dressage in jumping

Lesson day this week was another balmy January day - quite a bit warmer than last week's lesson. And the horses responded accordingly lol. Last week everyone was FRESH and SASSY, and this week we had quieter, more business-like ponies. Isabel was still quite happy tho :)

target acquired!

She flatted *really* nicely, just like our recent epic dressage lesson. And actually, this was maybe the first jump ride since getting back to work where Isabel easily and quickly softened to my hand at walk and trot before each course. That's been missing from recent jump rides, and I'm really happy to have it back bc it essentially indicates whether I'll have a half halt or not. 

yes ma'am, i think we can do a 12' stride

And this lesson proved to be all about the half halts. Trainer P set up a neat exercise of roll backs and long-ish straight approaches. The kind of exercise that tattles on you if you have a blah canter or are unbalanced. And also the perfect exercise for working on landing the lead, which you may recall we had been practicing before my injury.

not the prettiest illustration ever, but you get the picture

I kept the warm up to a minimum, just doing a couple pieces from 1-1 (like canter to trot transitions on the diagonal, and the 10m half circle changes of direction at trot, and one itty bitty trot lengthening), to avoid wearing the mare out prematurely. With it being so balmy out, I definitely worried about her getting too tired.

#flying

It was fine tho. We started jumping by working through ground poles that turned into trainer P's favorite: a one stride grid. Then moved immediately into the exercise, with all the fences (all oxers) again staying right around 2'6".

gratuitous slo-mo bc why not lol

Isabel felt really good - we still had all that same forward energy from last week, but having a better half halt this time around meant that our canter was way more adjustable. This proved to be a very good thing bc man, that 18' one stride was tight distance-wise lol.

her canter has so much lift right now, i love it!

I again worked on remembering to half halt early enough in the turn to the fence such that I could ride *forward* (but not fast) to the fence. So far so good on this account, tho P reminded me to not get too forward with my upper body while doing so; I still have to sit UP. 

funny expressions all around haha - but i love her listening ear lol

I'm also getting a little overly-rounded with my back over the fences. That part of my position has never been picture-perfect, but it's gotten a little worse. It's partially from general weakness. But also maybe bc I'm trying to be more forward with my hands but struggle to keep my shoulders back while doing so. Also my stirrups went down to accommodate the stiffer ankle, but I think they might be ready to go back up again. We'll see if that makes a difference. 

she's totally got this

In all, tho, it was just another round of jumping that makes me feel really good about where Isabel is right now. Her fitness isn't fully recovered yet, so we quit early even while the rest of our lesson mates got in another shot with one of the jumps put up a bit. 

We will be ready to jump bigger again soon (hopefully before we get relegated to the indoor for the season!), but there's no reason to push it. Isabel is clearly ready mentally, but I'd hate to exhaust her physically when she's doing such a nice job and getting all the answers right (like our leads - we landed all but one!!). 

video here

In the meantime, I'm pretty excited at the prospect of drilling into our dressage work. Especially after seeing the difference in our half halts and canter work between last week and this week, with no real jumping in between. 

After telling P about how well Isabel did with that first level test 1, she said it made sense since that test requires a forward ride. Aaaaand there's another 'bingo' moment for me lol. Forward. The answer for Isabel is always, and must always be, forward. Not fast, sure (which Dan always nailed us for), but definitely not backward. 

And right now Isabel is feeling so loose and soft through her body - she's very happy to move forward into the bridle and contact; whereas before she maybe was a bit resistant. This is definitely a feeling I want to maintain even was we get into more intense work.