A "Good" Note

We had it, then we lost it.

same (image from Know Your Meme)

But I'll admit I'm being a bit dramatic. This week in lessons saw one jump school followed by a Dressage lesson the next day. I wanted to school Silver over fences one more time, but I also wanted to switch the jumps up. The way they were set up made for almost only long approaches. Yah, well, fuck the long approach. I used my five jump set up, but I need to make some adjustments. With that set up, I typically make it so that everything can be jumped from either direction. Rolltop made things difficult. I'll likely swap them with the barrels next time.

I moved everything then hopped on. Silver was just fighting me more than usual when we hacked, but physically, I still felt comfortable, and the good moments must have been pretty good. Trainer remarked that his soft moments were his best yet. We did our trotting on the serpentine, and then we did this fun exercise where we'd trot half a circle on a three point serpentine then canter the full circle on the ends. Truly enjoyed that one.

That face!!

Most of our jumping was Miss El telling me to look up and wait. There were no worrying distances or truly major mess ups (except maybe one gross fence where I lost a stirrup). The out of the line was a bit tight since I walked off four strides but walked it a touch too big. It rode as an ugly five, so I'll put it out the next time. Overall, I felt comfortable, but I'm kinda pissed that I didn't as for a video to actually see how I looked. This semester on the team will require lots of video for me to not lose my sanity.

When we finished up, trainer asked why I didn't move the barrels with the other jumps. I told her there are two reasons: 1) they were far away from everything else and heavy, and 2) they scare the shit outta me. Came out the next day for my Dressage lesson and saw the barrels moved right next to everything else. My next jump lesson on Silver will be interesting, no doubt.

Dressage day started with some decent walk, actually. More forward, but the trot and canter didn't have enough. We went back on the serpentine, except this time Miss El was following me on Sanibel. Nothing quite like being chased down by your trainer while she yells "!MORE FORWARD!" from what felt like a dangerously close distance.

image from #funscrape

We argued a lot through the trot and into the canter, but eventually he just settled and dealt with the whole using yourself properly thing. On the upside, downward transitions are getting better and better. On the downside, his owner just got back from a trip and was riding with us. Why could she not have been there last week when we were, like, doing well???