The Ground is Not Your Friend

PSA: the ground is not your friend. Try to avoid landing there at all costs.


Allow me to expound on that gem.

As you probably know by now, I ride young horses for a living. It is inevitable that the ground and I will meet up at various intervals.

Today was one of those days.

The other trainer at the barn and I are taking some green horses to a small hunter show on Sunday. They need to get out, see some different jumps and arena, and be exposed to a show environment.

Quick introduction to the two that I am taking:

Macy is a four year old mare. Love this one. She jumps cute, is quiet-minded, and just a lot of fun to ride. She goes just like I like mine to, which makes sense being that I am the one that has done all the riding on her. She's going to make someone a fantastic hunter. She has never been off the farm, so we will see how Sunday goes!

 

Louie is a 5 year old gelding by our TB stallion. Super cool horse. He has a ton of jump, is almost too quiet, and not at all spooky. He takes a ton of leg to ride...you have to ride him up to each jump pretty hard. If not, he just kicks into a lower gear. This one takes some of our younger kids to the local shows to do the crossrail division. Got to love that mind!

You are probably pondering which one of these lovely animals was responsible for me meeting the ground today.

I schooled Macy first. She was FANTASTIC. In the last week, her canter has improved so much. It's like a light switch was thrown; all of a sudden she has decided that she can canter balanced and in a frame without any trouble. She jumped around (this horse is so honest-absolutely no stop in her!) and even had some lovely lead changes. I was thrilled with this one!

I rode a few of my three year olds on the flat before tackling my next fence horse. Enter Louie.

To be fair, none of what took place was even remotely Louie's fault. He was actually jumping around really great. I was having a hell of a time keeping him pushed up for the jumps, however. We started out wonderfully. He was forward and light off my leg, swapping leads like a pro, and generally just jumping like a seasoned hunter.

Once he got tired, however, the gas pedal started to get sticky. I would come out of the corner, close my leg to keep a nice steady pace, and...nadda. My beautiful spot that I saw from the corner would slowly disappear as my horse's pace dropped and dropped and dropped to a lovely chip.

Louie is a saint. It's a good thing that he is athletic, because he is honest over fences to a fault. If you point him anywhere close to anything that resembles a jump you had better be prepared to hang on. He is going over no matter what spot you put him at.

Louie, the ultimate horse at taking a joke.

We got our pace issues sorted out and then proceeded to take the two stride that we have set up in the arena. The good news is, we jumped out in a nice two. 

The bad news is...well, this would be a good time to interject that Louie has a tendency to jump like this:

Got bascule?

Yup, we have it.

Unfortunately, Louie also has the tendency to hit the ground fairly hard on the landing side, with his head in a nice, relaxed, low position. It looks great but...it doesn't end well if one happens to have the horrid habit of giving an unnecessarily large crest release while throwing yourself at your horse's neck (just to be SURE that you don't catch them in the mouth).

Ahem.

Guilty as charged. Louie cracked his back over the out jump of the line, I got too forward, and off I flew on the landing. I was fine, although my shoulder is a bit sore. The other trainer (OT) got on, jumped him a little, and then I got back on. Made sure to keep my upper body back a little (gee, novel concept!) and it went much better!

Add hitting the ground to the 2 1/2 hours that the OT and I spent at the gym this morning (yoga, ab workout, and water aerobics!) and I am going to be moving slowly tomorrow morning!

I get frustrated sometimes, because I still have so much to learn. Working on all these young horses all the time has been a great way to develop truly atrocious equitation habits. I used to ride by myself (before OT moved to the barn), so at least now I have eyes on the ground to help me!

Sometimes I wish that I had a super nice packer to re-learn all this stuff on. Taking several years off of jumping for college did nothing for my leg or my eye! I am used to starting the young horses and getting a solid foundation on them, both on the flat and over tiny jumps. This whole jump them around bigger courses at a show thing still throws me for a loop every now and then

I have to remind myself that I would not have any horses to ride if it weren't for this job. I have to remind myself that I am improving as are my horses. I have to remind myself that I am young and have time to reach the level of proficiency that I want. I have to remind myself that riding and training is a constant learning process.

I spend quite a bit of time reminding myself of things, obviously!

My horses are not coming along as quickly in their training as they would if OT were riding them but they continue to be solid citizens. I continually see improvement in their confidence over fences, their flatwork, and their work ethic. One thing is for sure: they learn how to take a joke!