‘Tis the season of guest blogs on EN. It’s a beautiful day for riding here in Virginia and if you are riding or competing this weekend I hope it is just as beautiful where you are. EN’s guest blogger and working student Jenny McCoy attended the Aiken training sessions again on Friday and was kind enough to send us a full report. Thanks for writing this Jenny and thank you for reading. Go Cats.
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Kim and Max
From Jenny:
Today’s training sessions were a lot different, and I am sorry to report that I have fewer things to report because I couldn’t hear Captain Mark Phillips half the time over the leaf blowers. We arrived about half way into Phillip Dutton’s first ride, where Phillip was trying to keep his mount calm and collected. He seemed quite spooked at first by the audience, but quickly settled in and was an absolute joy to watch. I’m not sure exactly what Mark was having him work on due to the leaf blower, but he was doing multiple changes, counter-canter, half pass, and medium canter to halt.
Phillip’s second ride was much more relaxed than the first, and Mark was very pleased with how he was warming his mount up long and low. Mark praised him heavily for his progression from a lower warm up head set to a more up and collected head set by the end. They worked on many trot mediums, and Mark encouraged Phillip to use rising trot in tense moments to help relax him more. He was also working on softening the inside rein in the half pass, and Mark reminded Phillip to ‘push him slower,’ which was I thought was a great mental image.
Phillip’s third ride of the day was aboard Isabella in the jump ring, which was very fun to watch. This mare is spectacular over the jumps and really captivated her audience today. The lesson was short and sweet. Mark had Phillip try to maintain a 450 speed thru the turn and up to the fences, rather than come around at 400 then speed up to 450 before the base. He played around with a five-stride line and ended with a smile on his face.
Next was Kim Severson on Wiley Post in the jump ring, where Kim requested to start with placement poles to help with his jump, and then worked on giving more with the reins at the base of the jumps. Kim felt a drastic difference and both she and Mark were very pleased with the result. Kim ended by working on keeping Max in a forward canter that wasn’t too open, yet not backwards.
Kim then hoped on the magnificent mover Fantasy Impromptu and worked a while on the flat first to get him balanced and prepared for simple changes. Once jumping, she continued to work on having a looped rein at take off to encourage a more extravagant clearance.
Kim’s last ride was on Tipperary Liadhnan, aka Paddy, where she seemed to be having a blast. She worked him on a different line than the other two, with a placement pole, one stride to a x-rail, one stride to a vertical gate, one stride to a big oxer. They used the gymnastic to encourage a bigger jump from Paddy, and with Mark saying “Alright, put him back in the trailer!” at least twice, I would say that it was a huge success. By the end the pair effortlessly popped over a 4’6″ oxer, and Kim exclaimed, “Is that fun or what!?”
We did not stay thru the lunch break to watch the second half of the sessions because we had some XC schooling of our own to do at Full Gallop Farm, but I’m sure it was just as fun to watch as the morning sessions!
Until next time!
~Jenny
