a properly pleasant school

The teachers at my yoga studio start each practice with a short reading or verse to help students set intentions. This one really resonated with me:

I used to think joy was something I’d feel later — after the goals, after the growth.
But it turns out, joy was the sun on my face this morning, 
and I almost missed it.

doozy, standing patiently in the warm sun, waiting for me to arrange my gadgets

To me, that verse manages to capture in just a few short lines the essence of all the work on mindset and mentality that I’ve been trying to accomplish for basically years at this point. 

warm up walkies

And I don’t know that the work ever really, ends, ya know? This whole thing with horses is a lifelong pursuit in so many different ways and dimensions… And obviously any time you throw competition into the mix, there’s going to be a constant push and pull between pressure, challenge, fulfillment, etc.

just trottin around!

Maybe in a weird way, tho, our consistently poor results make it somehow easier to be a bit philosophical about the whole thing. Like, I’m clearly not doing this for the glory or accolades or, god forbid, prize money (LOL). So there’s gotta be something else to it, right?

just canterin around too, like a sweetheart!

Something about doing it just for the sake of doing it, bc we strive for the challenge, bc it’s fun and rewarding and exciting. Bc we like the feeling of the warm sun on our face. 

and the other way!

One of my primary objectives in getting Doozy was to get back to a place where I felt like I was learning and developing and growing as a rider and horse person. And honestly, she’s one hell of a teacher LOL. A very VERY different type from Charlie.

set up the little bounce exercise from windurra camp

It really does feel like she’s coming into her own this year tho. Obvi putting aside her summertime injury hiatus… But even before that, it honestly felt like we were seeing more and more promising signs of the type of horse she wants to be when she grows up. 

our efforts got slightly less tidy with repetition,
which is perhaps a useful finding in and of itself

That was pre-Pivo, tho, so actual evidence or footage was rare. Tho I recently went back and reviewed all the videos from earlier this year anyway bc I was looking for jumping footage to submit to another one of those video coaching sessions, this time with Peter Wylde (who you might remember ran the show jumping clinics at Windurra Camp).

lots of cantering, building back that fitness!

I ended up submitting the video from this jumping school back in April, bc basically… That’s a great example of Doozy being her best self — being exactly the type of jumping horse I want. 

And ya know, it’s also a nice example of me being occasionally caught slightly flat footed and behind the 8-ball when she’s being so pleasant and rideable. Turns out… The whole thing with having a rideable horse is that.. ya know, now you have to **ride** it.

convenient singles on the diagonal for changing direction as needed

So it was good to get that feedback from Peter on what he saw in the video, and how I can keep working to meet Doozy where she is and help her be her best. Specific takeaways include doing fewer lines of ground poles at canter (he is not a fan, says they can too easily promote the wrong body habits in the horse); being more clear and disciplined in my corners after jumps, and working toward more related distances that I can practice adding / removing strides in.

last pass thru the bounces was a bit of a miss lol, but i couldn’t be bothered to dismount and reset

So I had some of that in mind when I set up this week’s jump school. Instead of canter ground poles, I made a line of little bounces. Had a couple singles that could all be ridden each way. And also built up the two-stride combination we keep seeing at shows — oxer to vertical. Peter had recommended a shorter distance — 33’ with generous ground lines — to help the horse gain confidence and draw thru the line.

doozy recovered her composure promptly, however, and jumped this beautifully

And my warm up was basically all about moving forward, covering ground, and staying in front of the leg — esp since this was our first time jumping since the little oopsie at Loch Moy. So we did a fair bit more canter than I might normally do in a warm up… Tho honestly Doozy felt great basically from the word go so we just got right into it.

finally set up the oxer-vert 2 stride we keep seeing (and biffing) at shows. i wanted this to be a confidence building exercise so the oxer is plenty wide but slightly ascending, only 33’ to the vertical, with generous ground lines everywhere

Jumped a single first just to get Doozy thinking about jumping, then went right to circling around the bounces off each lead. An interesting finding for me was that each repetition honestly got slightly less good. Probably bc I wasn’t proactive enough in reestablishing the good canter balance, and naturally Doozy was inclined to build as we went. 

It wasn’t a problem or bad or whatever. Just something worth thinking about — especially whenever I integrate this or similar exercises into rides.

it rode exactly right both times <3

The rest of the jumps were really honestly great, tho. We knocked one single after getting just a little too close (I ran out of poles so it didn’t have ground lines either). And a couple times we definitely landed a bit stronger than is ideal. But other than that it felt like Doozy was actually jumping really nicely.

good girl barely broke a sweat

And she was a superstar for the in and out! I’m really glad I set it up tho — it’s worth practicing, probably again too if it’s still around next time I jump. I felt like Doozy had just the briefest feeling of “Hmmmm” when we turned the corner to present to the grid, perhaps bc that’s where we got a bit sticky at Loch Moy last week. 

But she carried on and jumped it great. Tho I opted to do one more trip just to sorta prove to both of us that we’re not just getting lucky getting through it — we’ve got it, it’s reproducible. And it was!

video of just our jumping efforts

It was interesting that Doozy was looking a bit improved in some places with her leads — either landing the lead or able to execute a balanced auto change before the turn. She’s naturally a pretty good-leaded horse, and tends to be good about managing her own changes. My hope is that as we continue to prioritize good balance, it’ll only get easier for her.

“oh nooooo!!!” — silliest mare, had apparently been holding onto that carrot for a minute

Overall, tho, it was honestly just a nice simple straightforward jump school. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing crazy. Just a couple good BN sized fences, and Doozy handled it all very nicely and pleasantly. 

nbd, there’s always more where that came from!

What more could I want? It seems like we might be in for a week of rain with the nor’easter that’s about to blow in, so who knows when the outdoor will be open again (tho I remain hopeful that we just get the edge of the storm vs a direct hit!). 

So for now it’s good enough to just enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the good vibes, and appreciate that Doozy was happy to jump around like a professional despite our little blip last weekend.