Hands Up, Heads Up; Lessons from Tigerland

What a weekend. I'm almost thankful for Monday and to be at work, just because I get a chance to sit down and relax a little, and just man my little front desk area of the office and occasionally run some errands to the main hospital. Saturday and Sunday were both super hectic, but for equally fantastic, yet tiring reasons.

On a brief, more personal and less horsey note, my boyfriend of four years, Michael, has finally moved in with me here in Georgia, after us being separated due to the Army for the last 3 1/2, so we've been busy unpacking, organizing, re-arranging, cleaning out, and all the delightful things that come with moving in with your significant other. On Saturday a shipment of his household goods came (the stuff that the Army paid to ship) so we spent the large majority of the day putting electronics together, more cleaning, more organizing, more re-arranging...well you get the picture.

Sunday was a lesson with Jamie Grant-Rowland, trainer and coach of the hunt seat team from Clemson University. Kim asked her to come down and give us Foxhunters a bit of good old fashioned schooling both in the ring and over fences, something that the majority of us don't do too often. I'll be the first one to admit that as much as I've been riding lately, the focus has been way more on fitness for the horses and not for myself, though I'd like to think I'm not too shabby. Out of the three horses that I ride regularly, Madison, Bedford and Marshall, I chose Marshall to ride in this lesson because I felt like I'd get the most out of the lesson on him. While I love Madison dearly, and she will always be my big Momma, ring work is not her forte; as for Bedford, he decided many years ago he was 'done' with any shape or form of ring work and protests quite loudly and expressively about doing anything more than a few laps of trotting in a ring.

Not really awake yet.

On to the lesson details; I can't say good enough things about working with Jamie; she immediately picked up on how I tend to ride with my hands low and wide, and how Marshall braces and likes to drive downward through transitions, and had me really focus on picking my hands up, keeping the snaffle rein of the three-ring shorter, and as for myself, more upright and not so slouchy mcsloucherson. For the ring work part of the lesson, she had us working through transitions trot-walk-trot and then trot-halt-trot-walk to really encourage a marching, forward walk and trot, but then uphill, balanced transitions throughout. I've been trying to do this on a smaller scale, so I loved that she keyed in on this as well and had us working on it.

2nd Fence/Bending Line

After some solid flatwork warm up, we headed down to the grass stadium ring, where we worked on canter departs using a single pole as a point of reference, both as a balance point and as a mark for the transition to happen. Again, another small piece which I plan on using with all three horses in the future. We then moved to jumping a single fence, in both directions, but focusing on the tempo and rhythm to the fence, and making it as solid and balanced as possible. From there we added on a small bending line, choosing which direction to take it. I know I've mentioned it before, but Marshall is missing his right eye, so often I track left when I jump first just to give him that benefit, but instead, I went right, but planned a large, sweeping turns (and as I did this, I heard a trainer/coach from way back in my mind yelling 'MAKE SMART TURNS') so he had the best chance to focus and I could help him balance and adjust.

Post-Lesson...needing treats.

We had a few bobbles here and there, like when I saw a long spot and Marshall definitely didn't agree with it, but by the end, we put together a small course with a few changes of direction, even with Jamie sneaking around and raising the poles in their cups a good few inches, much to my chagrin, while continually reminding me to pick my hands up and sit up, which I'll say, made our combined balance and ability to adjust ONE MILLION TIMES BETTER. Of course, we had to add in some dramatic flair at the end, when Jamie asked me to halt after the final fence, and it was almost happening....and then Marshall tripped...with one leg..and then another...and then went down to his knees...and then almost to his face...and I almost stayed on....but then I didn't, and in slow, not graceful at all fashion, I flipped off and landed on my back. Le sigh. No one was injured (I'm a little lot sore today), but that's because you stop bouncing after 30, and I hopped back on and re-did that line, triumphantly halting and then walking off like the rockstars we are.

Needless to say, I'm really excited for the prospect of more lessons with Jamie in the future, and for the continued progress of Marshall and myself, even if we both felt like we were dying at the end of the hour and a half lesson in the Georgia heat and humidity.