We had a super day at Dene Farm on the 27th March. The weather was very good, rather warm but not too hot.

 

Another small group to teach, however very well matched horses and riders.

 

This was the first Showjump crosscountry training held at dene farm, and it was fabulous. The owner, Nigel, had very kindly given us his showjumps and different fillers to use, and use them we did!

 

As showjump crosscountry is basically cross country over showjumps, we did all our training over the showjumps, working on the techniques you would use on the XC course, but the aim was to produce the horses pace to be able to balance the horse according to the type of showjump presented to you, so for example an upright needs the horse to be steady and balanced with the horse sitting on his hocks as opposed to a spread which can be jumped out of the horses pace he is at.

 

So after an hour spent learning different techniques, we put to use these new skills and went out on the cross country course, and well, the results shouted out the difference! The horses had no stops, run outs, hick ups anywhere on course, in fact, they were fantastic. The riders learnt about how their position was influencing, or hindering, the horses way of going and again, this was so evident on the drop fences, water jumps and the different terrain we were experiencing.

 

It was a super day and i hope to do another one very soon.

 

Well done to all who attended, you were great.