Jumping lesson :)

Well we had a jumping lesson today! YIPPEE! lets hope we wont have any more lessons cancelled. Spring is on the way!!! I rode Ty he is about 9 years old I believe, though not a hundred percent sure. Anyways he is a Hanovarian that was trained for Dressage, and was even used for the IDA shows. Jumping is suposedly not new to him....but that isnt really too believable. He is doing remarkably better than the last time I jumped him (it was about 3 months ago and one of his first times we had ever done so). Bryn said she had been riding him a bit lately and it shows.

He is actually jumping the jumps now (well most of them, he sorta throws himself through them, and doesnt really pick up his feet, but again he is doing better...hehehehe) Anyways well we went over a few jumps and he was shooting around like a rocket, pulling the reins from my hands and jutting to the right just after the jump. So we started to have him do a shoulder in, on the approach to the jumps, that helped quite a bit to keep him from bolting to the right. It was a constant battle of half halts and keeping his head up so he wouldnt pull the reins out of my hands. So we got some good lines in over a set of 3 oxers...but most ended up in him pulling my arms out of the sockets and jutting to the right. We did some "courses" to swap things up and that went pretty well. Except that if the fence was bigger than 2'6" he would crash through.

And then I almost fell off (and I am still surprised I stayed on!!) he crased through an oxer and tripped, and went down a little, and I lost my stirrups which caused him to spook to the right (they were clanking I think?) and then back to the left, were I accidentally snapped him with the whip and caused him to skid to the right again *sigh* anyways I was preparing to fall but then when he scooted back over I didnt because he was under me again. hehehe. So I regained my stirrups and went on to the next jump :). Other than that he did this weird half rear thing because I was sick of having him be all over the place and was really holding him where I wanted. So overall the jumping aspect was great. A good training experiance for both of us :).

About half way through we stopped jumping and did some dressage stuff for about 15 minutes to get his mind away from jumping for a bit. That was amazing. I havent had him move like that, and be that collected and supple since I've been riding him in lessons! He was listening to my legs and seat (stopped on a dime with my seat. normally he will take a few steps) We did some leg yeilds. Oh and we even did some flying lead changes while doing serpentines...this wasnt as nice because it was before we started jumping, but I bet they would have been beautiful if I was doing them after the jumping. Can't ask for TOO much though. Overall I am very satisfied with my lesson, and my own personaly preformance *grin*. Not nearly as dissapointed this time.
kim~