We had a fabulous jump lesson today!! Funny and I headed to Barbara's and got tacked up. Laura was stll having heart issues so she had gotten on early and did her lesson before me, since Barbara had finished early. So I was able to trot around a good bit and watch her while we waited for her to finish. It was nice because Funny settled into the trot. It was probably still too fast for dressage but it was at least a trot! And we even cantered and then trotted again! In the jump ring. :) Yep... making progress.
We started off with three cavalettis' set as one strides. Jacel asked me to trot into it but expected us to canter through it. And she actually did! Quite nicely and quietly too! Wow! Even Jacel was a little shocked. Hee hee. We did that a few times and she got bigger as we went but she still managed to do it. :) We did not make it bounces. We did it both directions too. I just have to make sure I"m steering her shoulders. I was a little too counterbent in an effort to slow her down. Ride her barrel, not her face Holly!
So then we moved onto the course. It was basically two diagonal lines. And then a single vertical off a sharp quick turn on the end. And then eventually we also had to do the one stride cavalettis too, so it ended up being really hard to go from long lines that encourage running and getting strung out, to very tight turns that come up quick! When we first did the line, I tried to leg yield her to help soften her rib cage instead of using my hands. Which was great, except she's so responsive today that she almost leg yielded right out of the jump! Ha ha. Luckily, she's so responsive, she leg yielded right back in but for a second I thought we might jump the standard! So okay... less leg. Less leg yielding. It's a delicate balance!
Then we started adding the harder stuff with the one strides and the single vertical. And I was trying hard to ride my inside leg and push her out and keep the momentum with my outside leg, but... I wasn't riding her into my outside hand so we were swinging too wide and having to cut back and angle the jumps. So then i started riding square turns and thinking "canter pirouettes' and it got better. But then we got quick and rushy. So Jacel told me to lift her shoulders. She likes to pull herself along with her forehand, so I have to think about lifting her withers up and thus, setting her back on her haunches. But not by my hands. By closing my thighs and lifting her with my seat. Oh yeah!! So we tried that and holy cow!! She's so responsive today and it worked. And she was jumping like a beast! Except it worked so well that it shortened her stride enough that we had to take some flyers. But she was atleast rocked back on her hiney because of it. And Jacel pointed out that had I accomplished that nice stride from the get go, and not only the last four strides... it wouldn't have created that weird gappy distance. Ah... yeah, that makes sense. But it's hard work. For both of us. So, we got it some but not consistently. But man, a few times I felt like her knees were up to her eyeballs she was so light in front! It was awesome!
ha ha.. And then there was the time where we completely smashed through the fence and she got pissed. ha ha. But we fixed it.
Now to figure out how to plan the rest of my week. And decide if I think it's worth buying the rubber baucher bit. Arghhh. I'm literally on the fence. Half of me is like "it's just $125. that's one horse adjustment... just do it and have it and then you will know"... and the other part of me is like "there's not a magic bit... you'll have the same struggles you do with everything... just save money and keep working on proper basics". Ugh... So yeah.. I don't know. At this point, I may not even get it in time for the three day, so.. it might be a moot point.
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