Gertie is becoming more consistent each time I take her out of her stall. Some days she is a bit more fresh or slower than others--but she tends to get to work really well and is rather serious about it.
I think she knew we were jumping again as she had SO much GO GO GO and was tough to pull up. She'd throw herself on the forehand and try to drag me around the arena and course. Definitely more of a challenge. She loves to jump and I appreciate her enthusiasm, it's nice when it doesn't take much to keep her in front of my leg. Stinker just wanted to plow through. It was a really good challenge though and we worked through all of our mistakes and fixed them. I'm not as hard on myself as I used to be, it's a learning experience. Like my trainer said, it's always going to be rainbows and butterflies, lol. It's true though. We are not always going to be perfect; get the perfect distance and perfect round every time. There are probably going to be numerous times where I put us in a shitty spot and we need to learn how to get through and over them together. There were other riders (not from my barn) in the arena while I was having my lesson--who were not paying attention. Good challenge, although very irritating.
She really listens to my body well and when I make a mistake, she lets me know, lolol. Had two stops and a rail at the vertical. All were my fault of course. With her being more challenging, I was hanging on my reins to the jump instead of letting her do her thing, not keeping leg on, and just being controlling with the bit of fighting we were doing. The rail was just a whole heaping mess from the start. Came to the crossrail hanging on my reins, cantered to the vertical and I gave enough leg to get her to add the stride instead of taking it long.....while at the same time I threw my body over the jump at the last minute, unbalancing her, catching her in the mouth, ugh. Just ugly and bad. Don't worry, it's on video so you can see it.
First refusal was the hanging. Second refusal, I wasn't using my core and thigh/leg on her to push her forward, hung on my reins, and she said... "No. Don't think so, Mom." I definitely know better. Don't know what it is, but it's definitely been a struggle to get back into proper riding form, especially for jumping. Granted, I never really had much formal training at all; mostly self-taught. I know that even for being self taught, I did a pretty darn good job with myself and with Gertie's training so far--but I wish I had sought out a better trainer and stuck with it when I was younger. Sometimes, it makes me wonder how much better and how much further I could be as a serious and competitive rider.
Anyway, there's no point in looking back, it is what it is. Gertie and I have a very bright future ahead of us and it's wise to look over the fence to the next jump instead of what we've already been over this round.
But we ended this lesson on a two really good notes. Super proud! The two verticals were only about 2'6, thankfully we didn't do the 2'9 or 3' we did last week and the week prior. It was good for us to stick to this height as we were working on the flat stuff--which is more important.
I have scheduled a Dressage lesson for tomorrow. I have no Dressage stirrups for this and am too lazy to put the ones from my CC onto the Dressage saddle---so should be interesting and possibly painful.
I do have to say, I have been working really hard on keeping my left (bad) leg in the proper position and using it more effectively; it is really paying off. She responds much better to my body now that I have really paid better attention to it. I've also been riding three other horses, two of which are much more sensitive to the rider's body. It has helped SO much to get a better feel and understanding what I am doing wrong when on my own horse. Breaking those habits :D Very proud of myself.
My awesome friends came out to watch and got some pictures and video :)
Video... click on it ^
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