Friday evening lessons at Glenleary reach a successful conclusion

Friday evening’s third and final set of lessons at Glenleary with Mary Finneran were a great success. Beginning again with a flatwork class, the second and third groups devoted their time to jumping exercises. This time Mary focussed on riding corners and successful jump-off rounds. The 9pm lesson ended with a jump off between the four participants. Cormac, our jump-off junkie, landed the spoils on SonnyB over a 90-95 cm circuit, with Christopher on Sasha showing the benefits of regular training in finishing second.

If anybody still needs convincing about Mary’s insistence on getting the basics right, read William Micklem’s article in Saturday’s Irish Field. He speaks to international eventer William Fox-Pitt about what he believes is important in educating the rider. The answer: position and balance. Even at the age of 42 and with experience and medals to beat the band, he still checks his position and balance all the time. He also swears by the importance of the hunting field for educating riders — we only need to look at Leo and Mick for proof of that theory!

Thanks to Erica for organising the series of lessons and to Mary Finneran for her excellent tuition. We move on to clear round jumping for the next couple of Fridays. Full details to follow.