Now that the fields had its second cut for this year I’ve been able to get my jumps and poles out so we can work in our favourite thing😄

The last time I posted an update on Dino was on our flatwork improvement and that work has all payed off! We played with poles Saturday (6/10/18) and jumped Sunday (7/10/18) filled with inspiration after watching some top riders at HOYS.

The Process

I started by working Dino in around the poles on the floor and jump wings. The poles were set as canter poles (three human strides) so we could work over them in any gait without adjustment. Once relaxed I started to work him over the poles in walk. As I was walking him over I focused on straightness, his rhythm and keeping him well-balanced whilst allowing him to take his time over the poles and look at them. When I was happy with how he’d walked through the poles we moved on to trot, again I focused on the same points as in walk. To change things up I would turn different ways after and do transitions to walk or halt before the turn. I find this really helps with keeping him listening and helps to stop him rushing before and after. Again when I was happy with his work and he was relaxed we tried the poles in canter. He was a little tense the first time so the next time I got his to stop before he turned which kept him calmer for the next try.

I was really happy with how calm and relaxed he was over the poles as he hadn’t done them in a while.

Jumping

The next day we moved on to jumping. We started with the poles so he could relax and I could get him listening to my aids particularly the half halt. To gain confidence we started over a cross pole by itself approaching in trot, this gave him time to have a look. I like to approach jumps in trot on Dino at the start of a session as it’s harder for him to pick up speed and rush on landing. He jumped both ways really well.

After the first couple of times he stated to get tense so I had to take him back to walk so he wouldn’t rush. So I walked him until he was straight for the jump and then asked him to trot. If he picked up canter that was fine.

When he’d settled a little a small upright was added with two/three (I can’t remember what it was😂) strides between. I went back to approaching in trot do he could see there was a second jump. I was really happy with how he jumped and took his time through the distance without becoming tense about the second element. I then approach in canter and he kept pretty much the same rhythm form approach to getaway which is a huge improvement for him. We finished our session on this note and warmed down before dismounting (I like to dismounting after s good session as it’s almost like a reward).

I look forward to jumping him again to see how he reacts and to work a bit more on technique before working in height.

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Hope you enjoyed reading about our progress and it helps some of you in some way if you are experiencing similar issues in your training.

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