“There you go. Perfect. Now bend him around your leg for the reverse turn.” Sarah changed directions. “Great. Try that same exercise, but going the other way, still at the walk. This is something you should work on when you’re hacking him by yourself. Do it at the walk and then attempt it at the trot.”
After mastering the exercise at the walk, Sarah tried it again at the trot and this time had more success. I had her move on into the canter, working on large circles and lead changes across the center. Once I felt like we’d worked Apollo enough on the flat, I let her take a break to catch her breath.
“That was really good. He gets lazy sometimes, so no harm in tapping him lightly with your crop to wake him up and enforce what you’re asking him to do. I think you could also work on some counter bends in your circles to get more control over his hind end, and that will also help with yielding and bending in general. Change it up.”
Sarah nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I can definitely feel the difference since you’ve been working with him. I also always appreciate the homework tips of different things to work on and practice when I’m not in a lesson.”
I chuckled. “Well, I’ve got tons of them. Okay, so I thinksince you haven’t jumped him yet this week, we start through a gymnastic and tomorrow we can do more coursework.” Sarah agreed, and I turned to set the first two jumps. A gymnastic was a series of jumps in a row. In this case, I had set up a three-jump grid. I liked to set the first two jumps first to get the horse comfortable before setting the final jump. I raised the height of the final jump as we continued to work through it.
A gymnastic exercise benefited the horse in many ways. It helped with coordination, balance, and strength for the horse, while for the rider, it helped with riding position, confidence, and enhancing their communication with their horse.
The first two jumps were one stride apart, and the final jump was four strides from the second jump. I had a trot pole set on the ground before the first jump, so Sarah would trot Apollo to the first jump, and then canter one stride to the second jump, and then four strides to the last jump once it was set. Sarah picked up a trot and headed toward the first jump. Apollo trotted in nicely and jumped the first jump easily, then cantered out, jumping the second jump without issue.
“Great. He clearly is not impressed, but next time through, work on being slower with your body. You popped back up too quickly after jump one.” Sarah nodded and came back through, but this time improved her position. I walked to the third jump and set a pole on the ground. “Okay, this time come through and canter down to the pole on the ground. I want to set a pole before I set the jump, just so he is aware.”
Sarah picked the trot back up and came through the first two jumps and cantered down toward the pole. She held him back abit, so he made it in five strides instead of the four that it should have been.
“All right, so what happened there?” I asked.
“I held him off,” Sarah answered.
“Exactly. Let him canter on down. Release your arm.” Sarah brought Apollo back through, and this time let him stretch out and extend his canter down the line, easily making the four strides to the pole. “Excellent. Just like that. I’m going to set the last jump now, but we’ll start at two foot six and build from there.”
I set the last jump, and Sarah brought Apollo through the gymnastics. He easily went through the one stride and then jumped beautifully over the third jump, with no issue making the four strides.
“Awesome, Sarah, but make sure you don’t let him be done after the jumps. Ensure he gets the lead change when you ask, and continue your flatwork before letting him walk. Don’t get sloppy.”
I had Sarah jump the gymnastics several more times and continued to raise the height of the jump as she went through. We were at our final height of three foot three, and this was actually the first time I’d had her jump this height with him since she’d been training with me. “Okay, Sarah, don’t worry about the height. Ride exactly how you have been, don’t change a thing. Let him do his job.”
She came back down the gymnastics, and Apollo jumped perfectly through the one stride, and then easily made his way down the four-stride line to the last jump. Sarah did exactly asI instructed, and Apollo jumped beautifully over the three foot three jump without issue. After she brought him back down to a walk, she faced me with a massive smile on her face. “Wow, he felt incredible.”
I smiled back up at her. “He looked great over that jump! We will continue to work him up to that height in the gymnastics, and then we’ll begin introducing him to that height in courses. Slow and steady. Y'all did great today. Still good for tomorrow, same time?”
Sarah nodded. “Yup, that works. Lunchtime tends to be the only time that I can sneak away from my office. Thanks again, Addi. This was great.” She hopped off Apollo and led him back to the barn as I followed behind them.
Once inside the barn, I saw a couple of my other clients. Jessica Porter was grooming her horse, Willow, a beautiful gray mare, in the crossties alongside Heather Gray, who was tacking up her horse, Tank, a big dark bay gelding. “Hey, ladies, how’s it going?”
“Hey, Addi, good. Trying to sneak a ride in today before I have to pick up the kids from my in-laws,” Jessica responded while running a brush through Willow’s tail. She had three young kids, all in elementary school. She was a stay-at-home mom, and her husband owned his own construction business.
“Hey, Addi, doing well. Are we still on for my lesson tomorrow?” Heather asked as she placed a saddle pad onto Tank’s back.
“Yeah, for sure. I just have Sarah tomorrow at noon. I’m glad I caught you two along with Sarah. I was looking at the showscoming up and wanted to see if any of you were interested in going to the big A-rated show in Evergreen River at the beginning of March? I’m taking Cash and Dahlia.”
“Yes! For sure! Count me in,” Sarah said excitedly. “I just need to make sure my nurse practitioner can cover me for that week, but it should be fine.”
“Yeah, I think I can swing it. I really want to get back in the show ring. It’s been a while.” Jessica smiled.
“Count me in too! I was already looking at the schedule and was hoping you would want to go to that show,” Heather said while finishing tacking up Tank.
“Great. I’ll put together entries for all of you. I think in total we’ll have six horses going because little Gracie is going to do the walk/trot class on Waffles.” I finished chatting with the women and then headed to my office to work on filling out the horse show entries, trying to get ahead.
As I was opening up my computer, Levi popped his head into my office. “Hey, Addi, just a heads-up, I scheduled a farm call for today with Dr. Adler for Pancake and Waffles. I got all of the medical records from Richard, and they’re both due for hock injections.” Levi was a Godsend. Not only did he take care of all the horses on a daily basis, but he insisted that he manage their medical needs as well. I hit the jackpot with his guy.
“Great. What time is he coming by?”
Levi looked down at his watch. “In the next hour or so.” I nodded and smiled as Levi knocked his knuckles against the doorframe and headed back out into the barn.
I spent the next half hour working through show entries andthen getting billing all squared away for the month when I heard the sound of tires on gravel. I figured that it was probably Dean arriving early for the farm call, and continued to finish up my work so I could pop over to see him.
