still jumping the solid jumps!

Here's to another busy weekend! Does anyone else feel like time slips away at uncontrollable speeds as soon as the hot weather hits? Or maybe the heat just wipes me out? Idk. Whatever the case, we've been out and about doing all the things, per usual. But I have very little media evidence, nor energy to expound deeply upon anything.

could she be any more chill at the trailer?

So given all the busyness, I'm going slightly out of order, skipping ahead to this weekend's lesson at OF. Wherein it was too blazing hot and humid for trainer P to tolerate teaching one more lesson in the big bright sunny arena. P's solution? XC DAY!!

this pint-sized rider hacked out alongside our group to exercise her shetland, as they would be racing at Pimlico the following day. my adult self is incredibly jealous of her childhood!

This honestly didn't immediately thrill me... In my mind, we need to focus on stadium. And I'm wary of somehow managing to break the cross country button (which has never ceased working beautifully, despite our show jumping shenanigans).

And, possibly, I was worried by the prospect of body slamming a solid fence similarly to how I took down that oxer (the same one every time, ugh fml) at Tranquility just a few short weeks ago....

if i could just only ever see xc jumps through the lens of a camera, they would all always look small!

But what the hell, right? Trainer P wanted to escape the heat and let us all have a good time bopping around through the fields. Plus they recently moved in a whole bunch of jumps into the closest front field. So there was tons to jump in just one place - rather than needing to hike all over creation for individual jumps.

friendly N boat house

And we actually just stuck to those new fences - skipping out on all the logs and such that we've jumped a million times in this field and starting directly with the adjustable fence (in the earlier photo) and then just cruising around over all the things. Pretty much all the BN and N things in the vicinity.

Thunder loves it!

And guess what? Isabel felt great. It all seemed to just flow effortlessly. I worked really hard to stay soft and forward with my legs, hands and entire body language, and Isabel responded by moving up to whatever distance presented itself.

very wide but otherwise reasonable N picnic table

We added a flash to the new bridle configuration, since Izzy managed to get her tongue over the nathe last week. And she seems to go well in it. The flat work is slightly fussy, but that's ok bc we still do all our dedicated flat work in the KK. Mostly tho, I'm just happy to feel the horse carrying the bit forward. So I expect we will continue to use this setup unless she gives us a reason to change.

BN mushroom

Trainer P also identified a couple areas to improve in my own ride. That pervasive left drift is still a thing I'm not correcting (shocker shocker). And I also need to work on keeping my legs down and under me - maybe even slightly forward.

the happiest mare ever hacking out through the fields

She also warned me against getting complacent - or worse - letting the mare trick me into being too soft or backing off. Like if we get to one jump kinda messy, my inclination might be to quiet down and soften to the next one... when in reality I need to maybe ride a little more strongly so the mare knows I'm serious.

free for all in the water!

Only real bummer is that schooling the water at OF never seems to make much of a difference. Isabel is QUEEN of that water. She will do anything into and out of it. Cantering down all the banks is the easiest thing ever - I just hold the buckle, sit back and enjoy the ride.

But somehow it never translates to "new" waters - water we haven't seen or schooled before. She is only so good with this water bc she is so familiar with it. Meanwhile, no matter what we do here, water remains our weakest link on xc. Oh well. At least trainer P said they're planning to rebuild the complex, so at least it'll be "new" enough to maybe get Isabel thinking about it?

flash so itchy :(

Really, tho, this xc outing was all about cruising around jumping the jumps and having a good old time. It further reaffirms that cross country has somehow inexplicably remained unscathed by the issues that affect our show jumping. And also N cross country is still a breeze for the mare. Good to know!

I was happy to get out too, since we basically only ever schooled last year after some time away from competitions, or when we were planning to move up. Otherwise, we competed often enough to keep the mare tuned up to the phase. Obviously we're not competing right now tho so... schooling is useful for keeping us sharp(ish).

Which brings me to my question to you - for the eventers out there, how often do you school cross country? Or compete? What's your ideal schedule for getting the horse over some solid obstacles? Does it depend on the horse or where you are in your training with respect to your competition level?