Harry shares his updates from the most recent training session with Pippa Funnell.
“It was an amazing opportunity to be able to take 3 of my horses down to Pippa Funnell’s for 5 days of training. Fortunately the journey down this time was a lot less stressful after last time ending up in the middle of the Surrey hills in an 18tonne lorry wasn’t fun after taking the wrong junction off the m25!
With having three completely different horses there in both their way of going and the levels they are competing at it was interesting to see how Pippa’s training would vary to suit each horse individually.
One of the key things I learned from the training is how important it is to have your horse completely straight! It sounds easy but the difference in their way of going when we got them connected and straight was amazing!
For HD Bronze one of his weaknesses was his centre lines but once we got him feeling confident to let go and canter straight down the centre line without me trying to hold him to stop him falling out he felt like a different horse and actually felt so rideable.
With Shanbeg Cooley and Cooley Empire we found working on their rhythm in between fences round a course really made a difference and to feel like not always having to slow down to balance the canter but to ride it forwards and let them work more in a self carriage way of going.
Overall we feel like we have come back learning so much in such a short space of time with so much to put into practice going into this years event season and already can feel the difference on the horses at home that didn’t go with some of the tips that we got from Pippa! Can’t wait to see how they all develop in the future!
