Jeff Cook, part 2!

This is the recap from my COTH thread. I so enjoyed the clinic. Planning to do a dressage clinic with Gigi Nutter before my HT, and hopefully go to a Horse Show Ventures show AT the Chattahoochee Hills facility so my boy gets out there and jumps around. They have a jumper show there in August, so that would be perfect. Would love to school the course, but the American Eventing Championships are there in September, so not sure if the course will be open for schooling. Hopefully I'll get not only back to Calimar, but also to another inexpensive, local farm to go schooling before the big day. Anyway, here's day 2! Enjoy:)

Day 2 summary:Hmm, guess no ones really read my novel! I'll try to keep day 2 a little shorter.Missed most of the high group's flat work; I think they actually did drop stirrups for a minute or 2. They did a little work over a single pole; adding as MANY strides as possible down to the pole. Today, the 4 stride was a 3 stride, and there was now a triple combination set at 2 strides on the opposite long side.

He really liked the girls, as he should. They all are super good riders. As Relo said, he didn't have a whole lot of input on the HORSE, but he did have high praise for the ones he liked. He LOVED Lauren; must have told her a dozen times how wonderful she is! Despite that praise, though, he really wanted to impart little things to her, to help her be THAT much better. Again, he stressed the importance of jumping from your 2 point. With this group, the jumps made their way up He had them do a cool technical bending line that rode in a forward 6; the girls had trouble with this one a few times.

In the end, though, everyone managed to nail it.For that group, I thought the work was just a *hair* on the simple side with a few very fair challenges thrown in. Honestly, I thought I would have fit in very well in that group. My horse and I have jumped 3'6 at home, but since we had never cliniced, wanted to under shoot rather than over shoot. Jeff really had the horses jumping even better than they normally do because he stressed rider position, and canter flow so much. Threw in lots of random turns to help the horses learn to stop anticipating turns and lead changes

. Super cool!I was feeling fab as we walked out on the rail; I just felt so much more comfortable, and knew that our stuff would be less than what I'd just seen, and as I said, felt like I could have handled what I'd just seen. He had us do direction changes through a regular half turn, and the reverse turn (half turn IN reverse). No work in 2 point, no work with no stirrups, and no work off the rail. We did work the sitting trot a little more, and he stressed how working the sitting trot, and working your full seat can be beneficial for saving a horse's front end. He helped us understand how light sitting and 2 point helps a horse with back/hock/stifle problems. He asked us occasional questions, but not very many, and nothing too terribly complicated.We cantered in full seat, half seat, and 2 point. My horse wanted to get galloping a little in 2 point, and had me continue to slow down and STAY in a canter. All in all, pretty good. Not a lot of input on me, other than to watch that my thrumbs aren't TOO vertical. Technically, your thumbs should be just inside of the vertical to retain softness. I was what you would call a "solid citizen", I guess. I got some lovely, "Good Jen!" compliments, and the thumb input. Other than that, not much else on my flat work, which I took as a compliment.Warming up jump wise, we came in over a pole with our hands in a LONG release. My input, "Nailed it. Good!", and "Perfect! You're good at this, walk!" I was the first one to stop, and he made others keep going until they too nailed it. Changed to a short release and once again, he told me I was good at that, and to walk while he worked with the others. Again, did some long approaches, jumped the gallopy outside line, and had to be ready to turn whatever direction he yelled out.

He would yell at me "HALF SEAT!" "2 POINT!" and all my jumps felt super. He admonished me to not "chase" my horse to the jump. Added on the now double combination at the end, and was perfect going away. When he changed it and we came home, I alternately chased him too much, missed my distance then had a 2 and a chip, then finally got it right and galloped in my 2 point through the corners, then sank into half seat to balance and steady. He wanted me to really learn how to "build pace and scope in the corner so I can wait and be patient to the jumps. There's a fine line between chasing and supporting your horse to the jump, you need to feel the difference!"Overall, again, just so wonderful.

Jeff is kind, patient, talented, and a pleasure to ride with. I HIGHLY recommend a clinic with him, for ALL types of rider. I was a TINY bit bummed that OUR jumps never went beyond 2'6. I would have liked some bigger stuff, because I feel my eye improves and I support more and chase less down to bigger jumps, oddly enough. Everything was around 2'3 or so, with our final 2 stride combo at 2'6. Oh well, it was a lot of fun, and I would probably shoot for a higher group next time.