So anyways, I studded up because even though it wasn't wet, the grass was slick. Dry and short. Just outside studs. And tiny little road studs in front. It worked well. No slipping. AND... no tripping! Maybe taking the leather pad off did the trick!
We had a good day. I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed in myself. I didn't ride as bravely as I should have. I got a little wimpy. Which, is fine... in the long run. I just was thinking my bravery had come back more than it had. Guess that's only stadium. For now anyways. We're gonna get it. We started out swell. He was game and launched off the tiny bank into the water like he was cannonballing! We jumped the biggish brush fence lovely. It was in the novice field so it wasn't that big, but.. brush! Then we moved to the training field. They made the top of the double up banks a pimple bounce! Dan was super confused but did it. He just eyeballed it and then jumped up instead of over and down so the landing seemed very far away. hee hee. We did the ditch and the rainbow jump. Then she had us jump the open oxer log stack, which was training but looked a little bigger. He jumped it beautifully! And then we came around to the double up bank. Jacel said that Dan would probably put in two, instead of the one, but that two was okay. He did the one and looked at her like "I was a big boy, see"!. :)
Then we did the fallen log to the keyhole. Which.. was still only training and not even that big, but it was a big green wide roll top with brush and a roof. The roof part totally didn't phase me. Not one bit. It's the big wide roll tops. We had one stop but then came around just fine. And even got braver after that. Then we did the ditch and wall. The first time was a little sticky. Jacel was telling me to push my hands forward when I bring them up. Because she wants me to bring them up but when I brought them up without thinking about sending them forward, I ended up hollowing him out. So then I got confused and over did it and just threw him away essentially. So he stopped hard. And I slid onto his neck in front of my saddle. Hee hee. good boy. Jacel and I discussed that it's a very fine line. I have to keep the connection because otherwise he feels abandoned. So.. it's riding the hocks up into the connection, but then softening and floating my hands forward and up the tiniest bit, but still maintaining the connection. Oh yeah.. I forgot about that. So then we did it and he sailed right over the ditch and wall. Well, there was a teeny bit of hesitation but more calculations than hesitations. So then... I wanted to do the half coffin. I was tempted to try the out, as a stand alone. It was a little chevron like. But there wasn't a good approach so we just did the half coffin. Jacel said that in order to do the angled out, you had to ride much more collected. BUT.. since I was not to do the angled out... and Dan tended to get sticky vs too strong, I could ride a bit braver! So we did and it was perfect! We should have quit on that, but I was feeling like I needed a tiny bit more money in the bank after the ditch and wall. So we did the tree to the keyhole to the double up bank again. He put a two in the double ups, but he still was going and game so we quit with that. I think he was getting tired.
Then we walked back over to the novice field with the water so Laura could do some more ditches and Dan dragged me back into the water complex and just stood there. When we were there at first I couldn't keep him out of it! He kept going back to it and insisting he stayed in. Hee hee. The beach is next week dude.. next week! And then Tom tried to come in and Dan pinned his ears and was like "You shall not pass!". hee hee. Like a troll under a bridge! hee hee. But... he let me give him a big hug and tell him how proud I was of him without snarling at me. :) And I am proud. He held me accountable... I had to do my end and then he did his. He went a few times when I only partially held up my end, but when I abandoned him, he safely stopped and reminded me. And he didn't hold a grudge. When I corrected it, he said "Okay, sure". He didn't shut down. He didn't get frazzled. So... again, while I was a little sad that I wasn't braver and we didn't do more or bigger things... I'm also quite pleased with how far we've come in the last year and a half. And we'll get there. I just need a bit more money in my bank and a bit more time.
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