I'm afraid there are going to be far too many posts titled like the one above, but it is soooo incredibly true. I haven't had time to ride since my last so-so lesson Tuesday until my lesson today. Faren had to pick me up due to the fact that my trailer is STILL in the freakin' shop - latest scoop is that the body shop isn't entirely sure they want to handle putting on the awning to my trailer, because of the fiberglass roof. Risa (from Happy Trails) shipped them the brackets, but I think that right now, the bodyshop is running scared about liability with the awning. Argh! How difficult it is to get an awning put on my trailer? Anyway, I digress. Faren came and picked me up for the lesson because she was sharing it with me, and since she hasn't ridden her mare in a month, the jumps were on the lower side. Part of me was disappointed as I REALLY need to practice jumping Novice sized fences, but the other part of me was relieved as I'm still prone to panicking when I meet a bad distance at a three foot jump.
We warmed up on our own, and he felt fantastic. Greg Wilder (the magic bodywork guy) had adjusted him right after my lesson on Tuesday, and said he was steadily improving. I could definitely tell when he lifted into cater from the walk - very light, balanced, rhythmic, and in front of my leg. He was also wearing his Micklem with the slow-twist french-link full-cheek, and felt very solid in the bridle. Those clips let me use that particular bit without him being afraid of it, so I can use it and have breaks. Gina had us start the same way I did on Tuesday - placing pole on either side and trot in over an X. Again, Gina had to admonish me for letting me get my shoulders ahead of his withers when I felt him fall behind my leg, instead of staying behind his withers and pressing him on. I was carrying a dressage whip instead of a regular jumping bat so that I could flick him behind my leg when I felt him drop behind, instead of having to go one-handed to tap him. So, I went over it again, and then when I felt him falter over the first placing pole, I flicked him and he had a very nice jump, and from then on he was very responsive to my leg and I didn't have to touch him with the whip afterwards. Gina put it up to a 2'6 vertical, we trotted it both ways, and then rolled out the poles so we could canter over it. I found that after I approached the placing pole, and didn't meet it perfectly, I would either not do anything at all, or I would try and hold for a better distance, which inevitably led to burying him at the base and resulting in an awkward jump. After realizing this, I tried pressing him forward when I felt that icky feeling - I had overheard Gina telling Trish (who had her lesson before me) to keep "riding his hind legs to the jump" and I kept that in mind - and what do you know - instead of reaching over and jumping weakly, it turned out that it pressed his hindquarters to take a bigger step underneath him, and the pole and jump compressed him, so that we had a great jump. It took a leap of faith to do this, to soften the rein, sit a little deeper, and close my leg, but it worked. Oliver has gotten so careful about jumping that he backs himself off the jump, so all I have to do is keep my leg on and let the jump rebalance him. Gina then put it up to three feet, a little bigger perhaps, and we jumped it both ways - perfect! The first time was perfect, and then I came around the corner and didn't straighten him, nor did I ride him forward out of the jump, so we had a sticky jump. Since I knew what I had done, I came around the corner, straightened him and kicked him on, and we had a brilliant jump. I heard Gina turn to Faren and say to her, "isn't it amazing how careful he's gotten over a jump?". I also found something else interesting: before, when I would ride forward out of a turn and then try to sit on him before the jump, I found that I couldn't - his balance was so downhill that he would pull me forward so that I couldn't sit down. Today, after I made sure that he was straight coming out of the turn, I put my leg on, he stayed in front of my leg, and then I tried to sit down and found that I could - that there was a place for me sit for the first time, ever. That carried over to jumping courses - I'm not saying that I had a perfect distance to every jump, but I didn't bury him and he jumped beautifully over everything, which led me to be more confident in him so I could ride him more positively, which led him to being more confident in me. Yay! I guess this is what they call the "spiral of increasing ease" vs. the "spiral of increasing tension".
Faren didn't have such a good go of it - Dharma was giving her the same sort of ride that Oliver gave me on Tuesday, and she was getting similar results, with Dharma skidding to a stop in front of a jump if she wasn't completely straight, or got buried, or Faren pulled. Gina told us that since we were riding horses that could, and would, stop, we had to make double sure that we never, EVER got in front of their withers - we had to sit behind them at all times. Not a heavy, driving seat, but making sure to keep our upper bodies backwards of the withers so we could press on if needed. Since I'm more comfortable back there anyway, it wasn't hard for me to do, but I do have to remember that when I feel that icky feeling that I don't like my distance, I need to soften my hand and press him forward instead of trying to pick for a better spot or better balance.
Gina had me jump just a few more fences to finish, testing me by ending with a tight rollback turn downhill to a 3 foot white gate that I usually bury Oliver to. Also, Joe was sitting next to it with his camera and tripod, so Gina told me that I had to keep Oliver's attention on the jump and not gawking at Joe. She said that if I finished and didn't bury him at the jump, I could stop on that. I cantered up over the oxer, bending line to the blue oxer on the fenceline, turned downhill sharply to the right around the mounting block and jumped the sailboat vertical, and then left inside turn downhill to the white gate - nailed it. As a matter of fact, I yelled, "I got it! I can stop now!" as I was leaving the ground, and luckily Gina thought that was funny and agreed with me, so we ended on that. So, even though we didn't jump a whole course of Novice sized fences like Tuesday, we did do a few and nailed them, so my confidence (and obviously Oliver's) is soaring high now. I also think that Greg's bodywork helped to make him feel a lot better, too.
I have a dressage show next Sunday. It's at Antares, and it's a schooling show, but they do something funky by lumping all the Training level/Beginner Novice/Novice tests together, including some first level, and then give out ribbons according to the scores, but at least you get a scored test back. I also found out that at Foxtrackd, I had the second lowest score (35) - the lowest was a 32, so even without any warmup, I was doing quite well. The judge was a hard one. I think she's going to be at Five Points as well.
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