jumping clinic with Sally

So! Doozy did a jumping clinic with Sally this weekend! Let's dig into the details, yes? Yes.

lol @ my expression

The trailer ride up was good -- Doozy traveled calmly and quietly with Amy's gelding Punky. She can be a little food aggressive and quick to kick, so we were extra careful in making sure both horses had solid leg protection... But it was drama free, whew!

doozy aiming for her first jump of the day!

Unloading and tacking at the trailer was also surprisingly drama free, even tho it was freezing and gusting wind. Like, easy enough that it wasn't such a big deal to hold her in hand even as I was moving around and grabbing gear from the truck and trailer. Good girl!

wheeeee!

That all gives me a lot of confidence that she'll eventually be a little less explosive about other new things too lol. Tho on this day, the spell broke when she stepped into the arena, and she kinda lost it a little bit. 

It was nbd, tho. We had plenty of time, and it proved to be beneficial to come into the ring for some circles, then leave, then come in, then leave, rinse repeat. Exiting often helped break up the allure of the in gate, since there wouldn't be any door to close while we rode.

second effort a little less extra haha

And she was basically as calm as she ever gets by the time it was our turn. So bridling was fine, mounting was fine (tho Katie stood by just in case) and we proceeded to warming up under saddle basically fine. Definitely better than we'd been at the Sprieser clinic, actually! 

deconstructed X's are my favorite

Not sure if the difference was because we had horses with us this time, or bc the mare is just learning? I dunno, whatever the case, we'll take it! 

sally had other plans for us tho

Then ya know, we started jumping. Started with a little X, that Doozy jumped beautifully. After all her silliness upon first arriving, it felt a little validating to have her actually step up so nicely for the actual point of the activity LOL. 

sally observing to see if jumping straight toward the gate went as badly as i thought it might lol...
hint: it did not

So we proceeded pretty directly through all of Sally's lines and exercises. She's a bit of a master at designing courses for her lesson days -- but in a subtle sort of way. The kind of way where the exercises look natural and appropriate no matter what height is riding. 

Her courses are simple, but offer a lot of opportunity for variation. There are usually outside lines, but also bending lines. Usually a low bounce line too, or some other grid or gymnastic type exercise. Lots of fill, and everything can usually be ridden in both directions. 

bebe's first oxer!

For our level, she had us jump everything going toward the in gate, as a way to channel the horse's natural draw, make it as easy as possible to go forward. In our case, I probably wouldn't have made that choice for kinda the same reason (ie, being afraid of getting run away with toward the gate lol), but actually think it worked well for us.

jumped a gate!

Bc realistically, the purpose of the day for us was really simple: just jump around. Jump everything, show her everything. Start laying down positive repetitions, without too much concern or nitpicking on the details yet. 

already an expert about the plastic riser blocks

Like, there wasn't a lot of conversation around my position, or my tactics. Or about our turns or steering or approaches or what have you --- other than to be really clear when we were planning on jumping the first in a line but not the second. 

cantered out the full line!

Certainly those details will come up in lessons sooner rather than later (and like, let's be real, even Stevie Wonder could see that my hands were not super great despite holding the neck strap the whole time lol). But for today? Just get out and jump those jumps! And we did!

omg jumped the spooky boxes too

Sally escalated the height and fill of the jumps basically immediately -- we did the first cross rail twice, then another deconstructed jump... and then, boom, vertical with fill. I was like, "omg what are you serious?" To which Sally just said, "Yep go jump it." Lol... and Doozy obviously did it perfectly.

definitely thought this would be harder than it was

One of my goals with this horse is to be a little less controlling of the 'curriculum,' so to speak. Like with Charlie, I'm so protective of him, we have so many compromises and co-dependencies in how we go, that I'm not always super inclined to just 'do what I'm told' in a lesson. Which, obvi, it's important that we as riders advocate for our horses when appropriate. 

yes yes i'm aware my left hand is out of control.... but lookie at that mare strut!

But right now, sometimes I just need to shut up and do what I'm told lol. Like, isn't that the whole point of riding with experienced coaches who are masters of their craft? Like, Sally is the professional here haha, just listen to her. 

So when she told me to go jump the gate, and then the box -- two jumps I had completely assumed would not be included for us.... I did my best to choke back any protest, let the mare look at and sniff the fill (mare did not care), then went on ahead and jumped them. 

final fence of the day!

We finished the ride with a trip down the last outside line that actually gave me a really good feeling even tho Doozy clobbered the rail. Like, mare has a big stride, getting the distance isn't going to be a problem for her. But... learning to wait and compress and adjust, that'll take some time. So I was super happy when halfway down the line I gave a heavy "whoa" and Doozy definitely tuned in and listened. 

Like, ok yea we still had the rail --- but who cares, right? It was good to feel that response in her, ya know? Tho we still went back and trotted just the one to finish there. 

posting the video link again for completeness

I'm so grateful for all the videos and pictures --- again, millions of thanks to Niamh and Katie for capturing so much of the ride! I really live for studying the details. Like, again, this ride wasn't about the details, and I'm not going to give myself a hard time about anything. But I DO want to understand all the mechanics to help sketch out our homework. 

For me, my riding, there's nothing really new there. It turns out, going about a year without really jumping hasn't fixed any of my longstanding issues LOL! I'm still too reliant on my hands and lean on the contact when I should be offering more freedom and release over the fences. 

For Doozy, she still needs to figure out the footwork --- particularly when it comes to pushing off evenly behind. And we need to not let speed and momentum run cover for not having better technique. 

good job, darling! 

So that's all ahead of us lol. I haven't really figured out what our jumping program is going to look like, yet. Lessons at home seem unlikely, so there will definitely end up being a fair amount of self-guided instruction lol. 

We'll see. It's winter, it's cold and muddy. There isn't a whole lot going on right now and I'm not in any rush. But it's exciting to think about the future haha --- and honestly just an exciting horse!