I mean... You all KNOW that. I KNOW that. And I love him always no matter what... But today... today was a good day! And there was some extra special cool stuff today. And I'm feeling happy, so dangit, let me be joyful!! :)
We headed to Ashland to do a last jump school before AEC's. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a lesson because Jacel was on quarantine from Covid. But that's okay. Her words are in my ears and that's all I need. Especially for Beginner Novice. I'd be panicking if it was training, but... even Novice and I think we'd be okay. But anways... I did ask Kelli to come up and be my groundsperson. So she got there before me and rode first. Then I warmed up while she was finishing. When we got there the jumps were all set really low. Probably even smaller than Beginner Novice. But we talked about how it was "Just Beginner Novice" and how I needed to be careful that I didn't get slack and lackadasical about it and have a crappy round. Not that he would be likely to pull rails no matter how bad I rode, but.... he could. And this would be a bad time to do it. But also because I want to be a pretty rider... I want a nice round. So anyways, we decided to do the course. (I had already popped over a few to warm up and he was good but a little lazy). So... I did one more warm up and then did a course. When I finished Kelli said "Well, how did YOU think that was?". Hee hee... I was oblivious and was like "I think it was pretty good". Ha! In retrospect... because he was a little sluggish, I think I chased him. Kelli was like "Well, I thought it was pretty awful!". ha ha.. She was kind but said that she thought it looked frantic, downhill and strung out. So... I did it again but sat up tall... dressage core! And it was MUCH better. And more forward, interesting enough.
So then I hopped off and we put the jumps up. I left a few beginner novice size.. but we made most of them big novice to small training height. And a few fairly wide-ish oxers. So then we did a course. It wasn't bad, but I missed one of my sharp turns. So we kept playing. Kelli was saying that I needed to keep him more together. A few times I threw the reins at him and they got long and then I had to get him back but wasn't doing it until right before the fences, vs right after. So then I tried that and over did it and shut him down and it was awful! So... then I took a breath... didn't think as much... and it was lovely! I managed to sit up tall and keep a soft connection, leg yield him in the corners and to the fences, and it was nice. We had forward and lovely! Then we were able to make that really hard turn. I turned by using my waist and keeping my elbows at my side. Yahoo! So then we tried to fix the landing on the wrong lead after one of the oxers. I told Kelli it was cause of his stifle. She begged to differ and told me to sit up tall, not tip/lean, and look right and sit slightly in my right stirrup. And it worked. Ha! Then she said she wanted me to do it off the other fence so that I had to be quick thinking about it. So I did. And it was lovely! So we quit with that.
We went for a nice hack after and splashed in the lake a good bit. Dan was so glad to have a friend and spent a lot of time splashing and playing. And we chatted. Basically... I'm proud of the fact that despite me riding poorly/over-riding some today... I had put enough money in the bank that Dan jumped anyways. Even some hard stuff. And that, I was a decent enough rider with enough feel, that if I just kept it simple and didn't over-think it, I should be fine. Hee hee. But for the AEC's... I need to keep it simple, keep him balanced using my core, but soft hands, keep my body upright, no tipping, and leg yield in the corners to get good impulsion. And shift my butt back. :) And hopefully, then we'll go clean and ALSO get pretty pictures. :) Kelli also made my day because she told me that part of the reason our one round was so awful was because Dan was doing everything I told him to. He was listening to my body. And that's pretty cool. He really does listen. So I told her about how when I was warming up, I did my new thing of riding on the buckle and using my body to maneuver him. And how he's getting really good at it. Like we were going in front of jumps and between two poles and even over the blue middle of a pole just based on my body! Awwww.... we're a good team :)
So yep! Right now... I'm not nervous. Well, a teeny bit. But right now... I'm super excited about how far me and the rugrat have come. I'm so incredibly grateful that God agreed to let me have my horse back and keep him feeling good. I'm so grateful that we are having fun together again and enjoying it. Ahhhh...
Tomorrow... we gallop and do a long hack. Although I'm tempted to do dressage again... practice the test again, but I guess we can do that in our jump tack. Just to make sure we don't get lost in the test. :)
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