carrimclaren
6th Dec 2004, 02:23 PM
This will probably sound like a bit of a dolt's question but i'm having real trouble applying leg when doing gridwork jumping.
On a normal single fence my leg is stronger and we manage just fine but when i did a gridwork lesson with a friend on saturday it was highly noticeable that on the approach to the third fence i hardly applied any leg and my mare had to do the hardwork herself (luckily shes careful and forward going) but i feel rather guilty as i know she's capable of a lot more and feel that i don't want to mess anything up with my crap jumping skills.
I think it stems from having fallen off (on different school horses back when i had lessons somewhere else) when always doing gridwork lessons. Basically the horses i used to ride were a bit green and used to attempt to run out (used to get them over in the end but by then my balance had gone awol). I think my brain sort of says "o god hold on and it goes onto autopilot."
Does anyone know of any exercises i can do to encourage a stronger leg, in flatwork or jumping, as i really don't think i'm doing my mare any favours by not helping her through the fences with my leg. I'm doing quite a bit of without stirrup work to help improve my balance but am a bit clueless when it comes to working on gaining a stronger leg.
On a normal single fence my leg is stronger and we manage just fine but when i did a gridwork lesson with a friend on saturday it was highly noticeable that on the approach to the third fence i hardly applied any leg and my mare had to do the hardwork herself (luckily shes careful and forward going) but i feel rather guilty as i know she's capable of a lot more and feel that i don't want to mess anything up with my crap jumping skills.
I think it stems from having fallen off (on different school horses back when i had lessons somewhere else) when always doing gridwork lessons. Basically the horses i used to ride were a bit green and used to attempt to run out (used to get them over in the end but by then my balance had gone awol). I think my brain sort of says "o god hold on and it goes onto autopilot."
Does anyone know of any exercises i can do to encourage a stronger leg, in flatwork or jumping, as i really don't think i'm doing my mare any favours by not helping her through the fences with my leg. I'm doing quite a bit of without stirrup work to help improve my balance but am a bit clueless when it comes to working on gaining a stronger leg.