We finished our season with Sara Schulman attempting her first two-star long with her Cooley Chromatic, which seems like months ago because time is flying! Caden, as we call him, had a beautiful dressage, and cross-country was mainly good—I thought he handled the hill well, and jumped amazing. Unfortunately, at the second to last down the steep hill, there was a sharp turn to an upright skinny and they never quite got their balance back to make it work. Caden got under the jump and jumped Sara out of the saddle, which sucked for Sarah. If you’re not winning you’re learning, right?
Sarah also rode a client’s horse, Merlo VDL, and did a great job. They were fourth after dressage, with one down in show jumping in the pouring rain with no studs, jumping around in a beautiful rhythm.
Now we’re in the part of season where we’re practicing how to get balance, and I’m teaching tons of clinics. At home, my friend Sue Lyman has been helping me work on shortening and lengthening at the trot and canter, and making transitions from trot to canter to counter-canter and back to the trot and back to the true canter again. We also work on balance in the turns and making sure our horses are listening to us…duh, the basics.
Sometimes I feel we get too far away from the basics. One exercise we do is going in an open five stride line to a short turn to an oxer, then coming back to the trot over a small jump. I think this is a good time to practice all those things because sometimes, I think we get away from making sure we’re connected, relaxed and responsive, and we have really good positions with our heels down and chin up. I used to look to Reed Kessler to model great position, and now I think about Jenny Brannigan. A good position can help us react quicker and get balance done early.
Now we’re in the part of season where we’re practicing how to get balance, and I’m teaching tons of clinics. At home, my friend Sue Lyman has been helping me work on shortening and lengthening at the trot and canter, and making transitions from trot to canter to counter-canter and back to the trot and back to the true canter again. We also work on balance in the turns and making sure our horses are listening to us…duh, the basics.
Sometimes I feel we get too far away from the basics. One exercise we do is going in an open five stride line to a short turn to an oxer, then coming back to the trot over a small jump. I think this is a good time to practice all those things because sometimes, I think we get away from making sure we’re connected, relaxed and responsive, and we have really good positions with our heels down and chin up. I used to look to Reed Kessler to model great position, and now I think about Jenny Brannigan. A good position can help us react quicker and get balance done early.
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