Another breakthrough.
I'm a happy bunny this afternoon. Jazz has made another breakthrough. He has finally accepted me pushing him over a fence if he is not sure about it himself. So today we have done the entire farm ride with only one run-out. And that was at the first ....... guess ..... rolltop! He just caught me out with the enthusiasm of his approach, and ducked left at the last moment. He didn't catch me again :-) !! There were a few, especially early on, that he stopped at, which I pushed on over and he did them. And one or two that he tried to run out at but I pulled him back on line and made him do from as close as he then was to the fence, often only one stride out. But he got more and more fluent as the ride went on and there were quite a few that he really took me into.
I even did all the big options from about 1/3 of the way onwards, so we have done a rolltop, tyres, and a couple of other bits and pieces that were sizable fences, much bigger than Intro. Which is just as well, because I was told by the entry secretary that she would ballot me from Somerford on May 20th, but I think I have an entry because I haven't had notice of being ballotted out. I'd written saying that it wouldn't spoil my day if they were oversubscribed and I got ballotted, since we'll only be training. It's such a superb event that I didn't want someone else to lose their chance at doing it, but if I've been ballotted then the notification should have arrived by now.
So we have three more weeks to see if we can continue these improvements and build on them, and try and get round Somerford. On Tuesday we will see if the cross country learning transfers into showjumping. The other change which has happened is that he is much more confident at jumping bigger things, and I am much more confident that he can and will. As a result, he is now jumping bigger things better than he jumps many smaller things, because they are "up" in front of him, not down in front of him. If we can capitalise on that, using bigger fences to back him off and get him really jumping, then we'll be really motoring.
It's only taken him 4 months to reach the stage all my other trainees have reached in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th jumping session. It's official, he's slow! But lovely :-)
No news from Zip. I'll phone him (Jonathan, not Zip :-) ! ) tomorrow.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 3:28 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Fantastic progress! Jazz's confidence is definitely building. I have to wonder if some of the "slowness" you see in him is just actually due to his still learning how to use his own body and muscles. He is a supremely talented teenage boy who may not yet have completely figured out how to use his long legs and extravagant movement. Keep being patient. His progress is actually quite remarkable.
The farm ride sounds great this time. One refusal? Incredible. You, of course, are in your element on the cross country. Now just carry that same confidence into the show jumping. Use the same principles and you'll do fine.
As for Zip--heck, I'd give him a call. If he answers the phone instead of Johnathan, then you will know he has managed to take over the barn.
Don't be silly Jean - Zip hasn't got a Bluetooth headset and he wouldn't be seen dead doing anything so uncool as using a hand-held :-)
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