Fleck was awesome today! I had so much fun. We went and had a XC lesson with Beth and Fleck was awesome!!!! She had us warm up how Buck did.. Lots of forward and collect and forward and collect in the canter. Basically, when I close my leg, that means MOVE NOW! He should shoot forward. And he did :) I was giggling because usually the collection is the harder part. But he was pretty good with that too. So then we warmed up over some jumps and it took one or two but we got our groove on. We even rode straight and corrected our left drip mostly! Beth asked "who are you and what did you do with my student?" because I was riding so well too. I was so proud! I still let my leg slip and I still did plenty wrong, but in general, I was pretty darn good!
Fleck was hilarious! He really was on fire! He was rarin' to go and would go immediately into the "start box canter" and even got a little feisty! A few times I had foamy froth flying back in my face! hee hee. But then he was all go and as soon as I pulled him up, he would immediately go down and eat grass. Ha ha... It was chomp, chomp, gallop, gallop, stop, chomp, chomp, gallop! hee hee..
I had set up a vertical at the prelim bank and there was a coop already set up. AND... someone had left three handy barrels. So we were set! We went up and down the novice bank and worked on me. I need to not balance on his face, but not get left behind. But definitely don't jump ahead. Although our one fence that was a little scary was more because of his long strung out canter than me truly jumping ahead. I need to go with him, so that he can land and carry on. So then we did up to a bounce pole, then up to a bounce barrel. So to get him moving forward, Beth wanted me to land and go. Well, dumb me... landed, let my leg slide back and goosed him with the spurs. Poor kid.. he threw his head up and porpoise bucked about 8 times. Ha ha.. Oops, sorry budyy! After that though, Fleck was great and moved forward at each landing. Without me goosing him. Then we did the prelim line. We started with the vertical on the bendy line to the up bank to the coop. He NAILED it!! It was awesome. Then we turned around and did pretty darn well down too. Then Beth set up a single barrel (Not upright) with no ground lines and said if I came downhill and did it perfect, she'd buy me dinner.. and a milkshake! I asked if she set it upright... would she buy my saddle? Ha! She said NOPE! But I didn't get dinner... or a milkshake. It took us two tries. But only two tries. Then we did the one bank to the other bank. Then we ran our loop de loop thing. It was fun.
Then we did some mini courses and jumped some roll tops in a line up hill and downhill, then the coop to the water in. And Fleck jumped like a big boy. Jumped in, not puttered in. The stutter step is ONLY allowed at down banks. And I MUST keep my leg on him to avoid it from becoming more than just a stutter step to help get an extra peek. Then we did the ditches and trakenhers and he did well when I rode forward. I think we finished with another mini course which ended with the water. It was great! I am so proud of him.
So then we went to the lake to soak his knees and Fleck was pawing.. and then suddenly tried to go down. I managed ot keep him up, but... apparently he lost a shoe. Doh!!! Mannnnn, we just got over the abscess. Oh well... It was such a good day! He was awesome and rarin' to go.. and I rode well and even managed to ride my plan and fix issues as they were happening. It was a glorious day!!
Minus the missing shoe. ;)
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