back into the swing of things

I set up a fun course so a barn mate and I could school earlier this week, tho we ended up keeping things pretty light since additional plans arose for later in the week that require fresh horses (details to come). But we still jumped around a little bit after a quick warm up.

isabel wins for cutest trot

The warm up fence was a 2' vertical with placing poles on either side, then there was a 2'3" coop and a hogs back that measured 21" at the center but rode a bit bigger, and a two stride line of 2'3" barrels to a wide 2'6" oxer. It felt like a good balance of heights where I'm comfortable - but still pushing the upper limit for what will hopefully be a sooner-rather-than-later move up to BN.

unimpressed by the coop

Isabel was predictably fabulous. Our warm up was light-n-easy, but I still tried to carry on with the concepts from our last dressage lesson: keeping Isabel straight between me and rhythm rhythm rhythm. I also tried that exercise of bringing Isabel to an almost-walk from trot on a serpentine and it seemed to work really nicely for getting her listening and soft. Will have to try again later when I'm not so worried about tiring the horse out!

large and in charge out of the two stride

Then it was on to jumping. My plan was to do everything once each way (except the one-way line) to build up to a mini course. Repetition only happened when we got a bad distance- which actually happened a handful of times when I'd feel good about our rhythm coming out of a corner, lock on to the jump, then allow Isabel to build on her pace and run past her distance to an awkward chip stride... oops! 

can't stop won't stop

I wasn't too worried about it tho. The funky jumps (and they were pretty funky lol) didn't rattle either of us, and we just circled back to do it again a little better. I needed to keep her more packaged up and ride to the base rather than gunning it for a leaper.... but whatever. We haven't had a jump lesson in a month and a half and I'm pretty pleased with how she feels. 

hogs back is nbd

And it's funny - trying to find nice moments on the video to get screen grabs, I realized that Isabel looked pretty unimpressed by the fences. Sure, she's jumping well and not knocking things over... but she's also not really snapping those knees up like she usually does. I suspect that this height has become boring for the mare much faster than it has for me haha... 

seriously sassy dolphin leaping!!!!

She had fun tho, I think. There was quite a bit of exuberant dolphin leaping - esp when we'd get a bit of a flyer distance lol. Nothing naughty - she's a very honest horse and stayed straight and lifted up front even when she was hopping all around, so it's not hard to ride (just a bit bouncier, I guess).... So I kinda just ignored it and legged her on to the next fence. 

let's take a closer look at that lol

Hopefully tho - if all my plans work out - she'll get to really enjoy herself in very short order :)

video here

(we are lucky to have so many barn rats and lesson students constantly hanging around absorbing any and all experiences. they don't get a ton of exposure to jumping and coursework, so when they saw me setting up these fences, three different kids asked if they could stay to watch and take video. yes - they asked ME if they could take video! i'm grateful to have them around - esp since their enthusiasm is actually pretty infectious)

awkward pictures are awkward - and i kinda love them lol