesterday's Moment Of Truth has been beaten into my brain by the majority of them, and it amazes me that this essential bit of knowledge has only just seemed to sink in.
When jumping, if you have a quality canter, everything else will fall into place.
Or in the words of one college instructor, "Ride the canter, not the jump."
Especially since the end of the summer, it's been really easy for me to get worked up about the jumps themselves. The height of the fence, seeing (or not seeing) a distance, and a fear of my pony stopping have all been thoughts that dominate my brain when jumping lately. While going around at the canter yesterday, I started asking myself if the canter I had was appropriate to take to a fence. It wasn't. So I raised my hand, gave Dino a squeeze, and asked him for a more uphill, powerful canter. I asked myself again, could I take this canter to a jump? Heck yeah. It was balanced, rhythmic, forward, and adjustable. So I pointed him at a jump, focusing on that canter the whole way. And what do you know, the distance was right there and Dino jumped perfectly out of stride. I landed and made a tight turn to the 2'9" fence he had stopped at the other day, again asking myself if our canter was good enough. Nope! Add leg, balance back, and almost magically the distance appeared out of thin air and Dino popped over with ease and confidence. I'm always in awe of how good riding just works.
I always tell my kids "ride the canter, not the jump"
ReplyDeleteThanks Angelo!