A few weekends ago, I set up a simple grid with the help of my coach. I love grids! Done right, they build confidence and develop skills for horse and rider. I get great ideas and  exercises to build out of Linda Allen’s 101Jumping Exercises for Horse & Rider.

Eli can trail with his hind end a bit (major understatement), and a grid helps us so that he rocks back and jumps the jump, instead of just cantering over it. A grid also helps me not mess with my hands so much. The farm’s owner was kind enough to film us through a grid about 10 times, while my coach made slight modifications after each time through. The three video highlights below go from beginning, second to last, and last time through. Between the beginning to second to last, Eli and I had a few derpy moments, but mostly he jumped through it smoothly and I mostly stayed out of his way. And I’m glad I finally have film of me on him–I noticed right away I have a tendency to lift my right hand and collapse my right shoulder simultaneously, so my upper body kind of twists to the right, which is why Eli drifts left out of turns. Duh. Gotta fix that!

First go … not too shabby:

first go.mp4 from rennikka on Vimeo.

Too much coming in … WAY too much! What was I thinking?? Sorry, buddy! I should have said “WHOA!”

toomuchcomingin.mp4 from rennikka on Vimeo.

The Power of Whoa … need I say more?

powerofwhoa.mp4 from rennikka on Vimeo.

The next weekend, we worked on rollbacks, and he jumped some jumps that felt great, and my coach said they looked pretty amazing. He even jumped me out of the tack a little over a Swedish oxer. Favorite problem to have! Wish I had filmed that, too!