And We Jump!

Picture from yesterday

Cuna and I snagged a jump lesson this morning. I wasn't working today, so I actually piddled around my house and did stuff and then went to the barn. What a concept!

Anyways. The jumps looked nice and inviting, because the lessons last night had set them that way. Cuna warmed up great, but was his usual stiff self.

When Steph came to the arena, I started with a question. "Is he super stiff to the left because that's how he is or because I'm weak on the left side?"

"Both, but mostly it's that you weight the left side more than the right." She started us out marching in a square with left turns. I had to focus on REALLY riding inside leg to outside rein, with my eyes and chest up. Turns out, in order to do that well, I have to, you know, use the outside rein. What a concept! When I finally got all my pieces together, it was almost magical. He was even and balanced and soft. We only had moments of it, but it's definitely something to keep working on my own.

We rolled from that right into the first exercise of the day. Using the connection we'd developed, I had to ride a small course with lots of transitions and be connected and accurate. I'd describe it in more detail, but I have video!



I need to watch it in context with our other recent videos, but to me, our quality of the canter looks much better throughout. Yay for that!

Then we flipped the course around and raised the fences. I kept Cuna walking until I could breathe again, but not so long that I could think about how everything was bigger and scarier.


And because Steph is smart, she only took videos of our good runs. :D Don't be deceived. We had some rough moments. In this video, I just love how balanced Cuna is, especially from the oxer to the two stride. I've managed to get that inside hind engaged and wow does it make a difference. I don't love that I'm so fixated on the trot transition after the green panel that I make him pull that rail and still BARELY get the transition done, but it's something we can work on.

Boss horse jumped ALL THE THINGS

I feel much, much better about how I rode today than the last lesson we had. I did freeze and pull a deranged monkey to one fence, but Cuna just pissed off with me a little bit and then Steph reminded me that when I want to freeze, I need to think, "inside leg to outside rein" and voila! Much better jump.




It actually goes along with one of my favorite pieces of riding/life advice which is this: "That moment when you feel like if you just sit still and do nothing, things won't fall apart? That's when everything is about to go wrong anyways. DO SOMETHING."

Not just a model. A super model! 

My inner tack 'ho must point out how smashing Cuna looks in his fleecy boots and bells. Disregard his state of undress--he looked so cute when I was untacking that I just had to snag a picture.