Sunday, January 3, 2021

Progress, not Perfection. Onward and Upward

 Today was a good day! We slept in... spent some quality time with Mike getting some things from Home Depot and Tractor Supply and then having lunch. Then I took Funny out to practice loading because I had a little time before meeting Kelli. Then it was time to go. Dan and I headed out to Ashland to meet Kelli. The plan was to have her be my jump crew while I jumped and then I would be her eyes on the ground while she flatted and then we'd go hack if we had enough time. 

So... it started out not great. I was a little annoyed because I was running late. When I got there my usual parking spot wasn't available and I ended up WAY down on the other end of the parking area... which is fine, except... lunch tore my stomach up so I wanted to be close to the potty. (It all ended fine). And then I got to the arena and there was only about 7 jumps set up, with only about 10 poles... so I was a little annoyed I had paid $15 to come jump... nothing! But.. in reality, I had paid $15 to be able to come jump with Kelli. And to be able to hack with her after and also be able to jump. And then Dan felt like a slug. He was just barely putzing around. I was trying hard to not get annoyed and frustrated. So... Kelli set up a vertical in the first fence in the grid that was set up but without jumps. We had no clue what the distances were set at, so she suggested I trot in. Ugh.. I hate trotting fences. So does Dan. We can't do it. I can't figure out how to keep him at the trot without him breaking to the canter without shutting him down or catching him in the mouth. We tried... We did. And we cantered the last stride or two or half stride each time. Kelli dropped it down a bit to see if that would help... maybe he wasn't sure he could do it. (It was barely 2'3" at best to begin with!). Nope.. didn't help. And of course then, he kept eating the distance to the ground pole after. She made a suggestion or two and sort of hinted that I should be able to hold him to a trot with my core and my upper body and half halts. I was starting to get really frustrated but... I'm so proud of myself. I didn't. I stopped and actually listened to what she said and I tried it again. I tried half halting. And it was better but it still sucked. So then... and another reason to be proud of myself... I stopped myself from spiraling out of control into frustration and irritation and anger.... and I told her that I was not in the mental state nor were Dan and I in a place in our relationship and jumping skills where we could make a trot happen. I was unable to do it without shutting him down and I felt like that would not be putting money in the bank and would be going backwards since we've been working so hard to not ride backwards and ride forward. So that I needed to move on to something else. And then.... I let it go. She suggested I try cantering the grid to see if that worked better and sure enough it did. Ha! So we did the first vertical to a bounce and then cantered off. It went well enough so we slowly built the grid up to a bounce, one stride, and then a two stride to an oxer. And he was super! He got in front of my leg and I was bendy and elastic in my elbows. I grabbed mane. We had some issues. I was trying hard to ride a square turn to get his shoulders upright so he was straight. And while he was jumping straighter... somehow we kept ending up on the right side of center. Finally Kelli pointed out (in less detail but in more detail later) that I was over-doing it... and in an effort to counter flex him... I was counterbending him and throwing him off balance. She said a few times he didn't even look like he knew he was jumping until the last minute. hee hee. And I was over shooting my turn too. I was also doing that awful left hand back and down and locking my elbow thing... which is just not good for anything. So... once I grabbed mane.... and was a little less zealous in my counter bending attempts and almost undershot my turn, it was SO much better. ;) I also rode him just a little bit to get a more balanced canter. It wasn't round still... it wasn't a dressage canter. I was still in two point but I sat a bit more so I could stay a bit more upright and not so perched. And it went better.  :) 






We finished off with the fairly big (I thought!) oxer 4 times and since he was pretty much perfect each time... we quit with that! I'm so proud of him. He was such a good boy and did everything I asked. Kelli agreed that it was the straightest she's seen him jump.... maybe even ever! And I'm so proud of me for sticking up for me and my horse and especially for NOT getting angry and frustrated and taking it out on my horse or letting it ruin my ride. So yay! 

We ran out of time for a trail ride but Dan worked hard, so that's okay. :) And we just made it home for sunset. 




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