EN reader Melissa Boutin sent us a cool video of schooling her horse indoors– not your typical jump lesson. Clearly, Canadians are used to dealing with winter…and have some clever ideas to keep themselves sharp! Many thanks to Melissa for sharing, and thank you for reading.
From Melissa:
Hi! Here’s a short video of something a bit uncommon, my indoor XC lesson. This is me on my Training level mare Guy’s Elegant Miss (5 yrs old).
The Centre Équestre Équilibre, in Ascot Corner, Quebec (owned by Anne Grimard), has a unique indoor. It features a ditch and a bank complex. You can do small bank up, one stride down; small bank up, bounce up, one stride and down (or reverse) or you can do a bounce on the big bank.
We often play with this during winter time, adding jumps before, after or on top of the bank. We can also school ditches and trakehners (not in the video, sadly).
It really is useful and allows everyone at the barn to school XC questions during winter, with a gymnastic approach to it. I am lucky enough to leave for Florida at the end of January, but enjoy the opportunity to keep my horses ready for this type of questions when the weather is too bad to ride outside!
