Jumping Bean

Danny is so good! We had a lesson with Kelly today at Silverthorn and he was great! He basically clocked around so that we could work on me and my position. :)

Kelly had us start with a little bit of lower fences and 3 stride in and out and then we quickly progressed to a course with some oxers and some verticals as well. Kelly saw that Dan was pretty game for the oxers but had a hard time reading the verticals. So I needed to ride a tighter bouncier canter to the verticals. She had me lift my hands. Yep.... Wait, what/!?! Haven't I been yelled at for that for eons!?! Did I finally get it right and overdo it???

Maybe.... maybe not. Kelly said that Danny likes to duck down and get his nose between his knees and roll along and it makes it tough for him to rock back and jump. So she wanted me to pick my hands up just a bit to help lift his head and shoulders. And also at the same time I was to be sitting and encouraging him to rock back and lift with my core. Then when my hands were higher up they were still in a straight line with the bit and his mouth. Hmmm.... Okay! Works for me. 

So we tried it. And it helped. Danny was jumping good. She even put the fences up, and while we pulled a few rails, I think it was because it was hotter than hot and Danny was getting tired. 

We worked on me and me getting the right canter. I needed the more uphill bouncy coffin canter for the verticals and then I could allow the more stretched out frame for the oxers. We also worked on my leg. I'm getting pretty good at take off and over the fence but I still keep pitching forward on landing. Argh!!! I did find that if I thought about rolling my pelvis a little... almost rocking it/swinging it cantering to the fence, and then thought about hovering just ever so slightly on landing, that it was easier to keep my feet in front of me. So... it's a work in progress as I didn't do it every time. Heck, I didn't even do it most of the time. Sigh. But... we finished with a vertical to an oxer and I worked on the right canter and keeping my landing gear down and ... they were BEAUTIFUL!! Danny took both fences on a beautiful step which made the distances beautiful and he jumped well. And I managed to make my body cooperate in all the places! Yay!!

Lots of fun. He's really getting to be quite the fun partner. :)

No photos... which was a shame because I think they were fairly decent sized fences for us. And I looked cute in my blue and white striped tank and my blue breeches. :)  ;)