Today was lesson day. Or lesson evening.. in an attempt to beat the heat. It kind of worked. I mean... 7 pm is still hot but at least we had the shade in the arena and it was maybe starting to cool down a tiny bit. Honestly, I was feeling pretty worn out by the time I hauled over but an electrolyte water helped a lot. And it was worth it. I really missed Jacel and Laura and it was so fun to be getting back to regular lessons with them.
Today was a continuation of the cavaletti clinic lesson. Which, thank goodness we did two in a row because it was much easier that close together. But I'm still proud of Funny. And me. We're getting the hang of things.
We started out with some poles on the ground and just trotted the pattern. And then we had to trot poles, then canter a "bounce" then back to trot for poles... then come around and trot three small fences in a line, then turn and canter some poles. Funny trotted and then cantered and then, believe it or not, trotted again for the poles, although it was not a happy trot and not a smooth soft trot. It was inverted and rushy. But it was a trot! Then she jumped and landed in a canter over the "jumps" in the line but she did come back to a trot after and trotted each one going into them. So yay! The canter poles were decent but then she got big and her cantered kind of spiraled.
We did it backwards too and she managed to hold it mostly together. Even Jacel was impressed that we didn't spiral. ;) Then we added some actual jumps and we were allowed to canter the line, but it had to stay soft. The middle jump was tiny so if we could trot it, that was ideal, but a soft canter was allowable. But we still had to trot the trot poles. And Funny did great. I rode with soft elbows, but kept them at my side, did alternating half halts, kept my body position upright and didn't hold. And RIDE THE BARREL! Which is hard to do when you know she's just looking for any excuse to canter! But it works... She got softer for a good bit of it.
Then we added another small jump and then angled the one after it. Yay! Now we get to slice and dice too. And Funny was quite good. We reversed it and also had decent rides. I just had to keep her small, but she was much more ridable and soft. Mostly! Although Jacel did remind me to close my thighs to help her slow her roll. But then I was pinching with my knees. BUT... she reminded me.. it's not closing my thighs so much as thinking of lifting her back into my crotch. But "close your thighs" is easier to yell. Valid! And I'll have to remember that and try to get the muscle memory for that. That muscle memory is coming in the dressage and canter, but I need to not forget about it when jumping!
We finished with a very soft single jump off both leads and halted softly. The first time we did it, I forgot about the halt so we had to turn before we could achieve the halt and as we turned Funny spooked and kicked out and jumped sideways, but then halted 90 degrees from straight softly. Ha ha. Whoops. We had to add some flair! The second time we did we had a lovely soft halt. Nice and square. Whoo hooo!
Then Laura and I took them on a short cool down hack out to the XC field. The cows were out. Funny looked but didn't seem alarmed. Then the cows got spooked and three of them took off running away from us. (They were in the pasture across the street). Funny was looking intently but wasn't upset. :) Good girl!
It was a beautiful drive home too. Ahhhh... Now for dinner and bed! I'm whooped!
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