Lisa's Blog post # 34

“You might as well jump that little jump while you are working on your canter”   Awesome!  I thought we’d have to iron out a few more wrinkles before we were ready to canter over anything – Lesley made my day!

Ever since we had that major break through in dressage when Lesley rode him about a month ago it seems as if we are doing so much better!  I think I learned more from following her around that day, asking her questions while she was riding him, than I had in a month of lessons previously.  Watching her do it, being able to ask her what she had just done and then seeing the affect it had on my horse was so valuable – something just clicked for me that day!  Now we are beginning to canter jumps and all our efforts over the past 7 months are going to pay off!

In today’s lesson Lesley had me work at getting Cotton’s hind-end underneath him first at the walk and then at the trot.   She didn’t fuss at me about my posture so I’m hoping I was sitting up straight and she wasn’t just feeling sorry for me because I have poison ivy all over my body and I haven’t slept in a week and the heavy duty fly spray I tried on Cotton yesterday made me sick…and it’s H.O.T. outside!  Nah…I was sitting up straight!

We did trot/walk transitions and then trot/almost walk transitions.  We did figure eights.  We cantered and upon transitioning to trot went right into a figure eight so he would learn not to fall on his forehand into the trot.  He was a dream to ride!  

Then we focused on a little one-footer.  Sorry! I know…we’re all tired of these little jumps… once we get just a few more basics down our jumping is going to take off - so stay tuned!  Anyway, after a few warm up jumps at trot we took it at the canter.  One big thing I need to figure out is how to find my balance in my jumping saddle in a light, upright 3-point position.  I tend to either want to get into a full, forward 2-point or sit completely.  My hip angle needs to be open and my seat needs to be lightly touching the saddle.  I can work on that on my own.  Lesley said it’s hard for her to find that balance in my saddle too – so it’s not just me!!

I practiced ½ halting him and softening all the way to the jump and holding my position when I hit that 20’ take-off point.   He does so much better at that going to the left – going to the right he tends to get heavier and it takes a lot more seat and leg to get an honest ½ halt out of him.   

He also wants to get heavy after the jumps going both directions so I worked on putting him together again immediately after he landed and getting that quality canter back right away so we’d be ready for our next jump….the day we start cantering two in a row will be another “woo-hoo!!” day for us!  He also always lands on his left lead so at some point I’ll need to learn how to ask for the lead we need so I won’t have to do a change afterwards.  (Lesley tried to teach me that a few years ago on another horse but I never caught on.)

The last jump of the day felt great – he was light in my hands; he responded to my ½ halts and releases all the way through the corner to the take-off zone; he didn’t switch leads or get jumpy or rush – well, he did speed up a teensy bit actually; he came right back to me after the jump.  I was relaxed and it all felt so easy! 

What a great word - I love that word!!