So... Wednesday, I ended up hitching a ride with Christina to Wishing Tree to get a jump lesson with Beth. I had been working the last two nights, only slept about 4.5 hrs Tuesday, stayed up all night working Tues night, and then stayed up all day Wed. So... a jump lesson Wed may not have been the best idea. But.. turns out.. it was!!! Sooooo worth it! We had a blast!!!
I got on and it was at 6pm, so we rode to big beautiful gold sun setting. Beth had an 'eeeeevvvviiiillll' grid set up. Muhuahuahaaaa! ;) The ring is set up in a rectangle with a a dressage arena within... only the dressage arena only has the corners up. From the short side, it's probably ten to fifteen meters to the rail. So Beth had set up a single verticle in the midde of that short side. On each side of the verticle was a raised ground pole (though not at the same time at first). The goal was to trot the cavaletti and then jump the jump. NOT to bounce it or treat it as a canter pole. And suprisingly... Fleck did just that... trotted happily over the pole. Well.. that's not true. The first time over it he was all ADD looking at his buddy Sham in the pasture and then spooked at the candy cane pole. But after that.. he was all business and trotted over the pole and jumped the jump. We did it both directions and Beth kept raising it. Then she moved the poles out a bit and we got to canter it. Same thing...
Because it was a tight turn we had to ride forward through the turn and stay balanced. Then I had to wait for it... and it was there. The cavaletti's made Fleck get to the base of the jump and he had to rock back and use his hiney. Wheee!!
So we also worked on me. It's cool how it works, but when I keep the connection to the base... my hands stay down on his neck and don't float up in the air. However, I do still have chicken arms.. so I need to think about pushing my hands forward up his neck (or along side his neck) rather than giving or releasing. And yes.. I still release, but Fleck prefers when I keep the connection and don't just abandon him.
So... once we got that under control and were doing it at the canter, Fleck was amazing. I really felt like he was having fun!!! He was coming out of the turn, pricking his ears, and I could just feel him saying "okay.. I got this!... Yeah baby!". It was great... We were jumping fairly high too and Fleck was really jumping well. Wheee!!!
Well then Beth asked how brave I was feeling. I was feeling awesome so I said "pretty brave"!. She raised it... only two inches really, but... of course I panicked a little. I tried not too.. I really did, but I ended up changing the ride and so we had a stop or two. But then we fixed it... and HOLY SMOKES!!! Fleck jumped like a mad man. He lifting in his withers... lifted his chest, rocked up his knees, and pushed off!! I know it was only two inches higher, but jeepers!! It felt amazing!! I could hardly stay up there with him. ;)
So.... so much fun!!!! Super glad I manned up and did it :) We had a blast. And thanks to Beth's boot camp... my confidence is back, as is Flecky's!! Bring on Chatt Hills!!!!! I'm feeling good about it :)
Then we cooled off under the big white bright moon!!
ahhhh... life is good!
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