Bounce bounce bounce

Yoshi and I flatted with JT on Thursday and then jumped Friday. Our flat lesson was primarily trot-canter transitions. Such a struggle bus, but we got a few really nice ones to the left and one decent one to the right. He's keeping his back up into them much more, but still does hollow and stiffen through the neck. 

Friday I tossed him back on the trailer, picked up our friend and her horse and headed back to JT's. Yoshi looked like he was willing it to not happen, full on eyes closed napping. Meanwhile at home everyone has been a bit... Spazzy lately. The ponies next door have been running around more prompting a lot of staring over the fence lines and grabbing a mouthful of grain to drop over the stall door as he stares in that direction. One of Mr. GY's horses escaped through the gate into the yard as I pulled the truck in to hook up the trailer. When I arrive home with the trailer everyone RUNS over to see who it is even though this happens one to two times a week. And Yoshi starts screaming from the trailer when they do this. All changes in the last couple of weeks. It's not that cool here, but I think they all know it is fall. But, I arrive at JT's and he goes to sleep?? Suspicious. 

I put him in the "barn bridle" (more on that at a later time) and headed out to the ring in spite of his not concealed feeling about work vs sleep that day. Walk and trot felt great, but then we had left lead canter struggles. Some part of him was bent right so I knew he was going to pick up the wrong lead, repeatedly. When he got it right I could tell it was only because he'd tried the other one and been corrected, not because I had managed to actually get him bent left. I couldn't verbalize it though and she couldn't see it. She was telling me to have more contact in the right rein and I was telling her there was more weight in the right than the left. Finally she got on to figure out what I was feeling/doing that she couldn't see. Turns out he was over bending incorrectly... Neck and head turned left, but subtly popping the right shoulder in a way she couldn't see from the center of the circle. She fixed it and I got back on and we mostly got it together. We did a few more left lead canter transitions and then just did two to the right since he was pretty fabulous that direction. 

It was really useful to have that struggle because it has happened kind of intermittently. Some days are fine, others the only way we get it is by him recognizing the pattern, not being correct. 

We warmed up over a cross rail and he was for once getting to the base of the jump and really jumping up and over well, cracking his back. She then sent us through a grid that eventually built up to 4 bounces to a 1 stride oxer. 

He kept wanting to drift right, so he got an interesting guide rail up to prevent that. It was a really great exercise for him though, he felt better and better each time through the grid. 

It was a great lesson and hopefully good prep for a schooling jumper show on Wednesday.