LegUp Equestrian February 13th 2010 Jumping and Dressage Training Sessions.

       

Training sessions were held at Bromley with riders being able to choose to book onto either a 1 hours Jumping session in the morning or a 1 hour Dressage Training Session in the Afternoon.

 

In the morning jumping sessions, riders worked on the flat, then over poles at holding their jumping position for a prolonged amount of time without the use of their hands or tight knees.  Horses were then worked over canter poles with riders having to be in balance and control before progressing onto jumps.                                           (right Paige Latham)

                                                                                             

Riders continued to concentrate on their own positions being aware if they were perhaps holding hands high or looking down..... while having to keep their horse at the correct pace to suit the grid of jumps they had to complete.                                                      

 

Above Left Jodie Cantrill, Centre Carolyn explains now you are going to jump the grid without reins!!! Right Polly Edmondson

 

The riders of the more experienced horses eventually progressed onto riding 3 bounces then one stride to a single fence with some of the riders being asked to do this exercise with out the reins. 

 

In the afternoon Dressage sessions riders worked towards settling their horses down and then were allowed a short time to improve their own horses as individuals.

 

All riders were then asked to work on their transitions, getting their horse ready to perform at the given marker in walk, trot and canter.  In order to do this horses have to be engaged behind with riders understanding the horses mind to make sure their horse is truely prepared in order to get an on time transition which is also made to look easy.

 

We then talked about correct bend for on circles for which some of the horses found this easier to perform than others, riders then progressed to riding two 1/2 10m or 20m circles to change the rein so riders could test out riding in one bend before a brief moment of straightness before having to show the new bend for the second half circle. 

 

Our next Saturday training sessions will take place on 13th March.  Weekday evening training session are also currently taking place on Wednesday 24th Feb and Thurs 4th March.  See the events pages for further details of these and other future training sessions.

 

 

Carolyn