In Due Time

After my last off property lesson, Trainer G and I chatted about what her goals are for me. She explained that when I was riding Blackjack, he didn't engage himself as much as when my co-leasee was riding. In response, I let her know that I, uhh, like, never jump him. It was like a light bulb went off for both of us. I don't really jump Blackjack because I know he gets used in lessons, and I've grown much more concerned with my horse's comfort and longevity as of late. She was grateful for my caution but assured that his lessons are light enough that I don't have to worry about over jumping him. She also really really wants to see my do a hunter derby with him. Like, she's fully visualizing it into existence. Never had a trainer straight up manifest for me, haha, but it's appreciated. With that, we scheduled a lesson for the following Saturday to specifically gain some miles together over fences.

Saturday came along, and good lord, it was a tense morning. Spring has come to Miami, meaning that the temperatures are still bearable, but the rain is insane. I probably hit four massive rain clouds on my way to the barn. The last one flooded the Publix parking lot where I stop to get carrots every week, and I was sure the lesson would be cancelled because the barn is so close to the grocery store. Not even one mile away, it was dry, sunny, and painfully humid . . . Once I got to the barn, I tacked up Blackjack and was nearly ready when I noticed a text from my trainer asking if I was okay to ride Liberty instead. Blackjack had ended up doing a heavy jumping lesson the day before. I'm genuinely indifferent about riding one over the other, so I said yes. Then the lesson was moved back an hour because of a family emergency, but because I had to untack Blackjack, tack up Liberty, then get on her only to realize that my girth was several inches too big . . . it ended up with me being 15 minutes late and Liberty already starting off the ride hyped up. On top of that, two of the horses in the pasture decided that, even though they've known each other for over a year, that was the day to start acting foolish with each other.

I am who I am

Mind you, this was still going to be a jumping lesson, and my prior attempts with Liberty were on edge to say the least. We had a pretty solid warmup with a lot of circles and different shapes. I kept pulling her off the rail by the pasture with the knuckleheads, and she slowly began to settle in and focus a little more. Because of the rain, the arena sand showed all of my pathways, and that made it a lot easier for me to evaluate the quality of my shapes. Much of the flatwork was focused on keeping her shoulders in the right place and making sure her body stayed on a track. She was happy to canter around the ring, but we've always had issues on circles. She's been relaxed for me but not necessarily attentive and will block out left and right cues. It's not a huge deal considering we've just hit the relaxation point. Now I feel a lot more confident asking more and knowing that she's capable of what is being asked.

She gave a great effort to the right and seemed to stretch into the stride a little better, so we ended the flatwork with that and moved onto the fences. The arena set up included a trot poles to vertical line, a crossrails gymnastic, and canter poles to a low roll top.

We pretty much always start with trot poles to a vertical. It's always about me getting my timing right when sitting to the vertical and encouraging the horse to engage and lift properly over the fence. Liberty has enough bascule on her own, but she gets flat when she's tense and coming in too fast. She took the fence down at one point, which hit my pride a little bit. The third time through, I closed my hand a bit through the poles to remind her to come back, and she jumped it much better. Fourth time, did the same thing, got her back quicker, and she jumped even better. Fifth time required no adjustment. She came right into my hand and carried herself through the whole thing.

It was pretty much uphill after that.

Get it.

It's a horse joke.

Queen of Mare Glare

We did the gymnastic line a couple of times, and I absolutely suck at gymnastics, so I didn't have much faith. It was a long two stride (or uncomfortable three) to a bounce. It could be broken down into several parts: the approach, the related distance, the bounce, and the getaway.

The thing with Liberty is that you have to be steps ahead of her without letting her know. She anticipates and is constantly trying to figure out what you're going to ask her to do. Fairly typical of, like, any performance horse, particularly those bred for speed and precision in their movement. As a person, my brain also kind of panics when faced with literally any task, which makes related distances and combinations particularly difficult. I have to focus on what's right in front of my while also knowing where I need to put the horse next. Yes, I'm aware that makes no sense, lol.

Basically, coming into the gymnastic, I tried to "separate" my eyes from my brain in a metaphorical sense. Once I got close enough to the first element, I directed my visual attention to the very end of the line so I could see everything but mentally registered what I had to do to get over the fence. This kept my chin up and my shoulders back but also stopped me from over thinking and potentially getting too deep to the first fence. The bounce became significantly easier to get through, and the quality of the get away improved. We went through the gymnastic several times before I applied this strategy. After having some okay attempts, we moved onto the canter poles to the rolltop which was literally perfect both times through. After coming back to the gymnastic, we nailed it a couple times before calling it a day.

I have this far off dream where Liberty and I get comfortable enough that I can jump her in the Myler D-Ring that she hacks like a dream with. It's likely impossible, but at this point we're making good progress and could maybe try some equitation and/or hunter classes with a Pelham for safety. This horse really gets me motivated, and I'm interested in seeing where we could go next.

Oof, props to whoever gets through this novel of a post!