I Got to Ride in a Real Arena and Jump All the Things

A preview of the fun that was.

I have been trying to ride, but it was not going. Most of the days were just lunging. And all of the girls were good. Bacon put herself to work and listened and did her transitions almost flawlessly. Finally, I got to ride on Friday and it was interesting...

Bacon's worst day ever still equals this. I can deal.

I could not find Bacon's brain. It was gone, loooong gone. I got my ball of explosive energy out and tried to groom and saddle her up. Husband was busy trying to fix some of my standards and the sound of the drill and Bacon did not go well together. She would not be calm with it around. And then I needed help tacking up because my hands weren't working all that well and she thought that the drill sound was being made my Blake and he was now A SCARY MONSTER. INITIATE RUN BACKWARDS MOVE NOW! And then fall down.

The blue barrel is out of the shot, but to the right of this photo.

Grrr horse. So we did a little ground work. We went and stood by him as he used the drill. She seemed to settle down a little bit. I finally got her dressed and she was still in a panic. So, she got lunged a little bit more. She was still listening to me and doing all she was told, so I hopped on. And then, we saw the blue barrel. MAYBE THE BLUE BARREL WAS MAKING THE NOISE. OH NOES.

Not relaxed, but listening.

Every time we went by the blue barrel, we had a real good hard look at it. Every damn time. The same barrel that we have always ridden around and jumped over. I was tired of those shenanigans, so she got to go around and around the barrel, almost touching it. She then realized her fear was kind of dumb. We actually had an ok ride. She was tense but did as she was told. Even when the neighbor pulled into the pasture and used a leaf blower in the back of his truck to blow grass everywhere for the goats to eat. She didn't even bat an eye at that.

The next day was a lot better. We did three trot poles into a cross rail and scared the Romanian kid when he came out to ask me a question about dinner. All was good. And then Lindsey came over and we devised a field trip that was yesterday. And it was excellent.

Weeeeee!

I think Bacon was ready for a field trip because she walked right into the trailer ready to go. When we got to Prisoner's house, I tacked her up in the baking sun a little nervous about what was to come. Courses. They scare me folks. I warmed her up and although she was a little up and strong at some points she was still really good. I used my inhaler and drank almost a full bottle of water before we started jumping. Lindsey set up a fun course that could be ridden many different ways. We started trotting over a vertical just to get a feel for things and then did some courses.

It's always good for this horse to jump off both legs.

Heels down, let's go!

Not the prettiest jump, but my position is not too shabby.

They weren't scary at all! There were some verticals, a gate and two swedish oxers. All about the 2'6"-2'9" range with maybe some a little higher. There was a bending line if you wanted it, and some fairly tight turns after a couple of the jumps too. Goals were: be forward enough to the fences, sit up before the jumps and try to get in a little deeper, weight into heels, try to not hold horse to the jump, remember the courses, and try to have some sort of release. And I believe all of those were accomplished in some form. We did three different courses and they were all fun and no rails came down (even though we rubbed some). I was thrilled. I was so proud of my horse and myself.

I think four strides from the vertical to this oxer?

Those are better knees. Just wish I had a little bit more of a release...

...but I think that was my bending line to this oxer. Downhill jumps are exciting.

We haven't done very many courses, but I am now starting to get a bit more comfortable with them. That lesson was a nice confidence boost coming into this weekend with our jump clinic. I am still really nervous, but at least I feel like we can go out there and accomplish things and get better. My horse is willing if I am willing and it will be a great birthday present if we have a great clinic. I am excited!

We look like a team!

Horse doesn't even try.