Last month we entered our sponsors EquiMind’s new Jumping with style class. And I am pleased to say we managed to come joint 2nd out of about 7, which isn’t bad going at all.
Building our confidence
I’m sure many of you know that recently me and Scottie have been really struggling with our confidence jumping. But really this lack of confidence comes from not having enough practice after our injuries.
We are currently at a point where we are semi comfortable trotting round a nice small course of jumps of around 40cm. Much more than that starts to become a bit scary! But luckily height isn’t a factor, so we could stay at heights we were happy doing!
Taking it slow
I filmed our entry a few days before we went cross country schooling. So I wanted it to be very stress free and confidence building. So I started with two of the jumps as poles on the ground and two as poles raised at one end.
I then walked over the course a couple of times with no drama. I then had the first two poles raised at one end and started trotting round the course of raised poles.
Once we were trotting round them comfortably I raised the other end of the poles one by one and went round the course a few more times.
The video
This whole time Scottie had been very relaxed and we decided to go straight into the filming after just a couple of pops over the jumps.
On the approach to the jumps I was aiming to trot. But since he had jumped them a couple of times already, I was happy to let him canter into them if he picked up the canter.
He popped round our mini course nicely and felt really happy, albeit a tad messy. Unfortunately we had a scramble over the last and knocked it flying. But it was still a fantastic achievement to have such a drama free session!
Our Feedback
We got some great feedback from the judges and we scored 31.5 out of 50. The main comment from the judge was that Scottie is getting too close to the jump and suggested using a placing pole. While I agree with this comment I’m not sure if the placing pole would help or not as I think he is getting too close so he can have a good look at the jump. But it is definitely something to consider.
Anyone struggling with their jumping confidence should really consider giving this class a go!
Last Updated on 14/01/2022
