6 Hours of Sulking - Bouckaert Farms part 2

Hindsight being what it is... I have a half finished post called "Let me show you the ways" that was talking about how in our lesson the week before the show I managed to demo Butterball's and my sliding into the fence problem. The problem started way back in early spring after several ugly but clear rounds. I also shared on here how we slid into a warm up oxer at Notting Hill. So given that this sliding into fences refusal thing has occurred in 2 of our last 3 jump schools and then 3 of the last 5 if you go back to my post about jumping at home, it is hardly surprising that we demoed this at the far away, very expensive, kinda dream show. What was surprising was that I gracefully, slowly slid down his neck and over his ears. I don't even remember touching the ground although my coat and boots would indicate I did momentarily share the arena footing with my pony's feet and knees. So while I considered us "well-established" at the novice level, things change with horses and we were not on a particularly good run of stadium jumping at the time we headed to the show. 

The kind of ironic part is that this is a HUGE improvement on where we were in the spring. EM (our new event trainer) had me moving his barrel and bending him around my leg through the turns on the way to fences to keep him soft and springy. And that combined with the loads of gymnastic work that PW had us doing had him jumping GREAT. I cannot actually remember the last time I felt him roll over his shoulder over a fence. He is jumping really nicely almost all the time. Jumps 1 through 8 rode really well, with the caveat that on the way to 8, a stand alone vertical, I FELT HIM GET FLAT AND STIFF. Which you would *think* would be the cue to DO SOMETHING. But I didn't. The vertical was fine, but then I cut the turn to 9 and still didn't move his barrel or soften him. 9AB was an oxer, two strides to a vertical, which also gave me some false sense of security because our stoppping problem, thus far, has shown up at oxers. But he jumped the oxer kinda quiet then did a perfect 2.5 strides to the vertical and then slid to a stop onto his knees into the fence, sliding me over his nose since I was leaning at the vertical going "OMG YAY we're doing it! We're almost at the end of the course!!!". 

It was REALLY nice that EM was there to witness it. After kindly asking if I was okay, which was kinda funny given just how gently I fell, she said that it was a flat work problem, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I do think he has lost some confidence leaving the ground as well. It kinda feels like because he CAN jump so well (and he was bred to be careful) that if he has to flounder over something as he did during a couple of our spring shows, he would just as soon not. EM had pointed out in our lesson the week prior as well, that he should be asked to jump from less than ideal distances and learn how to be a bit quicker with his feet. To summarize, I need to FIX the canter when it is gross and he needs to be a bit quicker to sort things out to still leave the ground.

First, I sulked a lot. I REALLY wanted to run cross country (which I'll share pics of below), which definitely led to sulking like a two year old who got told NO they can't go play. But I sorted most of my feelings out by the time I arrived home that evening. For the drive home, getting around the beltway onto 75 south was a little hairy, it felt like every 1/4 mile the right hand lane was ending. I would manage to get over and then 10 cars would zip past me to pull directly in front of the truck and then slam on their brakes. I was so close to straddling both lanes to prevent such assholery, I wasn't particularly in a kind mood at the time. But after making it onto 75 south, it was relatively smooth sailing. Once the traffic and lane ending shenanigans sorted out, I chatted with two friends who were also on their drive home who helped both commiserate and bounce ideas around. One also offered to come back up for a weekend trip when Bouckaert is open for schooling, which did soften the sting of not getting to gallop across rolling hills with fun terrain questions and genuine stone walls. 

Also, can you really be mad about a weekend out of town with your best friend jumping (some) jumps and doing a nice dressage test? Especially since this is very fixable, and BB is sound and game. As Emma said recently, none of what we do is logical. While the disappointment is real, so is the gratefulness for getting to be out there doing this at all. 

By the time this posts, EM will have gotten on him for a training ride. And we have a plan, although I feel like I have said that before. But we have a plan that I believe in. I don't think this totally derails our fall plans, but they do require some restructuring. 

On to the cross country that wasn't... 

The pictures loaded out of order and I cannot be bothered to fix that because I didn't get to jump them. The course pics are also in the Cross Country App if you want to peruse better pics of the gorgeous courses there.