Well... since I didn't get to ride Funny yesterday I sort of expected her to be a little wild. So, I met up with Sharon and Baylor for a long walk hack before my lesson. Surely that would help! Ha ha.. Doh! Disclaimer.. it didn't... But we had a fun hack. She was good and we did an hours walk. She led most of the way but got a little distracted sniffing the ground a bunch. Hee hee. She's a bloodhound too!
Sharon and Baylor left us in the XC field where Jacel was, but not Julia and Laura and Player and Smarty yet. Funny was feral and quite upset that Baylor left. I tried to trot and warm her up but she was a nut. I finally gave up and just figured I'd wait til Player and Smarty showed up. Once they got there she was a hair better but not really. I told Jacel that I probably needed to just start jumping. She agreed.
She set up trot poles to the lincoln log stacking antler jump thing and had us trot it. Funny didn't care and was having fun. Then she changed them to canter poles and Funny also didn't care. Then we moved to the bank area and planned to work on multiple jumps in a row. She had us do up bank (baby) to the coop (BN I think) then around and up over the triple log stack. Funny trotted to the up bank and then cantered the coop. There were two horses heading towards us (but off to the side) but we kept going and I think Funny jumped it like it was 4' tall! Then we cantered down and around, in a very wide turn because she was flying and had what felt like a 17 foot stride) and jumped the triple stack happily out of stride. I felt like I was getting run away with. I had no brakes, no control.. was basically just a barnacle hanging on. Jacel did tell me that I needed to stop hanging on her face because she was just hanging back and getting heavy on the front end. So.. half halt/float her teeth/whatever needed.. but get in and get out. Okay... that's hard though when it feels like she's bolting! We discussed that she can be big, bold, and fast.. but she couldn't be bolty. No disrespect! ha ha. Okay.... And when I stopped hanging on her face, she balanced better and it wasn't quite as scary. But I still had to float her teeth once or twice. Which.. ugh, but... also... I don't want to die.
Then we moved over to the water and by that point she had settled a little bit. We also did the BN cabin and she squirreled sideways to it but then once she realized I had pointed her at it, she jumped it. So then Jacel told us to do the coop, to the cabin, through the water and out over the hanging log. (She's done the hanging log before). I sort of suspected that she might be silly about the water but we gave it a whirl. She jumped the two coops/cabins fine and then came in hot to the water. At the last second she realized it and ducked left and slid a tiny bit. I stayed on. Ha ha. Jacel was laughing at us! Yes... she swims.. but she doesn't like to gallop in without checking it first. Once I got her in she was fine. So then we did it again and she went in hot again... I swear it felt like she skidded over the water in about 2 strides. It wasn't that bad but... girl did stretch through it.
It was fun but... I was a little disappointed in myself. I didn't feel like I rode very well. I hung on her face, I wasn't brave. I just.. sort of wimped out. I do think that the blood thinners are in my head a little bit, but gah... Oh well. Hopefully we'll smooth it out soon. I'm rusty too. And she's a MUCH different ride than Lyric. Although she's the ride I like.. the ride I want... And we'll get there.
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