Our XC lesson kept getting foiled, so... with Full Gallop approaching and me getting a little panicky.... I decided to bail on Liz and jump XC at Ashland today. But then I thought... "OR.... I could see if Liz could come teach me"... And she said she would. Which, was perfect, because... while Dan could be ridden today.. I wanted to hack him since it was his first ride back post injections.. and then I wanted to play with Lyric on my own some more. And I really wanted to jump XC. And I'm so glad we did because it was soooo helpful!
We warmed up and Liz yelled at me for being too quick. Even on XC Holly, think slow.. stay behind the motion... Fiiiinnnnnnneeeee... ha ha. But she's not wrong. And it worked! Shoot, I was just thrilled that we were trotting on XC instead of cantering. ;) But we actually got a lovely trot and while she was a little bouncy before... spooky... twitchy... she was trying hard to be good. And Liz asked how she felt and I said "really good but a little explosive". She said it didn't look explosive and... I realized.. she really didn't feel explosive, like a ticking time bomb way... she felt ... like that amazing feel that you want... ready to do whatever you ask at the next second... lots of impulsion and energy... balanced. Ahhhhhh!! SHE HAS THE POWER!!!! :) :)
So then we started to jump. We walked the ditch and she was fine. Then Liz had me trot the middle ditch and easy peasy. Then she had me do the big ditch with the log after but wanted me to skip the log. She's jumped that like a thousand times, but okay. Ha.. and that's what happens when I get cocky and complacent. I angled it too much to avoid the log out and she stopped. So... I came back again and had a better line and not as much of a take off runway and she was fine. Liz told me that when I was schooling I should probably start much closer to the fences than I do. I tend to give her a long runway because I feel like that gives me time to get her settled, but Liz felt like it just gave her too much time to be naughty. And... good point... if she just has to get going and go straight to work it's better than if we do a lot of "nothing" prior to working hard. She likes a challenge.
So then we did a super helpful warm up by the ditches. There were three cabins almost parallel so she had me trot the baby one, then roll back to the middle one, then roll back to the big one. And.. it was harder than it looked. I jumped ahead... I didn't get my lead... she scrambled... So, lesson learned... Wide hands so I can control her shoulders better.. and it helps keep me in the back seat and doesn't give me chicken wings.... stay in the back seat.. she jumps so much better when I'm not tipped forward. When I tip forward, she feels like she has to get quick and take flyers to "catch up" to me, but when I stay in the back seat (and I'm really not in the back seat, but... for making my body behave), she can settle into a nice balance and jump off her hind end. And then put my weight in my outside stirrup and outside rein to get the bend and balance and use my inside leg to push her barrel out. And half halt with my outside rein. And it got so much better!! Today was really cool because the differences in the good and bad were so obvious! And it's not even that the bad was bad (well, it was twice, but more on that later). But the mediocre was dramatically improved to fantastic with a few small tweaks. And I could feel the difference! Which does monumental things for my brain and learning.
So then we did the coffin with the slight bendy line and she was really quite good. We tweaked it a few times because it was slightly downhill and I tipped my shoulders, which put her on the forehand. But when I sat up with my chest, it was lovely. We also focused on walking the lines better. Which... is frustrating for me. I'm not sure why, but... like "it's not rocket science... let's get on with it"... But.. it kind of is rocket science.. or it will be at the upper levels, so... pay attention to it now Holly!
So then we did the bigger cabin to the ditch and wall to the trakehner and we walked the lines. And I didn't let Funny look at the ditch and wall or trakenher, so we did it "cold". But she was great! She peeked at the ditch but jumped it great. From the base. And then she was fine with the trakehner. Good girl! We did it twice so I could fix my mistakes. (Getting smacked in the face by the tree branch and having to duck two strides out from the trakehner didn't help). But I did fix them. Yay!
So then we went to the banks and practiced that. We did the small up bank and then went to trot down the bigger bank. And she was cantering and I got her to trot but it was a very resistant trot and on the forehand and not balanced and she stopped. She danced a bit on the edge and then Liz told me to pull her off and come again. She noticed that Funny does not like when I chase/get after her at the base of things. So I came around at the trot, got an effective (outside rein) halfhalt and her trot was more balanced and she leapt right off. Cool! So we did it again from the canter, got the trot a few strides out, half halted and balanced and she was lovely down it. Yay!
So then we had talked about what I wanted to jump today so Liz made a little course. She suggested I do the scary lincoln log upright vertical instead of the novice table with flowers. Okay... she's jumped that before and it was no big deal, but sure. (Except.. it had all four logs stacked up so it was a hair taller than the table... but not wide, so it didn't freak me out). I also wanted to do the ramp, so... we cantered off and did a cabin and then down to the ramp. She looked at the ramp a tiny bit but I rode gritty and used my crop and she jumped it fine. Then we came down the bank (at a trot) and then went straight up to the skinny. She was looking at Liz and Grace off to the left but she did focus on the jump early enough. However, she was running and blew off my half halt so we came to it quite flat. And then she tried to squirt out and I held her in, so she jumped it. But she caught it with her knees and started to almost rotate over it. I, luckily, had kept my shoulders back (for once!) and knew I was coming off, but was desperately trying to stay on at least long enough to not land underneath her. Luckily Funny is like a cat and managed to slide her front legs down and catch herself and not flip and that helped me stay up on her neck/shoulder long enough that I was able to sling around to the side and hang on (via her mouth, sorry girl!) until she had landed with all four and then I slung around her shoulder and landed on my feet next to her! She stopped herself and I ran with her a step or two so she didn't step on or into me. GOOD GIRL! What a save! That felt like it could have been really bad. Really, really bad. Ooof. Okay... Liz took one log off and we talked. She said that it was all Funny's fault really. I half halted and she ignored me and... she paid the consequences. Had my shoulders not been back I wouldn't have fared as well. So... she wanted me to get a good half halt and come again and if she didn't listen, circle! So I cantered off, thinking I'd get a long approach again so I could make sure she listened to my halfhalt and Liz yelled at me. NOPE! We have to do it correctly and give her confidence before we challenge it again. Okay... that's probably smart. So I made a small circle, got a good half halt and we had a nice balanced canter to it and it was fine. Okay.. so then we did a big sweeping approach and got a good half halt way out...testing... then another half halt a few strides out and it was fine. Okay..phew. We both agreed that twice in quick succession, Funny had consequences to ignoring my half halt and we both suspected that she was contemplating and might just realize that I'm trying to help her most of the time. SO.... while it was scary and I'm super grateful neither of us were hurt... it was kind of nice for her to learn that lesson now!
So then we took a breather and then put together a few more fences. We jumped the brushy cabin thing, then went around to the roll top into the water and out of the water and then for fun, I jumped the lincoln log thing again from the other direction. And she was great. She got a little squirrely to the brush, because she usually does, but I rode and held her and she jumped it. She was great over the roll top and great into and through the water. And then, because it was a little last minute, our line wasn't beautiful to the lincoln logs, but it wasn't bad and we did it. I wanted to jump the table too but I don't actually think I did. I meant to... But somehow I didn't. Oh well. We quit with the water line because she was good and she was getting tired.
We took a nice walk to the lake to let her drink and splash. And to try to "ice" her legs. But she almost immediately threatened to roll so I kicked her on and we just walked back home. Sorry! In retrospect I should have pulled her tack off and let her. I did give her a nice long hose off and then she got to roll at home.
Good pony! I do think this will be very helpful for the future. It was nice to feel the difference between "good" and "SUPER!!!". Now to just remember how good super felt and be greedy for it. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment