Wednesday Lesson

As stated last time magic trainer came out and managed to fix us... again!

Uno's fitness has not suffered for all the trail walking despite all his eating!

To set the stage she was running early and I was stuck in the work meeting from hell.  So I arrived home to a tacked up horse and a trainer who is resetting the jumps in the arena.  I ran inside changed, grabbed Dutch's wooly pad, all set to hop and get riding.

Dutch is also looking better with the work. His appetite gets better the more he works.

Then the donkeys kept sanding in the jumps.  So I ran to open the gates to let them out on the grass.

Then the puppy escaped his new puppy proofed fence.  So I ran to put him in the house.

Then Dutch made a bid for grassy freedom.  So I caught him and got on.

Cecil looks so innocent, don't be fooled, this is the DEVIL! : )

L.O. had tacked him up with Uno's loose ring bridle with the figure 8 noseband.  I brought down his hackamore but never needed it.  We focused the warm-up on getting a forward trot and canter that actually WENT somewhere.  My key take away is that I cannot confuse activity and engagement with being in front of the leg.  Dutch is naturally very active with his legs and carries himself well, it doesn't mean he is pushing and moving forward.

We started jumping with 3 trot pole to a cross rail and 2 canter poles set after.  My focus was on keeping my leg on, and keeping my body UP.  I have a terrible habit left over from my hunter years of laying on my horse's neck.  L.O. had me focus on feeling like I was getting pulled up by my helmet.

So not this...

As we went through she raised each of the canter poles to make jumps.  The end result was 3 trot poles, a cross-rail, bounce to a verticle, bounce to a verticle, trot before we reach the end of the arena.

The goal was to keep my"dressage hands" and not drop him or super dramatically release over each fence. At some point in a brief journey to H/J land, I was taught to very dramatically crest release and lay on the neck.  This has the effect of 'dropping' Dutch over the fence which causes him to rush the last stride, or take off on the back side.  Keeping my hands low and 'there' allows him to jump up into my hands and holds him together better. 

Cute boy is cute!

If I can keep my leg on, my body tall, hold my 'dressage' hands, and count to the base we get a good soft jump every time, regardless of the distance. 

OK hands... icky everything else.

Once I was able to do that a few times in a row, we switched directions and repeated this to the left.  Dutch tends to drift through his right shoulder, so this time I also had to 'sponge' my baby fingers and use my right thigh to block his right shoulder. 

Once I got my body back under control again, we moved on to a course.

Small, but effective course

I trotted the bounce line, came around and jumped the barrels, turned right and jumped the verticle, came back to the barrels, then did a modified rollback/ wiggle to the bounce line again.  The barrels are on a slight uphill and the verticle comes after the most slanted bit of the arena, so terrain played an embarrassingly large roll in how much of a disaster the first run through was.  We leaped the barrels from a huge long shot, and then I buried him at the verticle and laid on his neck.

At this point, L.O. pulled me in for a pep talk.  My priorities were leg (always legs) and dressage hands, he would excuse my flopping like a monkey if my legs and hands didn't move - and what do you know - it worked.  We rocked our way around a few more times and each time Dutch got better and better about waiting for the jump and staying straight.  It was awesome!

So majestic.