Loops and Turns

"Look where you are going!"

This week was another super star pony week! Debi had us do something similar to last week's lesson: grid and a course. The theme of this lesson seemed to be "Loops."

We started with the line as we did before: poles, raised the first jump, raised the second jump, raised the last jump. As we progressed, Debi raised the last jump in the gymnastic line, just to see how ruby would handle it.

This is the final course we did for the day- and it was tough! Up 1 going north, loop and lead change going down to 2, to 3, lead change and loop to 4, lead and direction change through 7 and 8 to get to 5 on a diagonal jump, follow around to 6,7,8 one stride line, lead and direction change to 9 and follow the south curve to 10.

Ruby has gotten pretty good with her lead changes- if she has issues, it is usually that she swaps in the front and lags in the back. You should be 'resetting' your horse (slowing down and getting the pace controlled) after each jump, but it is even more important when this happens- slow down to let the back end 'catch up.'

Here is a photo down (most) of the line: I believe that is the first of the three jumps, going in the opposite direction as in the course above.

For Ruby, I really have to get her going strong at the first jump. If we do not have enough power, she will do this awful chip stride and manage to cram 2 strides into the 1 stride- not fun! When this happens, I tend to get up her neck and it really is not pretty.

The photo above is my favorite from the lesson. Go pony go! To the right is the last jump in the grid, going the same way as the course above. As I mentioned, Debi kept raising this one up as we went along. Maybe 2'9" ish? It is always hard for me to tell. Remember that Ruby is only 14.2hh; she looks like a horse when she jumps and sucks in her pony belly!



Special thanks to Erin McMahon for coming all the way out to the other side of town to snap these shots for me!!!