Pages

Friday 4 August 2017

Back to Lessons: Recap

I started taking lessons again on Monday this week.  My last lesson being back in May/early June.  Then late June we had a cross country camp (3 days jumping!) in which I fell off and hurt myself.  I still rode but it wasn't necessarily pretty or done well.  It's hard to ride when it hurts to sit in the saddle and your horse tends to need some hand-holding up to the fence.

Anyways, I'm feeling infinitely better after 5-6 weeks of not jumping, but still flatting.

Monday's lesson was indoors due to the crazy smoke and heat (for Alberta).  Athena was very good!  She sometimes would swap leads through the line but she typically would swapped back around the corner as we came to do the line again.  Since we haven't been jumping a lot lately the lesson stayed simple, X to ground poles to get her going then one-stride to a small vertical.  Then putting in a 3rd obstacle which eventually changed to an oxer.  I had a few moments of getting left behind and I have a habit of doing a bit of fetal position/pulling my hands to my chest.  At least I'm becoming more self-aware again and am able to recognize in an out-of-body sort of way that I am doing it and correcting myself.  It's a process.  It gets better then worse then better again depending what's going on.

Mostly we were trotting in, cantering out.  Near the end we did canter in and I couldn't see the distance to the first fence for the life of me.  So, in my green-ness instead of just staying centred and balanced I'd mess with Athena and we'd add instead of just trusting her to take me there from a long spot.  Tip from my coach: if your TB doesn't have a great top line they prefer a long spot to a short one.  This wasn't earth-shattering for me, but we've taken a lot of long spots and Athena can be an enthusiastic jumper... and I'm a chicken.  Especially when she jumps me out of the tack, which happens a little more than I'd like to admit.  But despite me pulling on her and getting left behind she is a saint and just goes.

We flatted on Tuesday and worked on some transitions.

Wednesday evening I had another lesson this time outside!  It was our first time jumping in the bigger jumper ring out back.  Not that it phased either of us since we've been out there plenty - watching other lessons last year while she healed from injuries, then flatting around whenever we can this year.

We started off simple again trotting through a short two stride (X to ground pole) then increasing to a vertical and oxer combination.  Generally the line rode more naturally to the right, but to mix it up we'd go left a few times and take the sharp left again back to the line.


After a few times through that we went through the "real" two-stride.  Due to me being not-so brave, I have a tendency to hold her and we end up with a short choppy stride.  And wouldn't you know we managed to get a three in the two-stride line.  After going through it a few times we did get the two a couple times.  As I've said above though, as soon as she starts moving out I get worried and slow her down again.  I've even been trying to practice letting her go more but it's not always easy when the bigger ring is locked up and until the crops are harvested we can't go around the fields.  We also added in jumping a row of barrels, which rode much easier than the verticals despite being on the wrong lead.


Next up, we did the barrels to the two-stride and around to the far oxer.  Not important but, I had 2 other friends riding this lesson with me.  First friend rolls a barrel. Then I go and drop a rail on the second part of the two-stride.  Third goes and she pulls a rail on the first part of the two-stride.  A few times later I managed to get the combo by grabbing one of the oxer rails.  After that our coach said we had to dismount and get our own rails.  Darn.


We ended with a nice long line of barrels to the three-stride.   Wouldn't you know it, the first time through we were going to get four... but I stared that last jump down and we lost our rhythm and forward momentum.  Of course I sat there and continued to stare down the fence.  What is wrong with me?  We came again (just the three) and did it (in four).  Athena is really good about jumping the things and she does give me some leeway with my amateur flailing, but if I don't have enough leg on she won't do the things.  We had a small break while my friends did the exercise, then came at it again with my coach really reminding me to put on more leg and to look up!  Guess what?  We got the three! So, we just kept rolling and came around to do it again, and again.  We did get another four.. but I was starting to get the idea!


We ended with me getting a three with a fairly good position (read: not left behind).  Lookout Spruce Meadows... we're coming!  Eventually... #goals.