February 22nd, 2024
Something that I have been very excited to watch the progress of is Sophie's form over jumps. It has always been the phase that has felt the strongest for both of us since we became a team, but the progress that we have made within it has grown exponentially over the last several months.
As a self-titled 'experienced amateur', I can absolutely feel when we are jumping flat versus when we are jumping well. Sure, Sophie often can get the job done and jump the jumps, but these days I have been focusing a lot on our form so that hopefully we can sneak in a few clear rounds this upcoming season and continue to get the job done and get it done well. Our tendency during a course is to start strong, and then get flat and long as the course goes on. This typically results in us being good for one rail. Usually it begins with Sophie feeling quite powerful and strong a few jumps in, and I (incorrectly) resort to pulling instead of pushing her into the bridle to get her to come back to me.
Here are two pics of Sophie jumping over a similarly sized vertical. Spot the difference(s)?!
I have been fortunate to have had several great jump trainers and clinic'd with some great jump riders over the years, but the phrase I always come back to is Tim Bourke describing the horse as being a bouncing ball underneath you. The idea is that you can shrink or expand the height of the bounce, but you can keep the same rhythm and energy. This applies to the horses: you can change the length of stride by correctly moving the energy up and down, instead of thinking of it as a forward/backward, faster/slower motion. It's bigger/smaller. Faster/slower implies a depletion of quality energy.
I really think that a lot of riders struggle with this concept, myself included. It's hard to shift from the 'pull to slow down' mindset to the 'push to make the stride smaller' action. But when I get to the right headspace and perform the correct actions, Sophie jumps phenomenally.
To try to explain what I am feeling, I am going to write it as a stream of consciousness. I can only hope this translates well enough:
-We are cantering towards a jump. I have my leg on, I am sitting up and looking beyond the jump, and I have a contact to the bit that my elbows are following. I am putting my leg pressure on with the thought that I am pushing her into the contact that I am holding in my moving elbows. We are about 2/3 strides out and I am focusing on the rhythm of 1...2...1...2... instead of counting the strides. (For me personally, counting the strides gets my brain feeling like we need to suddenly go slower or faster which then causes a loss of quality energy and momentum.) We jump, we land, and I keep my butt out of the tack for one stride, still with leg on for support, before I sit to apply more leg pressure to push her back up and into the contact and come back to me. I am seated but not driving. If I pull without leg, we will slow down and lose our quality energy and get flat. If I push and drive with no contact, we will get faster and flat. I also have to ask her to come back to me within her rhythm - if I work against her, we (again) will lose our momentum and canter quality. I have to think leg on, back up, having a fluid contact, moving elbows, using my abdomen to hold the contact steady with the rhythm. If she starts to speed up, I "simply" apply greater pressure from the leg into a stronger contact, using my abdomen to hold it harder. -
High level professionals that do this every day on many different horses have the ability to harness this quite well. I ride Sophie, and Sophie only these days, so I have the ability to focus on working on that feeling with her specifically so that someday I might get to the point where it's muscle memory and I can apply it to future horses. The good news, like I said earlier, is that I am at a point where I can feel when I am doing it right. Now my goal is to be able to make the feeling be what I need it to be all the time and not fall back into bad habits.
I have a few sample clips below: can you tell where we are flat and where we are jumping well? I'll give my thoughts underneath them.
Clip A
Clip B
Clip C
Clip D
Clip A: I would describe Sophie as putting her legs up and then down. We jumped it, but it was flat, and if the fence was much bigger (and had a rail) we most likely would have clipped the rail. You can see that before the jump, I am working against her. I have some leg on, but I am driving with my seat and simultaneously pulling her head back instead of following her rhythm. You can see that her hind legs are pushing off in a way that is just a continuation of a canter stride instead of really rocking back on her haunches and pushing off the ground. This is what most of our show jumping looked like at the start of our time together. At that time, I was focused on just getting the job done instead of focusing on details of doing it well. Our scores reflect this!
Clip B: This was taken just the other day. You can see the difference in her body where she pushes clearly off of both hind legs together and uses more of her head and neck upon takeoff. On the approach to the jump, I am following the contact with my elbow, and the contact is very clear. I am seated but in a relatively light manner. I am using my leg here to ask her to bring her back up to me, and I hold the contact through my abdomen to ask her to sit back a bit in front of the fence.
Clip C: This was from a few years ago when we were completing a classic "Charlotte Course" (meaning something crazy, challenging and fun with whatever we had set up in the indoor), and I was clearly focused on just finding the jump instead of asking Sophie to jump with any real oomph. It's flat, her head stays up the air, I am clearly not allowing with my elbow and forearm, etc. In the moment I was most likely happy with this, but I love that I can look back on this and know how much improvement we have made and how much I have grown since.
Clip D: This was from a telling jump lesson with Jan from the fall. We had been working on Sophie keeping her back up so much on the flat, and it was clearly translating to the jumping. When I can put all the pieces together, this horse has an almost unlimited scope. I really can see the power she has from this short clip - Sophie is incredible. It's moments like these that I believe those professionals who have said this horse could be competitive at the upper levels (not that I will get there myself LOL). I know it might be hard to see in the clip, but she really sits back and launches over these jumps with so much power, and uses her whole body to do so. And I am riding in a way that promotes and allows that to happen.
It sounds silly, but I am actually doing less with my body than I used to, and as a result accomplishing more. Instead of pulling a lot and driving a lot and moving here there and everywhere, I am working on being steady, soft but strong, and clear when I am asking for any kind of change. I am learning to be methodical instead of reacting in the moment. I really feel good about our show jumping right now, and our little outing at the recent schooling show only helped to solidify that feeling. 2 clear rounds and a confident feeling horse (and rider!).
Our first event of the season is the schooling trial at Loch Moy in March, so hopefully we can squeeze in a clear round there!
K
Loafie got hops!!