Me with our great crew
Since my last blog, I have been quite busy with my local CFA Brigade and fighting some of the numerous fires around Victoria. I was also deployed to the Gippsland fires with the Eltham strike team, doing asset protection in Heyfield and did a night shift from 10pm to 1pm the following day as well as a shift on the more recent Donnybrook/Epping fires this week. The community was just amazing.
I haven’t been able to ride Billy Sparklepants (BSP) much the past few weekends as Lisa has been training for her State SJ competition with him. I am super excited for her. We also had a bit of a scare where we thought he might have injured his pec muscle. He’d developed a ‘dimple’ on his chest on the left side and when I went to see him he appeared a bit stiff on the left side. So I organised for our masseuse extraordinaire, Dale Murie, to come and check him out. I knew that Dale would know if we needed to call the vet or not.
Fortunately, BSP was fine (we think the dimple appeared as he’s lost a bit of weight and muscle tone from his lovely 5 week spell) and he enjoyed a nice massage as he was a little sore down the left side. He’s now on track for his big comp. I was very relieved as Lisa was booked in to a SJ clinic with Jonathon McLean on the weekend.
So with BSP being ridden I decided to continue on towards my goal of re-developing ‘feel’ and booked myself a lesson with Debra Pace in Toolern Vale. I rode two of Deb’s horses to distinguish between a horse that was still slightly green and an advanced dressage horse. I was very excited and slightly apprehensive.
I started off on Storm (the green horse) and we worked on obtaining feel at walk on a circle and getting him to move off my leg. I rode in an Anky dressage saddle, which I am now very partial to as I find I can feel so much more. Once I was able to get him to move off my leg and understand the process of what I was trying to achieve, and doing it properly, we progressed to trot and then to leg yielding. It was hard work and I could really feel (despite my year of working on my fitness!) how weak my right side is. Far out! However, I really got some good feel in and learned along the way what we were both doing.
Once I had been successful with Storm, Deb then put me on her gorgeous mare, Bella (the advanced dressage horse). WHOA! The difference was incredible. As soon as I was even slightly seated crookedly on Bella she would swing in that direction. I had to really concentrate hard on sitting straight and using my body evenly. I then worked on the same exercise with leg yielding. This horse made me really think and be conscious of what I was doing and I realised how clear you have to be with your aids! I came away from that lesson excited but knowing how much work I still have to do! I’ve never been fortunate until now to ride really well educated horses and my riding is certainly coming along in leaps and bounds, thanks to my amazing support network and coaches. I am really looking forward to getting back on BSP and improving both of us this year.
That afternoon I was called out to another big fire and worked into the night with my crew. I crawled into bed around 11pm and was up at 5am, still stinking of smoke, to get ready to drive three hours to Dunolly for a Combined Training day with Lauren Gretgrix and Serena Shouten.
My first lesson on Henry was dressage and we were booked in with two other Grade 3 riders. I wasn’t sure how I would go as I don’t normally ride at Grade 3. On that weekend I learned to stop doubting myself and have a go. I have nothing to lose. Lauren had us walking on a 20m circle and we worked on asking the horse to walk as slow as we could get them to without stopping and then moving forward actively again. Henry was so sensitive that he just stopped! I had to adjust my riding and become softer on him. We progressed to trot and repeated the exercise and the same thing happened. He’d stop when I used my seat to slow him down so Lauren suggested Islow my rising and although it was rather tricky I had some success. I loved the lesson and got so much out of it as I was able to bring parts of Deb’s instruction with me and put them into practice.
After a break for lunch, I tacked up again and it was time to show jump! I was with one other rider who was a grade 2 show jumper and I was aiming to train grade 3.
What fun I had on Henry
The objectives for this lesson were to be able to keep a rhythm but also be able to adjust strides and keeping the canter strong at the same time. Different horses take different length of strides and must be able to adjust to the course/grid accordingly. We also worked on riding a nice curved line around corners and keeping momentum through the corner. It was a challenge to be riding an unfamiliar horse with a different stride length to BSP but I soon got the hang of it.
We started off with some trot poles and I was concentrating hard on my position so that I could maintain stability in my lower leg. Once we were flowing through those, Serena raised the fences into X poles and we alternated with riding straight on, to the left and then to the right.
Again, once we were flowing over the fences, they were raised to oxers and progressed from grade 4 to grade 3. Henry was being a bit lazy and I had to work quite hard on some of my turns to keep him forward and not let him go back to the other horse. I didn’t have a whip with me for this session so several times I had to give him a smack with the end of the reins. It’s always a tricky feeling riding someone else’s horse and knowing what’s right and wrong for them.
I'm sure these jumps are getting higher ...
On our final round Serena sneakily put the fences up again when we weren’t looking and later told me they were around 80cm. Henry didn’t put a foot wrong and anytime I messed up the striding, he adjusted himself and got us over safely and confidently. I am in awe of this little pony! He’s brilliant.
I then headed home and gave a lesson to one of my riders from Kangaroo Ground Pony Club and actually passed on to her some of my new skills.
I have another dressage lesson booked with Deb for the 24th to continue our learning curve and am competing in a composite team at TT CT with BSP on March 9th.
Until then,
Happy Riding!
Jenna and Billy Sparklepants
