Eventing Has Gotten Harder. Now You Have to Jump Upright Wine Bottles- Karen O'Connor

Karen's lecture- the only 8am one you actually want to attend! Picture Credit Shelley Contin-Hubbs

Saturday morning started early because Karen wanted everyone there for a mandatory 8am lecture. I really enjoyed this b/c so many people sign up for clinics and show up to ride and then immediately leave. I'm of the mindset that if you sign up for the clinic you need to be there and watch the other groups too. You can learn so much from watching the other groups and clinics are not cheap. Why not stay and get as much info as possible? Now I completely understand that sometimes this isn't completely possible, but you should still be there as long as you can.

Her lecture was a preview of her philosophy on riding and gave us an idea on what to expect her to teach in her lesson. I took notes so I'm going to give you the bullet points below. There was so much information that my bullet notes can't do it justice, but it'll give you an idea of what we talked about:

Riders Natural Aides: leg, seat, hands, voice, weight

5 Levels of Pressure applied with aides:
air, hair, skin, muscle, bone

Rider Responsibilities:
1. Direction
2. How fast you want to get there
3. Balance of the horse
4. Rhythm- everything happens in a rhythm, (even a horse eating is in a rhythm)

When Jumping:
1) Assess the shape of the jump (vertical or ascending)
2) what's behind the front face of the jump (is it a hogs back?)
3) What does the jump look like? What do you need to do to keep the horse in front of your leg (I think she meant is the jump scary and going to back your horse off, is it a giant wine bottle or just a simple log?)
4)What is around the jump? (Footing, people, other jumps, basically the environment around the jump)

Horses have to understand what they're doing.

They need to understand:
1) related distances/adjustability exercises
2) Bending Lines
3)Learn how to jump on an angle. They need to be straight but the jump is at an angle
4)Be able to jump skinnies

For the Rider Riding:

Horses have to have ridability. If you can not stop your horse you should not jump

In Dressage the most important part of your position is your seat (not just your butt but your thighs all the way up to your core, it's all part of your seat, if I remembered correctly that's what she said)

In Show Jumping the most important part of your position is your lower leg

Horses have to have impulsion and engagement. Rider needs a stable lower leg so will not interfere with horses needs

Best way to secure your lower leg is to take your stirrups away

3 Positions in Show Jumping:
Half Seat (3 point), Sitting, and 2 point

Shape and Power of horse is what allows the horse to jump clear

Horse has to be submissive by yielding to pressure you apply

3 Ways to Engage your horse:
1)Downward Transitions (within the gait or changing gaits)
2)Circles (it takes engagement to do a small ring figure)
3)Lateral Movements

There are 2 Turns when jumping
1) Point of Turn (the turn before the jump)
2) Departure Turn (the turn after you jump)

If you don't land over the fence with options you don't have balance (I think she was talking about can you send your horse forward, bring them back, do whatever you need to do to get to the next jump safely. If your horse lands and takes off with you you don't have options, you just have a run away horse, so you need to have options but you get them with balance)

Show a horse what they can do, not that they can't (such a great quote from the weekend)

It's the consistency of the contact. Sometimes you'll have a lot of movement in your elbows (THIS was my theme of the weekend, I did not have soft elbows and had to work really hard on keeping them moving so I didn't piss off Joe)


Her lecture was over an hour but it was so engaging that it felt like time flew by. She kept the audience involved and didn't just sit there talking. She kept asking us questions and even opened the floor for any and all questions at the end. Some of those topics ranged from injections, soundness of horses, arena footing, appropriateness of mount for rider.

Riders, auditors, and helpers, all listening to Karen. Pic credit Shelley Contin-Hubbs

Even though I kinda knew the basic gist of everything she said in her lecture it was so helpful putting words to correct riding. It was also helpful just thinking through and understanding the whys for correct riding. I don't know if that sentence makes sense but overall I really liked that she took the time to get everyone on the same page. I learned a lot from her lecture and couldn't wait to get out and ride!!!

Tomorrow I'll talk about the actual riding part!!!