Fadedwords

Today when I got to the barn I was excited, simply because I didn’t ride last week and I was looking forward to getting back up in the saddle.  I was excited even though it was 85 degrees outside with 100% humidity and zero breeze.  It’s not super awesome riding when it’s this hot out, but I deal with this weather because I love it so much.

Elizabeth said we’d be riding in the back field today, which was good because the back field is where all the jumps are!  We haven’t worked out there since the crazy horse day, so I was pretty excited to get back out there.  As soon as Missy realized we were going out where there were jumps, she was hyped up.

We warmed up, and eventually I got her moving at non-psychotic speeds.  We worked well at the trot, and then even at the canter she was working calmly.  Coming back to the trot after cantering was a little difficult, but we were having fun.  Elizabeth said we’d jump if I felt ready, and I did.  So she set up a little course:

I tried to put a little diagram in of what it looked like, but it messes up as soon as I post the entry.  It’s a pretty big ring, and there are three other jumps set up that we did not use.  We began with a cross rail, moving counter clockwise around the ring.  After jumping that there were about 5 strides until we met our next jump, which was a straight rail.  Then we came up and all the way around the ring, and approached the first jump on the other side, kind of cutting across the ring.  It was more than half the ring from that first straight rail to the second, and as soon as she went over that first fence she was cooking.  I managed to ease her up a bit before we jumped that first fence on the second line, and looked ahead to the second fence.  We’re not real sure what her deal was, but Missy refused that fence every time we tried coming at it from the first fence in the line.  We were pretty sure she just couldn’t see it well enough, as she’s not a horse that refuses often.  I did get her over it, twice, but not approaching from the first fence.  I had to do just that fence separately.

I haven’t done a jumping lesson like that in… about 4 years.  Some of the jumps I jumped today were pretty big, not huge but pretty big.  I was very proud of myself for sticking with it even after Missy refused quite a bit.  She was very worked up today, and Elizabeth said that if she didn’t trust me and think I could handle her then there’s no way we would’ve jumped today.

It was a really good lesson, simply because I love jumping so much.  I am absolutely and completely exhausted though, and I hurt everywhere.  Missy gets very choppy on days that she’s this loony, so it’s very jarring for my body.  I did the best I could, and feel really positive about the way I rode.  There are definitely areas for improvement (relaxing my arms, remembering to breathe, using my voice more, keeping my eyes up, looking where I want to go, etc), but I am proud that I stuck with her today and didn’t look too horrible going over the fences.

Great way to start the day.