Lesson #146: Remember, NOTHING CHANGES...

The thing about getting up for an early morning lesson is that it's often pretty frigid out there... and for some reason, just 60 km away from home, it can be vastly different! It feels like the polar vortex has started its decent into southern Ontario. By the end of our lesson, when we were putting the horses out in their paddocks, we saw that it started to flurry a bit. I'm not complaining because I heard that Alberta just got a foot of snow or something.

It's definitely getting chilly so I suppose I could be good and wear this blankie without too much fuss...

Despite a chilly morning, the warm up was pretty good and we moved into the canter which was really flowing very well and we went round and round a few times with a good flow and without interruptions. I was really pleased that there wasn't any fighting or disagreements or the action of taking the decision without being asked to. I was really excited that this might be a good lesson compared to what's been happening on and off recently.

Sheri laid two ground poles with about 5-6 canter strides in between. Our task? Depending on our mounts, to collect after the first pole, to fit in 6 strides (5 for the larger horses) or to lengthen and fit in 5 strides (4 for the larger horses). Okay, that didn't seem too bad... we move onwards: the first ground pole becomes a jump and NOTHING CHANGES (right? right!). We still decide if it's a collection or lengthen before riding into it. For some reason, I can't pull myself together enough to not fall all over Ariel's neck and she's really good not to dump me on my arse. I readjust and remember to give with my hands and to be able to collect or lengthen in between. I achieve the collection in between but am struggling with the second GROUND POLE *face palm* to be able to get back up after she leaps over it.

Eventually, I get well enough into it and Sheri raises the second ground pole to a jump. Again, NOTHING CHANGES. Well let me tell you, in my over analytical brain, that all went to crap and I over thought everything and I can't get myself up after the landing of the second jump. Ariel ends up pulling the reins out of my hands and I lose my balance and it's just pretty messy. I do get one or two reasonable goes at it but nothing consistently enough to be pleased about. *sigh*

Until next lesson...