Whoops

Officially, Izzy and I are not jumping until September, because pretty obviously, I have SERIOUS position/leg issues to deal with.

Unofficially, Izzy is bored out of her mind doing dressage right now and I need time in (out of?) the jump saddle to solidify my lower leg. Soooo...

Yesterday, I set a trot pole and a cavaletti. The cavaletti was only like 12" tall, so I figured we'd be fine. She usually jumps it on her first go, then just lazily trots over it after that.

HA!

Not this fearless, brave pony mare. SHE WILL JUMP, thank you very much.

She looks lazy in this picture, but don't let her fool you. The dragon is resting...

We had a grueling warmup, in which all she had to do was stay forward while my bum never touched the saddle. Ok, so maybe not at all grueling for her, but I wanted to die. I figured we would finish up with the set obstacles. We went back and forth over the trot pole, with me practicing keeping her straight, keeping my position, and moving in rhythm with her.

Then we turned for the teensy tiny little 1' cavaletti. We were trotting in, until about three strides out when she just charged at it and took a MASSIVE FLYING LEAP!!! WHEEEEE! JUMP!!

I brought her to a calm, collected halt, then trotted off again.

She remained enthusiastic. I settled for keeping a balanced canter to the itty bitty rail that was BARELY off of the ground, and then halting sometime after it. Apparently, she was getting a wee tich bored of the whole dressage pony thing.

Could a dressage pony rock this halter? Get real.

Today, we were back to stirrupless dressage again. My legs are getting to be downright amazing, y'all. Also they hurt a lot. Anywho. My plan is to continue riding stirrup free to help develop a nice, long leg and a better seat. However, since I can't ride her as forward as I would like without stirrups, periodically I will put them on and see how much can stick when we add in forward.

Yes, I realize that the best of both worlds would simply be to ride that forward without stirrups. If I was amazing at riding the sitting trot, I would consider it. I am not, and as such, I only ask for as much trot as I can sit without functioning as a jackhammer on her back.

What makes everything better for Izzy is that the apple tree has started producing. The BO raked up the fallen apples and leaves them in a cart on the way back to her field.

Pony pitstop.

Lastly, here's a shot of Izzy munching a few extra apples in her grain bucket.

Maybe she looks just a wee tiny bit less fat than before?

Back at It

Uh huh. Dressage saddle, stirrups removed.

Oh, and I did pilates this morning. Every muscle in my body will probably have a say in my activities tomorrow, if you know what I mean.

We had a good ride overall--I worked a lot on changing bend and lateral-ish motions. We'd go down centerline, leg yield left, straighten, leg yield right, then turn left, shoulder in left, should in right for a counter bend around the corner.

The idea was to keep Izzy active and engaged while forward and soft in the bridle. It mostly worked.

Izzy wasn't terribly enthused.

Overall, I was pleased with how we did. I'm starting to be able to sit a slightly bigger trot, and I'm definitely reaching my leg down longer than before. I can now post three whole circuits of the arena, too.

Plan of Attack

Look at the pretty pictures.

What do they have in common?

I have no leg. Yes, I'm a long-torso-ed person with short legs and that is a disadvantage, HOWEVER, William Fox Pitt has short legs for his height, too. That's not exactly holding him back.

If you examine my upper body position, it's not -that- bad. In fact, in mos pictures from this series, I look ok from the waist up. It's just that my legs are loose, pivoting, swinging, useless. I have strong legs (thank you running), but they aren't helping me ride.

Since I have nothing better to do, I'm plotting my return to riding. I'm still running just as much as I can, but I recognize that when I get back in the saddle, that won't be enough. Changes need to be made.

I'm starting to do pilates at home, which bumps my core strength workout frequency up. AND...

We're going to do no stirrup work. Hours and hours and hours of it. I haven't done it on Izzy at all. At first it was because she was too green and I didn't want to confuse her. She doesn't have that excuse now. Then it was because I was too nervous, too worried. I knew that my balance wasn't what it used to be and I was afraid I would fall off.

Funny thing. I fell off because I didn't practice. My legs weren't good and now I can't ride at all. That's over. In two weeks, I'm mounting up. There won't be stirrups on the saddle.* You're welcome, George Morris. More importantly, I need this. Izzy needs this. For us to gain confidence together now, I need to ride better. I need to be better. I'm going to step it up.

Next time a jumping photo series is taken of Izzy and I, I want to be proud of my position. I want to be riding well. More importantly, I want my ability to ride well to give confidence to both myself and my horse. Getting a saddle that fit us was step #1. #2 is learning to use the crap out of the saddle, and that's where we're headed.

*Ok, there might be stirrups the first day, since I'm thinking I'll take a western day to get my bearings, but then the drills begin.