New Team

Last week we rode with an instructor we have been meaning to ride with for a couple months.  Schedule conflicts or weather would always ruin our plans it seemed like, or I had Klein's days already meticulously planned out if there was a HT the upcoming weekend.  I also had a couple work trips come up along the way too. 

Finally, I got it together and we went for a jumping lesson last Thursday night.  Um, I've been missing out.  Better late than never I guess, right?

We had an AWESOME jump school.  I feel like I have been getting bits and pieces from instructors along the way of what Klein and I are missing right now in stadium, but our new instructor saw things differently than any other instructor we have ridden with.  The fixes she had us make Thursday evening worked immediately.  We need to fix our pace and our turns.  Klein has become a bit disrespectful to 3'.  That is an easy height for her, and it doesn't require her best or biggest effort, but she needs to still give it her best and biggest effort, and for that, she needs to move her feet a little more.  She'll jump 3'3" and 3'6" better than 3' and that's not good because we are eventing at Novice right now aka 3'.  During the lesson we ramped up our pace and Klein was jumping better instantly.  I am kicking myself for not riding with her sooner.

She also warmed us up for stadium and xc this weekend at the Horse Park of New Jersey HTs 1 (post coming soon!).  That is the first time I have ever had an anyone warm me up at a show.  I was happy to do anything she told me to do.  I'm completely open to learning different warm up strategies and game plans for the ring or xc course.  We had the best stadium round we've ever had.  I dropped two rails because I didn't give Klein a good start, but I'll explain that in the post about that weekend.  Plus, I got warned that ring was tight, and I guess I just had to go see for myself.  So, yeah we've had plenty of double clear stadium rounds, but this one, despite the rails, hands down felt the best out of any.  We hit 99% of our distances and our pace was great.  Let's look at our stadium canter before the lesson with Liv and our stadium canter after the lesson with Liv.

 Stadium at the schooling HT on 26 June (before lesson).

Stadium at HPNJ HT 1 on 3 July (after lesson).

Yeah, check that out.  That is Klein MOVING her feet in stadium.  And if I would have had her like that to the first fence we would have had zero rails, but we are clearly learning and I am REALLY excited for our next time out!  The same principle was applied in xc and we also had the best xc run we've ever had.  Go check The Jumping Percheron Facebook page for the link to the full xc helmet cam from this past Sunday if you don't want to wait for the post.

I am SO excited to work with Liv Lynn Eventing!  We have found our NJ instructor.  I'm looking forward to our upcoming lessons this month as well as some xc schooling with her too.  She is the missing link for our move up to Training level as well.  I have a feeling that some of our goals are about to be achieved.

Here's a couple clips from last Thursday's lesson:

 

You guys want to see some bad ass riding?  Go check our her Instagram!  She has a little super gelding and they are about to make their Intermediate debut here in a couple short weeks.

Click to play:

Fabulous day for a cross country school. Renz is feeling ready for our outing at MCTA this weekend ;) #renmore #renmorerenz #jumping #usea #windurrausa #love #special #horse #log #ditch #skinny

A video posted by Olivia Sanders (@livvlynn_eventing) on May 3, 2016 at 5:28pm PDT

That's Sally Cousins you hear in the background, they regularly train with her.

And through The Jersey Shore this past weekend (click to play):

A video posted by Olivia Sanders (@livvlynn_eventing) on Jul 2, 2016 at 2:36pm PDT

Hope you all had a great 4th and that everyone's ponies are safe after a weekend of explosions!