Mental game... not strong

 I will have a media post about Sunday's lesson coming out - needless to say that I had a bit of an anxiety spiral and Uno went through a bit of a bucking phase.  For the first time though, I literally  just threw him at the trainer and watch her school the exact same things.  

He is making the jumping part feel easy.

After watching her school several things, I was able to get on a have a really nice final ride.  A big part of the issue is growing pains on both our parts.  I have mostly stopped pulling to the fence and we have a nice soft approach.  However, sometimes Uno waits for the pull and when it doesn't come get get deep.  Uno has also started to weight his hind and rock back when he balances.  However, he is still not 100% understanding where his hind legs go when he does this in the canter.  So we swaps leads behind repeatedly until he figures out what his back end is doing. 

At the trot he has figured this out BEAUTIFULLY and is really working through and UP.  I am so pleased with how our flat work is coming along. This did offer us a good place to go in the lesson.  If we trotted into the jumps he never lost his balance and cantered off soft and easy.  So trainer had us jumping the same course just trotting in and cantering out of the lines and let me say, it went GREAT.  Uno stayed super soft and since he never lost his balance, there was no flailing around trying to find it on the back side. 

It did take some mental effort from me to trot at bigger jumps, but as soon as I pointed him Uno was 100% committed to jump. He is 100% not built to do collection or lifting, but he is so honest and tries so hard. 

His post jump celebrations are hysterical.  When he jumps well and makes a good shape, he is so happy on the backside.