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Friday, December 2, 2011

Jumping Lesson with PICTURES!!!

OMG. I am so excited to have fabulous jumping pictures. If you have a brain in your head, you're insanely jealous of my luck in having Ellie as a friend. She came out Thursday to take pictures of Izzy and I in the freezing cold and did an absolutely fabulous job, as per her usual.

Without further ado:


We came into the arena and immediately started galloping around. I'd shorten around the ends a little, then let her go really forward down the longer sides. I wanted her forward and in front of my leg.

Zoom zoom zoom!!










Then we started doing transitions to sharpen her up. Gallop. Halt. Trot. Leg yield. Gallop. Walk. I flexed my body left and right and remembered to stay light and balanced over her, using gravity to stay in the saddle instead of sheer deranged-monkey-grip.









Soft, forward, responsive. That's how we want to start a lesson. Look how shiny her browband is, too. Mmhmm. Someone broke out the brass polish this week.













And we're off! The exercise was a line of bounces. We were working on staying balanced and letting the horse do her job. We started brilliantly.










Then we had a little role confusion. Izzy says "OH MY GAWD that is big, mom".

Straightness. It's important.









Of course, if you miss your line in a grid like this, Izzy can jump pretty darned high. Look at us go! I'm absurdly proud of this picture, even though the reason we're jumping so high is because I screwed up.









Two things:

1) While not perfect, look how much better I'm riding. Amazing what lessons can do.

2) I actually don't mind how I look in breeches right now. Could be better, but has been worse. Winning!

16 comments:

  1. Great pics! I am jealous.
    And my horses always think the driver must be drunk when we find ourselves aimed at the high part of a cross rail.

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  2. Awesome, definitely some improvement in how relaxed and through she looks

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  3. You gals look great! She looks calm and confident, and I was thinking, before I got to the breeches comment, that you look like you have lost weight! Super congrats to you both!

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  4. Yeah! I like it. You two have definitely made serious progress, that is awesome. It's so hard when both parties are learning together and I think you are doing a great great job sticking with and working hard to solve issues. You should be proud of you two!

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  5. Wooohooo!!! You guys look great.

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  6. Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy, jumping! And yay pics!

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  7. Izzy is sooo gorgeous!! Great pics!

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  8. You Both look fantastic! Keep the pics coming.

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  9. This makes me want to get my butt in gear and find a trainer.

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  10. So much better in your position with your hands giving Izzy room to use her head. Your leg is much better too, with a good heel, but over the fence, it still goes back a bit. The more you can think about dropping your heel down and "forward" over the jump, the more secure your seat will be.

    Izzy looks really good.

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  11. Pics look so great!! Those jumps are BIG, you should be proud :)

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  12. You two look great. Your base of support looks really solid!

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  13. Awesome of your two things. :) I love the refusal picture. The expression on her face is great. In the second picture did you come at the grid again or did she jump that from a stand still? Keep up the great work!

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  14. Haha, guess I should have clarified. The jumping shot is from a different approach.

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