I Panicked

As mentioned at the end of my last post, I was basically setting myself up for some dumb decisions based on posting about how well we'd been doing. We started our jump lesson by putting together the lines out of almost the same course as the last time. The difference was that the one stride to the five got broken up and we started with the oxer that had been at the end of the five and then ended with a trip through the one stride. In contrast to the last time, I was managing the bending line to the liver pool much better. Land, go straight, half-halt, and then turn to the liver pool. Wheeee!! 

But then the jumps got a bit bigger and as we headed down the outside line, I saw what I thought was a pretty long spot and I jesus-take-the-wheel'ed and threw him away. PW said the spot would've been perfect. Pony-o thought about trying to leave the ground, but felt totally unsupported and was DEEP at that point since I'd thrown away all contact two strides prior. We fixed that, then came around to do the diagonal line. We got to a long spot and even though I was semi supportive, it was gonna be a very long one. And PW said you only get a few of those at this bigger height and I'd used up my quota for the day, so he stopped. In the process of putting that back together, pony brain kicked in and he quit at a totally reasonable distance. OOOOOkay, we put that back together again. The first two were 10000% my fault, the last one was kinda on him, but who could blame him at that point. 

My friend who has featured on here before with her words of wisdom was watching and said she thinks that he's actually making an effort now both in his canter and jumping and might've been testing out options other than working that hard. Makes sense. 

So of course this slightly rocky lesson is the one that was videoed. But there were lots of good parts and when he stopped the first time, I KNEW exactly why he stopped. We are back to the plan of PW popping him around the first meter round at the show and then me going in. But that's the perk of HJ shows, yes?