ho hum lesson

I wasn't really sure how our lesson on Saturday would go. Isabel has seemed a little off her game recently - kinda a big stressed mess. So we didn't ride at all this week, tho I came out for lots of brushing and treat dispensing and hand grazing. 

'um, i'm kinda busy at the moment, thx' - isabel

In fact, she got a really thorough grooming Friday evening then wore her sheet overnight. So I didn't need to do much more than pick her feet and dust her off for Saturday's lesson.

'ok, fine. i guess we can go. but only bc you finally found a cooler in my color' - isabel

Once at OF, I talked to P about Isabel's current state of physical and mental well being. She had a few thoughts, but that's for another post... 

Isabel actually warmed up and flatted quite nicely, considering her time off. And we got a few really nice canter steps where she felt light-ish up front, and was really pushing off her hind legs. 

'i am the queen of sheba' - isabel

To warm up over fences, we trotted a single on the diagonal - and Isabel made a HUGE effort over it. Jumped me out of the tack (tho fortunately I at least kept my hands forward and didn't yank on her), and trainer thought it was mighty lovely, if a tad unnecessary lol.

We came back to it again at a left lead canter (coming towards the camera in the above pic), then right turn to a diagonal line of unknown length that Isabel handled in a very tidy five strides. Good mare! 

Then the jumps went up and my eye disappeared AGAIN. Ugh. 

Trainer thinks I start out too tense for the first few fences. I think it boils down to getting preoccupied about fence height. Especially since P said if we completed the 7-fence course correctly we should continue to the rolltop and bend to the coop. 

So naturally I proceeded to chip in badly to the first two fences and wiggle down the 2-3 diagonal line to add a stride. 

Then 4-5 was a *short* three strides up the outside line (we did 2.5 ugh), and 6 was the caution oxer on the far outside rail, with a crazy bend across the arena to another oxer. We made it over the caution oxer ok, but missed the turn and had to circle to 7 (just outside the frame of the above pic to the right). 

So instead of continuing to the rolltop, I just repeated the first 3 again to try and fix them. And... kinda still failed. Ugh. 

So it was a pretty lackluster performance on my part. I don't know why, but as soon as the jumps go up I start rushing Isabel and chasing her past her pace, then grabbing at the last minute to get an ugly chip at the fences. She's a saint though, and still got us over everything quite neatly. 

'only bc you give me pretzels. if the treats ever stop, so will i' - isabel