Lesson # 168: Just Practice

This was a really intense lesson. Ariel's part-boarder rides just before me on Thursday nights and I arrive as they are finishing up. That means Ariel is warmed up and I'm the only one who needs the warm-up. We dive right into the lesson and Sheri reviews some of the questions I had from the last lesson where I was asking about the difference in demands of the rider (and to an extent, horse) for the jumps with fillers and such. Simply, the fillers make the jumps a) more intimidating to the horse, so there is chance for refusal; b) they widen the jump so the horse is required to round over the jump and the air time is increased as well.

Instead of the normal posting trot warm-up, I'm told to ride the trot in a half seat and keeping my heels down. Add the 20m X and the 1 stride Xs at the same position. Sheri tells me that as I approach the fence, I need to look up and away and as I land, I have to sit up and think "canter away". My biggest issue is the landing where I seem to end up too far forward.

This entire lesson was an over fence lesson and we did little flat work. The focus was to get me practising to get over the jumps repeatedly to push my body into the position again and again to develop some muscle memory. As it stands now, my jumping over the low Xs is reasonably consistent and I also realized that "the voices" seem to stop when I approach those fences. Those jumps are becoming more "second nature" to me and am not phased by them.

*nom nom nom* Better at staying out of my way to let me do mah thing.

I am asked to go over the wall jump again and again (approximately 2'3") to get a consistent ride in and a good position over and following the jump. Added into this 'round robin' exercise, is the barrel jump which is sitting at around 2'6" and with the filler, trickier to get over. It isn't something I do well so we don't go over it multiple times. My confidence with the wall jump is much better and we focus on that. I do notice that my right leg tends to drift and doesn't remain firmly planted down. It makes sense since my right side has always been a little off and whatever is wrong is causing it to drift off at the jumps and affecting the outcome.

This lesson was intense in terms of the amount of jumping and I was pleased with the work that was accomplished. I enrol for the riding clinic on Saturday that will analyse our position at every possible task. It'll be interesting to see the finer details and pick apart everything. I am really looking forward to the clinic!!