Well... the plan was to jump today in my lesson with Liz. Which, wasn't a bad plan. Funs had so much dressage work, it would be a nice treat for her to jump, especially since we can't go trail riding since my truck hasn't been cooperating and is now currently in the shop.
So, I got on and we hacked up to the arena and did an extra loop or two in the pasture since we were actually early today! Then we saw Liz pull in the culdesac so I headed to the arena, knowing she was going to let the dogs out. She did, and Funny was watching them. They both went into the woods to potty, and Funny was standing there watching them. Then Oaken ran out and Funny spun so quick she slingshotted me out of the saddle. I was wearing my new firefly leggings, which are just leggings, not breeches, and they are kind of slick. I almost stuck it but it was so fast and she spun so quick, she just... literally shot me over her ass. I hit the ground on my left thigh.. which is where my phone was. Oops. Luckily no harm to the phone.. and my thigh has a little road rash somehow, but other than that, I'll live. But man alive, now that I've sat down for a bit, it is getting stiff!! Anyways... totally not the dogs fault... really, no ones' fault.. .well, Funny's fault! She literally was watching them and used them as an excuse! But oh well. Guess I maybe should have been a little more prepared.
I got back on and then Liz set up the jumps. She wanted a grid and Jean had a lesson today and they changed the grid to a single with two jumps on rollbacks after. So Liz set up a grid for us. Which took awhile. I should have gotten off and helped but I didn't think she was going to set up that much. And it mostly took awhile because she was making it exact. And then she set up cones because I'm dumb and couldn't understand where she wanted me to turn. Or, maybe I understood but didn't have faith that I could turn Funny that tight/quick. ;) So, once we finally got everything set, she told me the plan.
She wanted me to pick up the trot and get a nice 20ish meter circle in front of the grid. Then once she was soft and happy, turn tighter and cut my 20ish meter circle into a 10ish meter circle and come straight to the grid. Let her trot it and then when she landed in a canter, stay in two point for a whole stride. I have a tendency to pop up too quick and that makes Funny unhappy. Then come up a stride, then start my turn with wide hands. She wanted me to turn quick enough that I could stay inside the cones (ideally) and then make a nice roll back to the cross rail. She also told me that she would tell me which direction she wanted me to turn based on which lead and bend Funny was in. I was thinking "okay.. this sounds HIGHLY optimistic to me, but let's see". She also said that she didn't think we needed to canter before we jumped since they were so small. Ha! I laughed and told her that we never canter before we jump because once we start jumping... we don't trot anymore. ;)
So we picked up the trot and Funny was immediately quick and fast and racing. It took a good 10 circles or so before I managed to get her soft and happy. Which, to be honest, was better than it could have been. And she did get soft and happy and slowed and balanced. I did all the things. Liz did say that my muscle memory was already getting better, so yay for that! So, then we finally got a nice trot and went to the grid. And... it was... well, I'm not sure, because it was chaotic feeling and quick and I didn't really have time to do anything other than just sit there. I landed and didn't sit up or touch her face and then Liz was too slow to tell me which way to turn so I picked one. Of course I picked wrong and she threw in a change, and we were way past the cone, and then sling shotted around the turn and totally missed the crossrail. And then kept cantering in the circle back at the beginning of the grid instead of coming back to a trot. But we did. Well, maybe it was a trot for two steps and then a walk. But.. you know... ha. It took alot for me to not turn to Liz and say "I told you so".
We took a breather and talked about the good things and then tried again. And... it sort of got better. We never really managed to accomplish the actual full exercise. But we did manage to get to the cross rail the last time, although we blew past our cone and had to diagonal back to the cross rail and then we did about 4 canter circles before we trotted and again, only a few trot steps before she walked. BUT... the good thing is that I was actually able to get a nice trot between each attempt. Not always immediately, but fairly quickly a few times. And it was a nice trot. And a few times when she went straight into canter, we got a really nice canter too. And pretty quickly she stopped hopping straight into the canter. I think that Liz is right... by not punishing her for cantering but making her canter correctly and biomechanically, it's not nearly as much fun and more hard work, and she's a smart girl. She figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't the best avoidance maneuver. ;) But back to our good points. I was able to eventually sort of figure out how to stay out of her way and let her have her landing, but then sit back up to help her balance and figured out eventually that the wide hands do help her balance. If my hands are too narrow, they box in her shoulders and don't give her an out. And one time, she was so scrambly through the grid that she tipped down and I sat up to help balance her without interfering and didn't need to be told. So yay me. We had to keep tweaking the grid because she has such a big stride and is so bold the normal distances weren't really working for her. Especially when they were tiny. Liz didn't want to punish her... she wanted to reward her for doing the right thing, but also encourage good behavior and good basics. So... it was a bit of a hot mess, but... we had some good results.
I told Liz that I was grateful for the lesson... because she needs to have these holes fixed. And it needs to happen. It's just.. not that fun while it's happening. ;) Like... it wasn't what I would call a fun ride. There were moments and I was proud of her, but good golly that was a hard ride. A frustrating ride. And I knew that if we set the jumps up and I just let her go and jump... we'd have fun and it wouldn't be as frustrating. BUT... I also know that we need to fix things while the jumps are small and not just use the size of them to cover up our inadequacies.
So... we hacked home and she got cookies. Hopefully I'll get my truck back tomorrow night or Thursday night and can take her for a nice long hack on Friday! Or at least this weekend.
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