Cashmore clinic- Kate- Day 2

Ah I love The Kate. Whenever I ride her I feel like I'm riding my proper jumper horse. Not well by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm trying. It's safe to say that Kate is my most difficult ride. She is so sensitive it's like riding a sports car. Sometimes also I put leg on her and there is lag before she responds and she then over reacts and gets too forward. I feel like I'm starting to learn the balance, but it's a fine line between providing enough leg at the fence to make her confident versus too much leg which makes her hot, flat, and worries her.

The second day of the clinic she was definitely feeling her foot a little. Throwing in the odd short stride on it and just not jumping as round as she normally does. Still she was still keen to her fences and definitely by the end of the lesson I was getting a better ride than at the start. Now guys you have to remember to keep things the same and get the right canter and maintain it all the way to your fences. don't panic and chase spots! And don't panic and reduce your canter to bouncing on the spot in the search for your spot! Maintain maintain maintain! The same, guys always the same.



With Kate we did trot poles down in the top right corner and then cantered down to the oxer in the seven strides. Once she was warmed up I would do that exercise, turn right after the oxer and half circle back over the first upright vertical in the other direction. Then left hand turn back to the other upright before doing the 7 stride dogleg back to the oxer. I don't feel like I really mastered the dogleg. i had to pull up and circle away on both Kate and Connie because I wasn't getting organised early enough to get the seven strides in properly. I think sometimes I worry too much about counting and not enough about just riding. Anyway cool jump sequence pictures follow!











Then we worked on jumping the other line on the lefthand side- starting with the double and going up in the 4 strides to the other oxer. Do you think I could get this right on Kate?? AAhhh no. First time I turned too late and got too quiet on the corner and added a stride, the next time I came too quick and left out a stride. Once I maintained- rode through the corner and turned a little earlier the 3 strides out of the corner came up beautifully andthe whole line rode really well. I'm lucky Kate is quite forgiving.



Still I'm starting to get really excited about the coming season now! We are trying to get me ready for the amateur classes.