Friday, October 10, 2014

In Search of Confidence: **** YEAH


He's pretty great
I've blogged for so long about my jumping confidence and lack thereof. I've gone on ad nauseum about how I'd had to remove all any shadow of pressure from myself, both by putting myself in supportive environments and then accepting myself for where I'm at and just being ok with jumping hundreds of tiny fences.

I've learned to separate out the naysayers and ignore the people who think my super talented horse should move along faster and jump higher. It's been a long, hard project. It was a little hard to even post my video from my last lesson because the jumps looked minuscule even to me.

But you know what?

It's worth it.

So, so worth it.

I'm developing that "dressage hunch"
I cleaned stalls this morning and stared at the jumps that were set from a more advanced horse. They were big for me and more technical than normal.

And I wanted to jump them.

Usually that goes away when I get on, but not today. I warmed up on the flat and Courage felt phenomenal. I hopped him over our usual teeny jump and he was great. I planned a flat ride, so I had no whip, no spurs, long stirrups, and no neck strap.

Early shot--he will get his knees up
 Hmmm.. I cranked my stirrups up and warmed up over the little jump both ways. Courage felt great and I was riding awesome. I had my heels down and my hands up and all motion was forward. I peeked at the little skinny set up.

We've never done one before, but I was riding really well and redheadlins was on hand to fix it if anything went too wrong. I walked to within a few strides so he saw it, then trotted over it.

BOOM. Skinny.

He jumps so well with a big release
Then we did it again with less me jumping up his neck and even more awesome. I was absolutely thrilled that I was able to give Courage that committed ride and he was so forward and honest....

And I peeked at the barrel jump with a rail over it. And I was still riding awesome.

And we cantered around and SAILED over it like total badasses.

HELLZ YEAH
We landed on the correct lead and there was a vertical set up on the next long side that we've jumped hundreds of times at lower heights.

WHY THE HELL NOT MY HORSE FREAKING ROCKS

So we just cantered down to it. Courage got a little crooked. I pushed my hands forward and kept my leg on.

BA BAM.

It felt amazing. Courage landed in a perfect balance and cantered away softly and I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. Still can't. What a rockstar.

Courage felt awesome. I was riding well. Neither of us was stressed or worried or overfaced or tense. That's how I want it to be and it was SO MUCH FUN. :-) Oh, and then I went and measured the jumps because I'm the sort of nerd who does that. Barrels were 2'9" and the vertical was 3'. OH YEAH. That's the highest fence Courage has ever jumped and it couldn't have been better.

This is what I've been looking for all along.

32 comments:

  1. This made me smile on an otherwise totally boring morning. You guys are (actually) the best!

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  2. Yay!! SO happy to read this update this morning! Congrats!! :)

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  3. Love reading this! You two rock!

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  4. YAAAAAAAAAAY!! So proud of you!! I saw this on your IG and was so excited for you! You did this at your own pace and it paid off. You and Courage are a GREAT team, here's to more awesome things in the future :)

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  5. So happy for you! Rem that felling and thst confidence and hold tight!

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  6. So proud of you guys! And super glad I was there to see it :) Love to see you getting some confidence and swagger.

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  7. SO HAPPY FOR YOU!! The best at being confident. :)

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  8. You are BOTH rock stars!

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  9. Weeeee!!!! So so awesome to have that confidence in your horse and yourself. Well done. =) And all because of your patience with yourself and with him.

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  10. I'm am so impressed! Everything comes with time and you've been on such a confidence binge that you both really deserved this amazing ride. Sometimes taking things slow and at your own pace will always lead you down the better pace. I know I'm not the only one who agrees that doing what YOU need to do for you and your horse is more important than what anyone else has to say. THUMBS UP!

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  11. This made me grin from ear to ear. You go girl!! Rock on!

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  12. Yaya! Man he makes 3' look easy. Its so awesome when you hit that point where your confidence and trust with your horse snap into place. Hurrah for you guys.

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  13. Awesome!!! I had a big smile on my face reading your post, I know how much it means to you! Love Courage, he makes those jumps look easy.

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  14. haha I use to measure the jumps when I thought we had jumped something really big! I'm glad to hear this for you :)

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  15. I love this post! I can totally relate to all of the confidence issues and it's so great to know you've overcome them :)

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  16. Woohoo! Great job. What an awesome feeling :) Keep enjoying it!

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  17. This is fantastic! So glad you're enjoying the rides!!!!

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  18. Woop woop ☺
    High five girl, you guys rock hardcore!

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  19. This post is so FANTASTIC!!!!!!! Congrats!!

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  20. I just read this whole series and want to click "like" a hundred times on this post!!

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