Kate Little Clinic: Day 4 - JOMPIES OMG

 This is the final installment of my Kate Little clinic recap, and Day 4 I asked her to help me pull all the prior work we had done on balance and softness together into the setting of jumping (OMG). 

YAAAAASSSSS
(photos courtesy of Jen)

I also asked Kate for some coaching on my jumping form, so I could be a help instead of a hindrance as Pyro figured his body out more. It had been several years (and several concussions) since my last true jumping lesson, so I was feeling a little unsure of my form over fences. 

Reaching out to the bit with a quiet mouth!

We started with the same warmup she guided us through previously, focusing on ensuring his shoulders were supple and he would reach out his neck with asked.  Meanwhile, Kate set up an exercise that started as 6 trot poles (4.5' apart for my leggy boi) and morphed into 5 trot poles to a jump. She said that the flatwork is mine, but the poles/jumps are his. I was to make sure he was approaching at MY tempo/gait/balance/etc., then leave him alone as he made his way through the poles. As soon as he exited the obstacle, if he had retracted his neck, or changed from the tempo I was setting with my body, I could then gently start asking for those things. 

Ignore my chicken wings for a moment and enjoy his focused face.

He felt really confident going through the trot poles. We've done this enough that he knows what the ask is.

While he previously would hollow through trot poles, he started being able to maintain that soft reach over his topline. 

If he started to take over on the approach, all I had to do was circle, adding in some more flatwork until he was going the way I wanted, then reapproach. We worked through him trying to burst into the canter to avoid being supple in his shoulders. Any time he broke into canter, I kept thinking "trot" with my body and swept his shoulders into a very small circle (careful not to overbend his neck) to make it much harder work. 

More of this polite gentleman, please.

When Kate set the final trot pole up to a jump (7' away from 5th trot pole), she explained this is the first exercise she uses to teach her horses to jump. The short distance between the trot poles and the jump encourages the horse to plant both hind feet and spring off their hocks, using their body correctly over the fence. 

Starting from a lil' crosspole

Pyro figured out the game pretty quickly, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it! Kate slowly bumped up the height for us while turning her focus to my form. 

Happy boy on approach (I promise I was having fun even if my face doesn't show it!)

My form left... a lot to be desired at times. Kate explained that I hyperextend my neck over the fence (hello, hypermobility), which prevents my hips from shifting back, often causing me to jump ahead of him.

"I don't know what to do with my hands!"

She had me think "double chin" over the fences, which helped me find and engage the muscles at the front of my neck for stability. When I did this, my hips automatically shifted back correctly without me having to (over)think about it. 

Then, she ever so gently guided me through not doing dumb shit with my release, lol. No, I'm not supposed to release up with my hands floating by my chin, nor am I to abruptly throw away the reins.

Smooth release up his neck with softness in the air? I don't know her.

We had some wonky moments. We had some ugly moments. However, he consistently got calmer and more rideable as the lesson went on. 

Pole down when he wasn't quite careful enough

Pyro: balanced, confident
Me: melting in the saddle

Not pictured: the smoke coming out of my ears

We worked up to about 2'3", which I believe is the highest we've jumped together. The repetition we ended on, he quietly picked up my trot without hollowing, reached softly into the contact through a steady approach, jumped neatly, and landed without rushing or retracting his neck. It was divine. 

I loved how he was getting BOTH hind legs under himself.

Very careful hinds too!

I had enough time and horse left that we tried one more exercise, a bounce to aid our straightness. Pyro was hilariously unsure of how to read it the first attempt, but was honest and willing to try to sort it out. He's a slow thinker, remember? So it was cool to know that he legitimately had his thinking cap on and wasn't just reacting his way through it.

A for effort, buddy

It didn't take more than once fumbling his way through for him to figure it out though. 

Clever boy

A definite improvement in his form and confidence

And my form? Well, it's a work in progress, but it'll get there!

 All in all, Pyro seemed to come out of the final clinic lesson really proud of himself and enjoying his work. I got to allow him to be responsible for himself over the jumps, and he really stepped up. 

Good job, little buddy

As someone who ISN'T in a program and is pretty self-guided when training my young horse, the blue print to developing Pyro's jump that we talked through at the end of the lesson was immeasurably valuable. 

1. Use the trot poles to single fence exercise until he can do 2'9" or 3'. 
1. Once the fence height reaches about 2'6", it can be moved out to 8' away from the trot poles.
2. 4 bounces in a row (9' apart)
1. Focus on teaching him to keep reaching without rushing
3. 3 bounces, 1 stride, small oxer
1. After the prior bounce work, he shouldn't rush through as I add non-jump strides
4. Start building small courses

That guidance should give us plenty to work on for a while! I love that it will help me address issues I've had in the past (overjumping, jumping flat, rushing), and I came out of the lesson feeling very confident in my ability to set up a productive jumping session by myself. In fact, I've already jumped with Pyro since the clinic, and it went really well!

Got to practice my form some more.

Jumped solo. Didn't die. Basically crushing it.💪

We only worked up to 2' since it took a lot to set the jumps myself, but I feel good about asking him to slowly go higher. He seems to have really figured out his body through this exercise.

He also "helped" me put away poles like a champ.

The final takeaway Kate had for me was to keep looking for those opportunities to soften. That's going to be an ongoing search for me, and I'm putting a dry erase board in my tack locker to remind myself of mantras like "slow and smooth", "channel your inner 8-year-old", "look for more softness", and "DOUBLE CHIN!" to bring to my rides. I'm so grateful for the magic Kate brought to our stable. It was invigorating and inspiring to be part of 4 days of learning, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she drops in, Mary Poppins style, to make life for us and our horses that much better.