jumping at home

Another day, another grainy video of bopping around cross rails with Mondeuse! I'm trying to make jumping, even just a little bit!, part of our standard weekly lexicon. And I think it's paying off!

for once there are more jumping efforts in the video than are captured here in screenshots lol

Mostly I just need it to feel "normal" for me, ya know? Consistent routine practice, and what have you. Doesn't need to be "exciting." Just needs to happen. 

And I was a big girl for this ride too --- actually dismounted and set a few fences intentionally. Some stuff in the ring had shifted around a bit, making for a kinda weird set up - not gonna lie. Plus lots of combinations, which are fine and all and we certainly need to learn those too...

hard to tell but i made this into a cross oxer with a fair amount of "clutter" in it. doozy didn't care!

But, eh, we were sharing the ring with my frequent riding buddy who has maybe more pressing goals than us (LOL), so I kept our "course" simple. Two X's - one on each diagonal, and one set as an "oxer" (ish) with "fill" (ish). And then a single vertical across the short axis but positioned such that it could be reasonably gotten to off both leads even when jumped in the same direction -- thus giving a little bit of a longer approach / easier turn.

bare bones X is definitely more boring tho, and gets less of an effort

Doozy warmed up well, tho she definitely knows what we do in the jump ring lol. Which, ya know, fine, right? She isn't exactly wrong! So we moved onto jumping our little X's. 

just canterin around!

I was having a little trouble second guessing myself about whether to keep trying to trot fences, or just let her canter. On one hand I really want to be able to find moments to push my hands forward -- which is hard to do when you're trying to hold the mare back. 

On the other hand tho... Doozy still doesn't know what she doesn't know. And she doesn't know about patience yet. She'll only know if I can show her, right?

wheeee, emma canters a vertical!

So I continued to try to trot all our first fences. Which actually, with our recent breakthrough in her starting to understand that, yea, trot is what I want!... Seems like she understood better what I was asking. Like, disagreed lol... But understood. And I generally let her canter to the remainder of our jumps.

And actually -- after one little course from one X to the next where I felt like she got a little too strong to the second fence, we practiced coming back down to trot again after fence 1 -- and it felt like she kinda had a little 'aha' moment with that too.

ok so i legit only claimed 3 single jumps that we just did again and again. was enough, tho!

Then I also opted to do an easy circle to change our lead before proceeding again to the next fence, and again it felt like she understood we were looking for balance.

that tail! fancy lady figured out her auto change in this turn too!

We finished with one last little circuit allowing us to catch the same vertical off the other lead, and Doozy was again quite good - so we quit with that. 

It was a useful ride bc we treated it sorta like a lesson format. Katie would go jump some stuff, then I'd jump some stuff, then rinse repeat, each taking turns. Sometimes, especially when it's a more varied group or different riders doing different things, everybody kinda just catches their jumps as they can through the traffic. But this felt nice and organized and useful for Doozy to practice starting and stopping. Plus obvi we got to video each other LOL.

mane sniffing champions lol, good girl dooz, cantering the same little vertical off the other lead and executing a lead change midair!

And the videos are so useful for me. A couple big takeaways: the mare is ready for a little bit more of a challenge. She's very much interested and engaged in the game, and has a super genuine feeling about the jumps. But -- at least at home -- I think she's outgrowing the cross rails faster than I am. 

Other takeaway: I'm happy enough with my riding. It isn't perfect, but maybe it's a bit self-aware? I can clearly see moments in the video where I'm trying to push the reins more forward, and I'm clearly letting her roll on a bit more. There's probably a happy medium in there somewhere... But it's good enough for getting our reps in.

youtube link to quick video of all our jumping

Ooh, another interesting takeaway --- Doozy got a little tired!! I've intentionally not put much conditioning work into her. Like, on purpose LOL. Homegirl does not need fitness right now lol. But that time may be coming soon. 

I'm thinking our next big focus area will be continuing to grow our hacking skills by introducing longer walkies around the farm. Not just walking from one place to the other, but walking for the sake of walking through all the big fields and hills and whatnot. Doozy seems like less of a flight risk these days so it's the next natural step anyway. 

So ya know. Another good session in the books!