Getting back on the horse.....So to speak...

Today was my first time jumping after the disasterous Groton House Summer Classic. No, I didn't fall off, but after having 5 refusals total that day I had to think long and hard about how to continue. As we were fairly certain that the stops came from him not being sure he could do it in the slippery conditions and then my crappy riding, I thought I would give it some time and a few lessons to confirm this.

So I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach. On the way to my lesson I really thought long and hard about how and where I would like to see myself by the end of this season. Do I still want to event? Gawd Yes. Do I want to continue at elementary? Yes, the smaller sizes were too small. Do I want to be doing beginner novice by the end of Fall? Yes, to that too. But I actually realized a few things, too. I realized that in the past with Dancer, we'd have no problems at home but in competitions I'd get the stops...and we had a hard time re-creating them at home.

I went in to the lesson with a "game plan" in mind. Continue with me, working really hard to perfect the jumping skills on me. And then also speak with Mere about possibly riding him in a few competitions for me so I can watch him do it and love it. I can't say that she was *in love* with the idea, but I think that was more because she doesn't do a ton of competing of her clients' horses. When I asked her what it would entail for her to ride him (ie: how much money and training beforehand!), she said she needed to defer and speak with Denise (the other trainer at Scarlet hill) before coming with a game plan.

I felt better with a clearer direction. And thus, we started a gymnastic exercise. I think the BIGGEST visual I got was the "squeeze your boobs!" visual....hahahaha. I really want to jump ahead of the horse, but for some reason when I am told to squeeze my boobs together, my hands push me BACK in to the saddle and I don't jump ahead. Huh. Who'd a thunk it?! hehe. The other one that really helped was to make my self as "small as you can over the pommel" which in essence helped too. I have to say that having myself all "tucked in" like that made me feel SOOOO much more competent and less like I was flailing about!

So our gymnastic exercise was like a figure 8 that we had to canter around through and keep the boobs smooshed inwards. We had to turn left off a sharp curve and start a jump, then about 7 strides to another jump, turn hard right to another jump and then 7 strides to the last jump. I didn't have many "OH THAT SUCKED" moments! BUT, I did have one where I got ahead and wanted to jump for him - and he actually propped as if to say, "Look Lady, I thought we had an understanding....you stay back and I'LL jump first!" He DID go, but for a split second I thought we were going to have a stop. Way to illustrate a point, Buck!

I came out of the lesson MUCH more confident than going in! I'm not 100% sure where we'll end up going, but I do know that I'm going somewhere ;)