Gia - 136 - Jumping is just dressage with obstacles!
My ride on Gia started out just like the last few rides. Stretching circles, diagonal lines, shoulder-ins and centerlines at the walk, and then diagonal lines and centerlines at the trot. She only needed a couple of circles to help her balance in the corners at the trot today. She was trying to get a little quick down centerline at the trot though (I guess she's gained some confidence on that elusive line!). So, I made a down transition to the walk, each time she got too quick, to get her thinking about slowing down rather than speeding up. It took several tries before she just barely didn't try to speed up, so I let it go on that. We'll keep working on it though.
Next, we worked over the trot poles to the X.
On Monday, when I was making the video about using a whip, Danielle had asked me if I wanted a shorter crop, for jumping, rather than a dressage whip. I answered her with one of my favorite, and often used, sayings - "Jumping is just dressage with obstacles". For my students who don't like dressage, then I say "Jumping is just FLATWORK with obstacles". (Don't tell them, but all the flatwork I teach is dressage based 😉.)
Since my blog on Monday was about whips, I thought I would continue on that theme with today's blog.
I took several videos of Gia jumping today. She starts out well over the trot poles, but when I add the X, she is still a little slow with figuring out what to do with her feet. It may be hard to tell in the videos, but, after giving her a couple of tries to figure it out, I popped her with the whip right at the moment where she should pick up her feet to jump. She didn't quite make it work out that time, but in her trips over the X afterwards, she was starting to understand and put her foot work together more correctly.
The reason I chose to use a dressage whip rather than a jumping crop, was so that I could help her maintain her straightness as she approached the jump, and then help her keep the idea of going forward over the jump by popping her on her hind end. I will, eventually, want to switch to using a crop, but for now, the dressage whip gives me more versatility to help Gia with the variety of challenges she might encounter as she is learning the ropes of jumping.
Next, we worked over the trot poles to the X.
On Monday, when I was making the video about using a whip, Danielle had asked me if I wanted a shorter crop, for jumping, rather than a dressage whip. I answered her with one of my favorite, and often used, sayings - "Jumping is just dressage with obstacles". For my students who don't like dressage, then I say "Jumping is just FLATWORK with obstacles". (Don't tell them, but all the flatwork I teach is dressage based 😉.)
Since my blog on Monday was about whips, I thought I would continue on that theme with today's blog.
I took several videos of Gia jumping today. She starts out well over the trot poles, but when I add the X, she is still a little slow with figuring out what to do with her feet. It may be hard to tell in the videos, but, after giving her a couple of tries to figure it out, I popped her with the whip right at the moment where she should pick up her feet to jump. She didn't quite make it work out that time, but in her trips over the X afterwards, she was starting to understand and put her foot work together more correctly.
The reason I chose to use a dressage whip rather than a jumping crop, was so that I could help her maintain her straightness as she approached the jump, and then help her keep the idea of going forward over the jump by popping her on her hind end. I will, eventually, want to switch to using a crop, but for now, the dressage whip gives me more versatility to help Gia with the variety of challenges she might encounter as she is learning the ropes of jumping.
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