Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Confidence Building

We had our first lesson in a about a month and a half this morning. It went surprisingly well. Izzy came out pretty quietly, lunged nicely, and even stood for me to mount. (That's something I want to work on, but I'd far rather she walk off when I try to mount than rear because she feels trapped. Really. We've been there.)

We did some basic dressage work and got Izzy listening. I was quite pleased and would have been ready to quit there. Let's just say my confidence is not quite what it used to be. ;-) However, we had the jumping saddle on, so Cathy sent us off to hop over a couple crossrails. Izzy took one look at the crossrails, hopped over it, and CHARGED off. Cathy's comment, "Well, I guess jumping isn't a problem." Ha. Yeah. she really seems to enjoy it.

We worked on me staying with or behind the motion and half halting with my body for speed control. As Cathy pointed out, whenever I go to my hands, she starts to fuss with me and things don't go well. I was really impressed at how responsive she was to my weight/body aids. All that dressage is paying off! She came in to a 2' vertical (big for us) and wanted to rush. I pushed my body back, she stayed with me, and we made the perfect spot. Yay! Go Aimee and Izzy.

We even made it over the barrel jump a few times. Sweet! I'm hoping to take my next lesson (whenever that happens) on Cassie, my old girl, so I can get some concentrated input on the mechanics of jumping without worrying about my horse.

3 comments:

  1. Good stuff - glad it went so well! I tend to use my hands too much as well, and find that Maisie goes much better if I use my body and seat instead of my hands.

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  2. Aw, that sounds awesome! I miss jumping more and more, sigh. It's fun to have a horse that REALLY loves it like Izzy, although it is more work:) I wish I had known ANYTHING about dressage when I was really jumping (haha, like 2 foot 6, the highest I showed a lifetime ago:) It would have helped find distances soooo much easier like you said!

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  3. Sounds like the lesson was exactly what you both needed about now. Glad it went well and Ms. Izzy behaved herself!!

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