ghost town lesson

Lesson day was an odd Saturday bc we were told to expect loads of snow days in advance and right up through Friday night. In fact tho, it only rained (with a little wintery mix) but stayed warm enough that only harmless slush accumulated rather than slippery ice. All the same tho - Isabel's farm and OF were both total ghost towns. 

So there were only FOUR of us in the lesson, and nobody schooling!! I think that's the fewest horses I've ever seen in this arena (which, keep in mind, is about 20x40m). It felt downright spacious!! Wonder of wonders, we could all canter at the SAME TIME!! lol

P capitalized on the lighter arena traffic by having me work on lateral stuff. I don't do much on my own (even tho I should...) bc I'm such an uncoordinated mess and Izzy just gets pissed off. But P had me break it into smaller pieces: turn up the quarter line and leg yield (or some semblance thereof) back to the wall. And maybe back and forth a few times. Just to get the horse on my outside aids. You will be SHOCKED to hear that it actually helped! 

this jump configuration is actually very versatile!

(30' between the center vertical and the diagonals)

The extra breathing room also meant we had a little more space for jumping, since we didn't have to share the rail with schoolers. The indoor is neat in that it has standards built into the wall around the long sides, so you can really maximize every inch. 

This can, however, be problematic when you're riding a horse that drifts left (and obvi doing nothing to address said drift).... I had one pretttty dicey jump where I almost lost my kneecap, but fortunately it was jusssst close enough to get me focused on our straightness. 

when i talk about our shitty right lead canter, this is what i mean

Isabel was very good - especially when compared to our previous two lessons. I'm fairly certain that the difference is because we actually worked a couple times this week. 

We usually had one crap fence per course - esp after the jumps went up. Oddly tho (and I swear this wasn't on purpose or selective editing!), the most disastrous fences somehow didn't make it onto video - even the course we got 3 fences into before P told us to stop and start over (you know how it goes)... oh well, I probably didn't want to see those again anyway haha.  

The problems were all my own tho, as they so often are. Instead of balancing after each fence and through the corners, I was just gunning it out of each corner then pulling before the fence. Not a recipe for success, emma!! I needed a forward ride - yes - but NOT by throwing my upper body at the horse. I needed to sit up and back and bring Isabel's hind legs underneath her to generate forward that way.

We made it through well enough tho, and at the very end P bumped up the center vertical to a 2'6" oxer, which Izzy and I kinda ate the first time (not terrible, really, just not very smooth - and again not caught on video lol), but handled very nicely the second time to end on. 

gif version for those who don't watch the videos

The approach for the oxer was essentially the same as a turn up the centerline for a dressage test (since it's a 20m wide arena) - and P really wanted me focusing on my outside aids (and Izzy's outside hind) around the turn and to the fence. Worked out well!

plz enjoy this video of us mostly doing ok (except for some 'splat' moments here and there)

So I'm pretty happy about the lesson - and also very happy to see the difference in Isabel after getting back into semi-regular work via hauling out to other indoors. Definitely makes me think it's worth the extra time and energy! 

random aside: is this stuff on the shoe borium? never noticed before but was curious!