We were able to sneak in a lesson today with Jacel! Liz had to leave at 3 pm, which was perfect, because then I could leave at 3 to meet Jacel at Ashland for a lesson at 4 pm. She did offer to come to me at 4:30 also, but... I kind of wanted to jump Funny and it's way more fun at Ashland. Plus, I had already ridden Lyric and Dan with Liz, and I definitely didn't want to flat Funny again. We need some fun every now and then.
So... we loaded up and headed to Ashland. We were a hair later than I wanted.... but I got tacked up and we headed to the arena. We were on time but not warmed up. Of course Jacel and I had to have a good chat and catch up. I love our "life" talks. She's.... just such a special person. She knows just what to say... and a sister in Christ, so... it's good. I just feel bad that I can't be for her what she is for me. But she said that by helping me, it helped her, so... :)
Anyways... I warmed up and Funny was feral! I told Jacel that she felt very tall today... I do think she grew. She was looking for things to spook at. She spooked at the gate (jump filler) laying up against the rail. BOTH directions. ;) Then she was spooking at nothing randomly... Such a goober. But she was trotting fairly nicely. Then we cantered and holy cow!!! Where did that canter come from??? That's the uphill balanced and collected canter we all dream about. The canter that you could jump anything from, pirouette from, or walk from. Of course, there was also feralness in it. ;) Because.... Funny. And... dragon weather. It was a bit crispier outside. YAY!! Finally, some lovely fall-ish weather.
So then we jumped. Jacel had us trot a small vertical four times. She MUST trot. She's not allowed to make the rules. It's time to grow up. So there was a lot of zig zagging, lots of circles, and some serious half halts. BUT... we managed to trot it four times. Whoo hooo! Then she had set up four oxers, that were.... pretty decent sized but maybe small novice. Nothing crazy. She said that we were going to try something and given the dragon weather and the feralness, it might not work out today. Ha ha! Okay, yay.... ;) But it was fine. The goal was to really push them into the turns and through the turns with the inside leg... ride the turns... so that we didn't have to gun once we got to the approach. And that also encouraged them to sit and push off their inside hind and get good impulsion. But it was tight turns. It was the red oxer, tight roll back in front of the other jumps to the butterfly vertical.. then a fairly broad swooping turn that gave you a false sense of security because then you had to make a tight rollback to the third jump. Also an oxer.
So then we did it backwards and she was super. She still wants to be soft and chill when the reins are dropped but as soon as I pick her up, she goes to bouncing and bolting. But I'm trying to slowly gather her up. Or... just gather her up quick and go straight to the canter. By then Jacel had raised the jumps up fairly high!! She then had us do something slightly different. She had us jump the two tight turned oxers, then add another roll back to another oxer, then a fairly long swoop to a final oxer. She warned me that after all the tight turns, that long run to the oxer was going to get flat and strung out, so keep riding the inside leg.
So we did it. And it was fun. She got a little quicker than I want, but did better than I expected. Although we did take a massive flyer to the last oxer. MORE INSIDE LEG!! Ha ha. Okay... okay... got it. So we did it a few more times and fixed it and wow... that really does help. It's cool because it makes her more bouncy and have more impulsion, which I don't really "need" but... is awesome to have. So then we reversed it and Jacel set them up to about 3'6"!!! And Funny got cocky and knocked the first two with her front feet, and then overjumped (and took a long spot) to the last two. So we redid the first two again with a better ride on my end and she still knocked one but managed to jump the second much smoother and cleaner. Some of it was just her being cocky... and some of it is probably she didn't know they were that big at first and then a little bit was getting tired (maybe?) or not quite strong enough for the big push when she gets a little deeper yet. So we ended with that because it was quite nice, even with her knocking one, and we didn't want to push it.
SO MUCH FUN! Oh, although she did let out a few bucks and almost knocked me over the front of her once. And finally... finally... it was caught on video! Everyone's like "she's going so nice Holly... all her videos look so good".... and I'm like "yeah.. but y'all aren't seeing all the shenanigans between the nice!". Well... now I have proof. ;)
I do still worry a little bit about pain, ulcers, maybe her saddle is a hair too wide... (it seemed like it was sitting a little low on her today)... but she's going so well in between her naughties... and her naughties are soooo consistent.. it's hard to say. But especially after watching the videos.... ughhhhh
After we took a little hack down by the arenas and around ptyerdactyl lake. She was a good girl.
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