I'm feeling confident
It's a rare phrase to hear me say.
We had an over fences lesson last night. I missed last week due to a transportation issue, and we didn't jump the week before that, so I was itching to get on a horse. I started out on Leo today. Lucky for me, the saddle I used was an old, plan flap, CC, deep seated bundle of joy. Unfortunately, while the seat fit my butt, the flap did not quite fit my leg. Plus, when I was pulling my stirrups down, I didn't notice that they were the cheese grater kind, and my gloves are suddenly missing, so, yeah, that was not a pleasant experience. Miss J also had me drop my stirrups down (to where they're supposed to be, but I don't like a long stirrup anymore), and I spent the first two thirds or so of the lesson with a leg longer than a Justin Timberlake song.
We did the usual two-point at the walk and trot, then rising trot. After that, Miss J had us do circles in each corner, and everyone had to say where they felt any resistance from their horse. "I don't know" was not an acceptable answer, and I found that Leo was slightly pissy about my outside leg, so when I was asked where I felt resistance, I rolled with that. Miss J said that would make sense because he was lacking impulsion, and impulsion comes from the outside leg. Yay for guessing. Our final four circles to the right were actually pretty nice, and he was great to the left. After that, we cantered. The right lead was a bit speedy and hollow.
We warmed up over a cross rail. Miss J had us sit trot in both ways, then we did a little six jump course. I wasn't too happy about jumping in stirrups longer than every single Lord of the Rings movie combined, but it did help me sit more and keep Leo in control. It was a good course minus a super close distance to the second to last fence, which completely threw off the final fence (it was a line).
After one course, we all had to switch. Miss J let us pick who we wanted to ride. Every horse was super fresh yesterday; I didn't know who I wanted to ride, but I knew who I didn't want to ride. I ended up choosing Romeo on a whim, but I was still wary about riding him because he was popping Izzy, and she is a much better rider than I am. I got on him, adjusted my stirrups, then we were allowed to go over the crossrail both ways at the trot or canter. After that, we had to do our course. It was a real IEA experience. In order to avoid being popped, I basically threw myself over the crossrail before Romeo was even ready to jump it. I stayed on, but . . . no. I did it the other way and actually stayed with him, and it was nice. Then we did our course. The first three jumps were great, but I got so relaxed that after I got through a rollback turn, I stopped riding two strides before fence number four, and I forgot that I had a fairly tight left turn after it. It was a perfect turn on Leo, but it was sloppy on Romeo. We did the last line, and my final fence was deplorable, but I'm still happy about how this lesson went.
Plus, I got to see Cas and Izzy do an intense rain dance. That was hilarious.
We had an over fences lesson last night. I missed last week due to a transportation issue, and we didn't jump the week before that, so I was itching to get on a horse. I started out on Leo today. Lucky for me, the saddle I used was an old, plan flap, CC, deep seated bundle of joy. Unfortunately, while the seat fit my butt, the flap did not quite fit my leg. Plus, when I was pulling my stirrups down, I didn't notice that they were the cheese grater kind, and my gloves are suddenly missing, so, yeah, that was not a pleasant experience. Miss J also had me drop my stirrups down (to where they're supposed to be, but I don't like a long stirrup anymore), and I spent the first two thirds or so of the lesson with a leg longer than a Justin Timberlake song.
We did the usual two-point at the walk and trot, then rising trot. After that, Miss J had us do circles in each corner, and everyone had to say where they felt any resistance from their horse. "I don't know" was not an acceptable answer, and I found that Leo was slightly pissy about my outside leg, so when I was asked where I felt resistance, I rolled with that. Miss J said that would make sense because he was lacking impulsion, and impulsion comes from the outside leg. Yay for guessing. Our final four circles to the right were actually pretty nice, and he was great to the left. After that, we cantered. The right lead was a bit speedy and hollow.
We warmed up over a cross rail. Miss J had us sit trot in both ways, then we did a little six jump course. I wasn't too happy about jumping in stirrups longer than every single Lord of the Rings movie combined, but it did help me sit more and keep Leo in control. It was a good course minus a super close distance to the second to last fence, which completely threw off the final fence (it was a line).
After one course, we all had to switch. Miss J let us pick who we wanted to ride. Every horse was super fresh yesterday; I didn't know who I wanted to ride, but I knew who I didn't want to ride. I ended up choosing Romeo on a whim, but I was still wary about riding him because he was popping Izzy, and she is a much better rider than I am. I got on him, adjusted my stirrups, then we were allowed to go over the crossrail both ways at the trot or canter. After that, we had to do our course. It was a real IEA experience. In order to avoid being popped, I basically threw myself over the crossrail before Romeo was even ready to jump it. I stayed on, but . . . no. I did it the other way and actually stayed with him, and it was nice. Then we did our course. The first three jumps were great, but I got so relaxed that after I got through a rollback turn, I stopped riding two strides before fence number four, and I forgot that I had a fairly tight left turn after it. It was a perfect turn on Leo, but it was sloppy on Romeo. We did the last line, and my final fence was deplorable, but I'm still happy about how this lesson went.
Plus, I got to see Cas and Izzy do an intense rain dance. That was hilarious.
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