Worst. Lesson. Ever. (Except it wasn't 😂) | GoPro

Alternative title: When PonyCam is an idiot and massively overreacts to something that wasn't even that bad... 🤦‍♀️At first I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to put this video up, as at the time it felt like the worst lesson in the world where I just couldn’t pull myself together (lots of you would have seen my instagram story whining about it)! I hope the description doesn’t make it sound like I’m blaming Magic for anything that went ‘wrong’ in this lesson, because that is certainly not the intention! He is still a little superstar!! It was just one of THOSE lessons! 😄

I think it's a bit harder to tell from the GoPro footage, but it really felt like Magic had reverted back to how he was when he first arrived at the start of the year and it truly felt like one step forward, two steps back (ridiculous looking back at this footage, he was nothing like he was when he first came!). He was rushy and strong on the flat which made him difficult to collect and bend - he was also doing a lot of tail swishing/kicking out throughout the ride which is very unlike him. We checked him over and there was nothing physically wrong, but he definitely wasn't 100% comfortable and from his behaviour and the aim of his kicking, at the time, I thought he had been bitten/stung by something (there were a lot of wasps & bugs around) which was probably why he was more distracted in the lesson than usual! It turns out it could also have been down to an issue with his saddle fit which I'll mention later.

Despite my slightly desperate efforts, we turned badly and got slippage/wheel-spin from Magic’s hind end coming into the fences, losing us all-important impulsion coming into each jump. We also swung round to the inside after every fence, while bending to the outside, making it very difficult to link to fences together and increasing the risk of slipping/falling on a tight turn (which to be honest now scares me a little bit after mine & Casper’s slip/fall last year where I ended up with a concussion that affected me for a quite a while). While he was still very happy to jump, Magic clearly didn't want to make any tight turns into or away from the fences - his owner has said that there has been some issues with the saddle fit recently, with it moving on tighter turns (fortunately I haven't experienced this too much myself) and had arranged for the fitter to come out - I didn't know this before the lesson and it actually gave me a bit of relief afterwards realising that there could be another legitimate reason for Magic's performance! (Update: Magic is now getting a new saddle and should be much more comfortable from now on) 😊

Because of all this I had really wound myself up and was finding it hard to see a stride in this lesson and poor Magic wasn’t listening to my half halts into the fences (something he has been very good at recently), which meant we chipped in at a lot of them. After we’d messed up the jumps for the final time, I asked my instructor if I could have one last go at the little spread, as I was determined to end a ‘bad’ lesson on a positive note and I knew we could both do better than we had been! Our approach was still wonky, but the final jump itself was spot on - what a relief! Magic really does try so hard, even when he’s not feeling himself or his muppet rider is getting frustrated about something that isn’t his fault ❤️ Even though this lesson didn’t go entirely to plan, we certainly both had fun over that last fence and ended on a happy note!

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I sometimes get a bit of flack for letting Magic fall in after the fences, and I think it’s mainly from people who have probably never ridden a horse as inflexible as Magic before, or who think I’m just sitting there not trying to do anything about it! In reality, I’m doing everything in my power to keep him moving correctly (I finished this lesson sweating and aching just from trying to stop him falling in/bending to the outside), but if half a tonne of tank-horse decides he wants to canter straight to the inside after a jump using all the additional speed and energy gained from a jump landing, I really don’t have much say in the matter! It’s something that needs to be addressed on the flat before even thinking about jumping, but Magic is not my horse, I only ride him once a week and in reality, no matter how good his flat schooling gets, it doesn’t always translate across to jumping 100% when Magic gets over excited and his brain switches back to super-fun hunt mode!! 😂

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Ponies/horses:
Magic - 15.3hh piebald gelding

Camera: GoPro Hero 6

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