Force of habit

Hello, everyone!

Today I had a private lesson on Bails in preparation for the jumping competition in two weeks time (and also, I couldn't make Pony Club yesterday). It was a good lesson in that my problem with show jumping is not the fences themselves but the fact that it's a course, so we primarily worked on that. My steering tends to go to pot when jumping courses, and I end up with too much energy going sideways instead of forward. My lesson today focussed a lot on my that, and my problem seems to be from things I've been taught over the years.

One of my big issues is that I have a tendency to hold my hands in the wrong position. They are either too low, or I open up the outside hand when turning. The latter problem is something I was taught last year in particular but it's now second nature to me. I do it without thinking. It's also why I end up with lateral movement. I have to teach myself to keep my hands closer together and to fix my outside hand more - which sounds easy, but when you're also being told that you need to be on one seat bone more than the other and elongate a leg to nudge the horse into straightness becomes a bit of challenge. To make it harder, there were lots of changes of rein to mess with my head, because what was left is suddenly right and what was right is left.

Bails was a star as always. When I get it correct he responds straight away, although by the end of the lesson he was knackered and had no energy left. On the bright side, I can now steer a lot better. I'm hoping direction won't be my problem with the course. The only downside of the lesson is that I didn't actually go over any jumps. The instructor just put some poles on the floor. In a way this was good, because it meant I didn't have to worry about light seat position and all that jazz, but it is a negative in that I now haven't jumped for a month and I've put myself in for the upper jumping class.

I'm hoping that I can have one more lesson before the competition, but even if I do it would be with a different instructor - so the new habits I'm trying to learn wouldn't be enforced! It's a bit of a vicious cycle because I have lot of habits that I need to adjust before the competition.

Of course, there's no guarantee that I'll be riding Bails for the competition in a fortnight. I could end up on a youngster, in which case a different riding style would be needed entirely. Bails has been around some pretty high level courses in his time so he knows what to do when it comes to show time. Nevertheless, it's all very confusing!

What are some of your bad habits, and how did you correct them (or realise they existed)?

Until next time!