Can we enter Badminton yet?

Had another lesson with Andrea on Monday. I had a very slow day at work today so spent a lot of time thinking of all the things that could go wrong in the lesson. Basically it boiled down to her refusing and me going over her head. As if that would signify the end of the world as we know it By the time I got to the yard I was nervous but very excited.

We started off with some canter poles in a line and a little cross pole. My main issue with Saffy jumping is that she has been stopping at 'new' jumps. Doesn't matter what they look like, if she hasn't been over it in that session she has generally been stopping. She doesn't do dirty stops as such, just stops and gawps at it waiting for the monster to pop out. Anyway today I trotted her up to the first jump and she went straight over it! Excellent!

RI then put the canter poles into a fan so I could stay on a circle, go over them (at 3 o'clock on a clock face) and then pop over the jump (at 9 o'clock..make sense?). We did that a few times and it felt great when I got the lines right. Saf has never done canter poles on a circle before but she handled them brilliantly.

I have been working on keeping my lower leg really far forward (I tend to bring it back) to work as an anchor and keep me upright. RI said it was a lot better than 2 weeks ago but still needed to be kept still. Will keep working on it! I did find having my ridiculously short stirrups helped a lot in terms of getting into a good jump position.

We did the canter poles (by now there was a jump at the end of the poles), round the cone to jump 1, back over 2 and then changed the rein over 3. We did that a few times on either rein, focussing on trying to get her to land on the correct lead. We managed fine over jump 1 but it all went a bit to pot over the poles She was still going over them and keeping the rhythm, which RI says is the most important thing at this stage.

To finish (it was an hour long lesson so we were both pretty tired by this point) we did a mini course, starting on the left rein. Saf was fantastic. I could tell she was tired, an hour jumping and cantering about is a lot for any horse, but she really went for it. She was stretching over jumps instead of the usual thing of chipping an extra stride in. It felt brilliant RI was really pleased with us and said we'd improved loads since our last lesson.

I was so chuffed I know we kept the jumps very small throughout but it really let us focus on getting the fundamentals down, which is only going to help us as the height builds. Perhaps most importantly, it's done my confidence the world of good. No refusals, no near falls, just a hell of a lot of fun

So, stuff to work on for the next fortnight:
- Keep lower legs forward and still, making sure knees are off saddle
- Introduce as wide a variety of jumps as possible - tyres, traffic cones, branches, water tray etc. Focus on keeping the rhythm and don't let her turn away from the jump if she stops.



Today (Saturday)

Saffy has had 3 days off this week so she was ready for a good ride this morning. I set up a course of 4 jumps in the outdoor, scattered about so I could ride some good combinations. It was raining so I had the massive arena to myself :) I had put some tyres under one of the jumps too, one of my aims for this fortnight.

We started off with a few nice playful spooks at...well nothing really. It's so nice to see her that lively. She wasn't being stupid, just kind of showing she feels well! I went over some canter poles I'd set out and she was great so I popped her over the first jump. This is where she usually either refuses or slows right down so she can check for lurking monsters. That didn't happen today, she just popped it! I took this as a good sign and turned her towards another. Pop! We managed the whole session without a single refusal. The did have a little look at the tyres but didn't stop.

She was just fantastic. I got off and put the jumps up so most were about 2ft-2ft6 and she bounded over them all. One big change today was that I didn't put any placing poles out, which is something I've been doing for a while to get her used to correct striding. The difference from a few weeks ago was amazing. She met more jumps on a good stride and those that she didn't she either stretched for it or put another small stride in. The thing I was most pleased with was that she altered her striding instead of coming back to trot, which is what she's always done until now. I've found counting her strides out loud really helps to drive her forward because I seem to ride more forward when I do that.

Next time I jump I'm going to try and get some bits and pieces to use as fillers etc. Now she's getting the rhythm under her belt I think it's time she got a bit braver and then we shouldn't have any problems in jumping classes this season. So excited :D