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Selena Reining @ Equestrian Meet

2K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  SorrelHorse 
#1 ·
Just finished my final District meet for my high school''s equestrian team. I have been sitting reserve champion throughout the season and am very proud of her. We would have kept our spot at reserve only I blanked out and only spun three instead of four going right. We ended up bronze because of it but that's okay.

My videographer missed the spins though which sucks because they were the best she's done this season.

Her stops aren't great but remember this isn't judged like NRHA, it's judged on a scale of 1-10 on each manuever and based a lot more on the athlete than the horse.

Alright end of my talking and here's the video :)

 
#10 ·
What kind of tenseness?

If the horse is getting frazzled, like jumping around, not staying straight or on the circle, etc I think it's because they need more prep work. I tell this to barrel horse people a lot. Build speed gradually, don't go from a slow lope and then blastoff, or you'll get a little too much horse on your hands. Go to the speed just where they start to feel a little uncomfortable, hold them there briefly, and then ask them to slow down again and ask them to round up, get soft, bend, counter canter, anything really. With Selena we like to push, push, push, then immediately drop down, change leads to the counter canter, reverse the arena at the counter canter until we are on the correct lead again and break to a strong working trot with bending and flexing, etc. I just find it keeps her thinking about doing something right after she runs around. The horse has to stay with you no matter what in those situations.

If it's just a matter of the horse not wanting to slow down, I will do the same kind of prep work by building speed slowly and making sure I have a rate command. That's pretty interchangeable. Selena knows "easy" as her slow down command. Even at the walk I will say "easy" and expect her to stop. If we're trotting and I say "easy" I expect her to walk or slow the trot to a jog. Loping and "easy" mean trot/jog, and when we go on large fast circles like that "easy" means come back in and circle slow. This is accompanied by a cue from your seat. You can't be afraid to get after them either if they don't respect that cue. Ask as soft as possible and then they have exactly one second to respond, before I pull on the reins and make them back up, away from my hand.

Hoping that helped. Selena's large fast circles and speed transitions actually came more from her gaming, when she learned that running was no big deal.
 
#12 ·
Happy place happy place happy place....Haha. That entire run I was picturing myself explaining what I was doing to the crowd, even moving my lips a little but not actually talking, because my happy place is speaking in front of people and performing. I talk to Selena a lot during the barrel races because it calms me down. One of the girls on my team tells me she pictures herself on a trail ride. She pretends the judges aren't there.

Also singing and talking relaxes your body and makes you breathe. The reason horses get tense when we do is because we subconsciously breathe shallower or take fewer breaths and stop moving with them. If you keep talking or singing you have to breathe, and singing is fun. :) It flows right down through your seat to the horse.

Another thing is just little confidence boosting things. Focus lesson schooling your horse and more on just playing. My trainer had me and Selena in a group lesson doing drill team maneuvers. She had six of us there and this was when I was still nervous with my horse and she made me run and turn and keep up with my lesson mates. She played music and it was a blast because I didn't have time to think about Selena bucking or rearing or taking off, I just had to think about where I had to be and that made me ride like I actually wanted to go somewhere. It was a huge confidence booster for me. Playing games helps too, like horse soccer or musical ribbons (Like musical chairs but with ribbons tied to the arena rails), the dollar bill race, flags (Like run and pick up a flag or dropping flags in buckets), anything really that makes you focus on a job instead of your horse doing stupid things.
 
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