Don't Be Like Carrie Underwood

Butterball and I had a very productive jump lesson yesterday. But I'll back up to 5 days before that. Last Friday we took a lovely 8.8 mile hack from the farm. Butterball started out HOT. We did a lot of trotting and cantering, but only on grass and/or the sandy parts of the lime rock. I clocked his excited trot at a swinging 12 mph. We met a woman getting on her horse on her farm who asked if he was an Arabian. We also met a whole lot of annoying dogs. Fortunately all fenced, but one who waited until we had just passed it to charge the gate and lose its damn mind, which understandably caused the pony to spook. Rude dog. 

He felt great the whole time. He then had the next two days off since I worked until 4 PM and we're not prepping for a three day anymore so I get to NOT squeeze in a ride in the tiny amount of fading light left after getting home at 4:45. 

Monday, through a series of horses being horses, we found ourselves alone at Majestic Oaks. People were out in golf carts taking down flowers from the horse trial over the weekend, so I felt safe popping over a few things. Some things were fine, others were not great. I stopped and put hind studs in because I felt him slip at the base of a fence and the ground is in fact pretty hard and slick right now. He seemed a bit better after that, but was still opting for the pop chip more than seemed right. Although my riding and the shift in plans might've been contributing, I was still worried about his feet after our long hack. I chatted with my friend and we decided that next farrier visit he'd get leather pads behind. 

Tuesday we did a dressage ride, but Ms. GY had some small jumps set up in the arena, and I couldn't resist adding in the canter cavaletti on a circle. Fit it in, make him wait. It took a bit, but we got there. It's such a deceptively challenging exercise. Wednesday I clipped him (badly) and then we loaded up and went back to PW's. 

Chimney sweep pony. Clipping was needed.

Excessive. My bath kinda sucked too. My poor clipper blades. 

PW kindly said my clip job wasn't too bad. I told him not to look too close. Butterball warmed up pretty well and felt relatively soft and springy. 

We started with a warm up 2'3" oxer off both leads. We popped over it off the right, but off the left the spot was going to be deep. Naturally I flung the reins at him and took my leg off, and he stopped. PW assessed that he 100% could have jumped the tiny jump from any distance, but that "Jesus take the wheel" is not an appropriate strategy on my part. He explained that when I see the deep spot there but then let go of all contact, his stride actually lengthens further, making it even worse. So, hold the reins, sit up and support with leg. That served us well for the rest of the lesson. We didn't have another stop even though we didn't get beautiful distances to everything. I did think at one point that "if you're not failing, you're not learning." Our previous lesson everything had just flowed beautifully and felt so easy and perfect. This lesson was definitely a lesson of failures and growth. 

PW did take it easy on us since we were obviously a bit discombobulated. He started with the jumps pretty soft and then built up the one stride instead of pushing us straight into it. Eventually though the last few jumps were a meter again and we put the whole course together including the one stride. 

We've been working on related distances since pre-Kentucky using the strategy of breaking them up into two parts. So for a 7 stride line, land and GO 2-3-4 then assess and half-halt 1-2-3. It works wonders and prevents the long, flat, last minute push to get the strides. We got the leave out 6 in our lesson this week doing that and did a leave out 5 in the lesson at the end of October. But it doesn't look horrifying doing it this way. There's no last minute fling at the fence that causes panic in me, the pony, and those watching. You know the type of ride, you cringe as they leave the ground in a mess. Yeah, we want to avoid that and this strategy seems to work. 

I did feel the need to clarify with PW after - a few jumps in our last course I felt like I definitely spurred him off the ground to get the slightly gappy distance instead of the pop chip. PW said that was totally appropriate. But I don't want to create the horse who "can't think for himself" and needs to be told exactly when to leave the ground. But EM and PW have distinctly NOT told me to take all leg off (as Amanda pointed out once out cross country at Sweet Dixie), but instead to support quietly. I need to find that balance. Leg quietly on so I don't HAVE to spur him off the ground. 

No lesson media so enjoy the view from the trailer after 

October 30th lesson video - better than nothing?