jumping at kealani

We finally made it back to another jump lesson with Sally, yay!! And it was honestly really really great, maybe hopefully continuing on our recent theme of 'breakthroughs.'

back for another lesson at the beautiful Kealani with Sally C!

I actually hadn't jumped the horse since the Thornridge CT almost exactly one month ago... Recall I was out of town for a week, and then the mare kept finding new and exciting ways to get her best friend Rosette to kick her... Mare. Pls. 

this horse is an actual professional at the trailer now. 15min from unloaded to mounted, nbd.

But it was all good. I'd actually kinda waffled over maybe jumping a little bit at home in the days leading up to the lesson... But ultimately decided not to. 

wheeeee jompies!!!!

It felt like we were kinda having a good 'moment' with that whole 'inside bend' breakthrough, and also figured if we were gonna knock some rust off, might as well do so under Sally's expert guidance.

is it really 'counter bent' if it's 'counter canter' ?? #asking4afriend

And ultimately I'm happy with that choice. From the perspective of 'exercises' or whatever, it was a VERY basic jumping lesson. We exclusively trotted into single fences, one at a time. 

bold mare will be bold to the boxes

And honestly? That was perfect. Like, sure, we have cantered around some courses at competitions. But we've also made a few mistakes. Remember Doozy squirting out of the combination at Thornridge bc we got there a little bit forward and she didn't seem to quite have a confident answer? 

d'awwww lookie at her go!

She's a bold game mare, the jumping is easy for her. But sorta in the same way she doesn't really philosophically agree with... trotting... She kinda feels like jumping is maybe a task best done FAST. Except. Ya know. It absolutely is not LOL...

wait no omg not like that

And this ride was the perfect little microcosm of all of our schooling to date: She started out bold and easy, then grew strong. And then stronger. At first, even when she'd make a bid for the fences, they'd still come comfortably out of stride. 

lololol ok she mayyyyy have gotten a little fired up

But then as she became increasingly strong (and as I managed to somehow not really change anything at all whatsoever in my ride...), things got a little more frantic and a little less comfortable. 

pictured: fired up

Sally is the best tho, so practical. So methodical. She advised that we basically hold onto the walk until alllllmost reaching the jump, and then trot. And Doozy.... lapped it up, actually. She went for the fence, but held her trot, and then put all her pieces together for a lovely effort, vs just flinging herself over.

pictured: toning it wayyyy back down again, walking almost to the fence

Honestly it's all in the video -- you can see us sorta unspooling, and then see Doozy really just have one of those "click" moments after walking to the fence. 

turns out, she liked the balanced jump better than the fling, GO FIGURE

It also helped at this point in the ride that I remembered to try actually utilizing some of those buttons we installed earlier in the week relating to inside bend off inside leg. And I started sitting my trot on the approaches and using the bend to try to help Doozy hold a better posture. 

this horse, i swear, she really wants to be good -- the better i can help her find the comfortable way, the more she wants to go there

But honestly, the change was all her. It's like she felt the difference in how comfortable it was to jump from balance, and was just like, "OH, ok."

omg ok here's a little bit of pictorial proof of that whole inside bend thing we've worked on <3 <3

Whatever the case, I'll take it! So our last few efforts of the lesson were quite pleasant, and we were actually able to carry on canter in decent balances on the back side of fences, vs trying to pull a bolting mare to a stop.

eeeee lovely over the barrels to finish!

Doozy is so brave, none of the fill or anything bugs her. Sally even made us jump the barrels, which obvi I knew Doozy would do, but also said *I* didn't wanna lol. (Luckily Sally doesn't particularly care what I do or do not wanna do!).

quite pleased with this kiddo

I honestly think this horse really wants to just be a good girl. She wants to do the right thing. Seems to quite enjoy this game, actually. But she also just doesn't really understand it yet (esp when it comes to speed). Sally reminded me that it is part of my job to know more than the horse, and sometimes that means protecting the horse from their own instincts. 

link to video clips here

Sally was also really realistic in her advice for me. I can get really preoccupied in thinking about how it *should* be, but she's always very quick to remind me that... Yea, ok, sure, but also ride the horse you have RIGHT NOW, to get to the horse you *think* you *should* have later. The horse is still just really really green. It'll take time, but that's A-OK.

clever girl <3

Doozy, for her part, was a super star. You'd have never guessed she had an hour-long meltdown last time she came for a lesson here. She's grown up and matured so much in the last few months. 

Like, even if maybe it kinda looks like we're still doing the same stuff under saddle, it FEELS completely different. Feels like the horse understands so much better now too, and like I have a little more say in the matter. 

Whatever the case, Sally advised to keep getting her out. Keep exposing her. Which, ya know, hopefully that's the plan!