Tuesday 29 December 2015

Jumping

We have been jumping, and she's going amazingly.



We started out over tiny cross rails and poles on the ground. Anything higher and a strange nervousness came over me - I've never been worried about jumping before (not that I've jumped super high, but anyway) but for some reason I just felt nervous and she started cat leaping over tiny jumps and it just wasn't working for us.
So I painted the poles. I cantered over a single pole on the ground and trotted over tiny cross rails until Hayley (the girl part leasing Allie) came to ride her and she kept asking for more height. And you know what? With Hayley's confidence, Allie was all like "I got this".


Hayley and Allie finishing a bounce.


It proved to me that she's perfectly capable of jumping smaller jumps a d that I just needed to throw away my worries and enjoy the ride.

So that's what I've been doing - and we are regularly jumping up to 75cm at home, and the canter is beginning to really improve and have bounce in it. I'm starting to be able to adjust strides to the point where I can tell if she's thinking about taking a long spot and can half halt and bring her forehand up a bit and pop another short stride in before the jump. She turns like a dream (THANK YOU Linda's training!) and will even pop in the occasional auto change. She's super light in the mouth and feels like butter to ride once she's all warmed up. I love it. She seems to love it.

Oh boy oh boy I'm so excited, you have no idea. I'm not just a passenger pointing a horse at a jump and then letting the horse do what he will. I'm part of the success going over the fence. Allie has a beautiful bascule if I get the approach right, and I feel like punching the air after the perfect jump.

I know this is basic simple stuff but it's the beginning. We are on our way!!



2 comments:

KateRose said...

That is so awesome!! :)

OneHindResting said...

So wonderful!!! Enjoy every step of the way, it's been a long road!