Jumping lesson

I didn't want to make the 8 year anniversary post too long (Ha! too late) by adding about my jump lesson, so here is it's own post. 

Fleck and I went to Wishing Tree and had a lesson with Beth. We started with a little bit of flat work and ran through the test. Beth gave me some pointers to help us out at the show. Basically....

• My figure 8 circles weren't true circles. I was cutting in the final arc and creating a diagonal line. So I need to ride CIRCLES. I think thinking of leg yielding him out will help me. She also suggested that I ride a stride or two of straight when going from one circle to the next, not a diagonal like I was doing.
• Shoulder fore in the transitions
• Instead of thinking of going from medium canter to working canter to trot, just think of going from medium canter to trot. It prevents me from getting too handsy and him bracing against me and hollowing. And by default, he comes back into the working canter. It's much smoother!
• When doing the free walk, think about only letting the reins out a bit but pushing my hands forward. Keep the connection. Then almost leg yield him into the medium walk and then immediately shoulder in at the rail.
• Shoulder in to the canter.
• After the second canter... breathe!! Big BIG breath and pretend I'm done. It's all over. Ahhhhh... Then do the rest of the test.
• Keep the connection, inside leg to outside rein, for the stretchy trot. And think of leg yielding him into that connection. Then another big breath!
• Collect, sit, and then ease into the lengthen. Don't just go for it and then wonder why he broke into the canter. Ease into it and don't lose the connection. But also don't hang onto his face.
• Then half halt to prepare, then ride him forward into the halt, using my thighs. 

  
And done.... Hopefully it'll go better :)

Then we went out to do some jumping. Fleck was pretty darn good and I am getting better. I'm much better with my hands, but still.. when I panicked, I still had my hands way up in the air. But when I rode him into the connection, it was much easier to follow him and my hands behaved. Yay! And we worked on not letting him lengthen his stride the last few strides and get long and flat. Instead, if I kept him at the same length of stride, slightly collected, sitting into the saddle but soft, I could then wait or press him forward a bit. We had some really good jumps, a few not so great ones, and mostly decent ones. 

Whoo hooo!!! We're brushing off the cobwebs and getting our groove back!!