Lesson #214, 215, 216: Gridwork After an Updated Perspective

Lately, I have less time than lately: I have a new job, hooray! In an effort to keep records for myself, all I can really remember from these three lessons is that I was working on jumping position through gridwork. I'm not sure if I'm the only one out there but I *heart* gridwork tonnes.

Gridwork is a progressive training system that uses poles and fences set at 
pre-determined distances. It teaches a horse to be athletic, accurate, quick thinking and confident; while improving their rhythm, balance, reactions, style and technique. Equally, it helps riders with their confidence, sense of rhythm, balance and distances. Sometimes it's easy to forget about good technique when you start doing courses--especially if you have some bad habits that you're trying to keep in check.

The various grids set up were all fences of varying distances and heights. No oxers or anything out of my comfort zone since I was focused on position riding into, over and out of jumps. The grids were simply set up on a straight line so there was no need to consider corners either! All we were thinking about was the ride in and the position over jumps. Ariel and I did pretty well and I was pleased with the way things turned out because I didn't have to concern myself about the turns and I was just focused on getting through a series of jumps and not a full course.

Again, pretty straight forward but I definitely have a different perspective following my lesson with A.