Our jumping lesson went really well last night - I was pleasantly surprised
as it was a bit of last minute decision to take L up on her offer based
off Kika's & my good session on Tuesday evening. I figured we could
both do with a reward and a change of scenery - nothing like a couple
poles to make everything interesting again.
We warmed up over a pole then cross pole type of bounce combination on each
rein. Then cross pole became a straight bar on each rein. I was
encouraged to canter on after fence and then a vertical was added to the
mix. A couple pops over them and we continued cantering through a
triple combination of a bounce in and one stride out over an oxer. I got
that woefully wrong first time and was told to shorten up my reins
after each fence and as a result to be better able control my pace coming into the take offs.
Came around again and did it much better - final fence added to the mix
was another straightforward oxer up the longside of the arena changing
rein after the triple combination - again reins were a bit long and we
kind of fluffed the first attempt - but got ourselves organised when we
did the course again the second time. L was laughing at me cos as she
was shouting "brake" at me to slow down before the fences - she said she
could hear me clicking at the mare! I wasn't even conscious of making a
sound!
Changed things up a bit when she made the first pole & straight bar
into a pole followed by two straight bars in a bounce left handed turn
down over vertical, up over longside oxer then back to trot to come at
the pole & bounce off the other rein and turning right handed
cantering through the triple combination. Took me a couple of times to
get that course right as it was quite twisty and I forgot where I was
going a couple of times - which resulted in a big boo-boo of a woeful
jump from me where I deservedly got yelled at for not presenting
properly to the fence - bless Kika she was an angel and got me out of
trouble by jumping despite my terrible steering!
Came around again and got it right the second time and finished on a good note
- feeling apprehensive and guilty for having made a boo-boo.
Kind of took the buzz out of me as I knew it was all my own doing - but
am still immensely proud of the horse and her responses to me - when i
had my reins at a manageable length she came back to me well and overall
we jumped much better than in our previous lesson a few weeks back. Namely that Kika was actually jumping this time and not just flopping
over the fences - admittedly L had increased the height from our
previous lesson - correctly recognising that Kika was being
disrespectful of the lower heights.
So that was my evening, plan is to lunge tonight as she's been ridden
the last three days and that'll give me time to come up with interesting
things to do over the weekend as I've tomorrow off - so three whole days
to do with as i please!
A place where I record the adventures of myself and my Irish Sport Horse mare, Kika. Who I purchased as an un-backed 3yr old in 2007. This blog follows the trials and tribulations of first-time horse ownership since moving from Ireland to Luxembourg in 2010. UPDATE: as of 2013, Kika is being joined by Nancy a Friesan X ISH mare bred by my family who I had my eye on since she was a foal and have been lucky enough to buy and add to my equine family.
Yay jumping lesson!
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