Old Habits Die Hard

 So I took a couple weeks off from jumping (due to burn out for the most part) but then got back to it last week!

I was excited to ride Flounder because while I hadn’t practiced at all, I had been watching more jumping videos (there was an event last weekend so lots of my IG people were schooling the last few weeks) and felt like I was ready to really push myself a bit more. All the residual fear from the last few lessons was gone now that I was more secure in my position and I was ready for a good challenge. 

It’s like Kate could tell because she hiked up the fences on me last week! 

We began with working over some small fences, focusing on a few bad habits of mine. First, my inability to get my weight out of my stirrups and second, my inability to not arch my back if she asks me to do anything with my position. Both are previous patterns I was told to do over and over and over again as a kid. 

Such a good fish

The arched back is REALLY interesting to me because in the last three or so years, I've went from a hollow backed rider to a round backed rider in the dressage. TC requires a lot of front line activation and he's my primary horse so I have slowly let that influence me. But suddenly, even after strengthening that front line SO MUCH on him and letting my back line lengthen and weaken, you put me into a jumping position and I arch my back again. 

Every single thing that Kate says to me throughout the ride somehow makes my back more hollow except when she tells me to flatten it. She put me in my jumping position and asked me to lengthen my thigh (for the slingshot) and I arched my back. She asked me to close my armpit at the back and I arched my back. She asked me to push my hips back in the air and I arched my back. Everything that isn't telling me to not arch my back arches my back. So I'm doing a lot of exercises at home and on TC dealing with that.

Go Flounder! 

The weight in the stirrups thing is a bit more understandable. I've been told to get my heel down, my leg down, my knee off the saddle, and my toe out as long as I can remember jumping horses. It's amazing how insecure that position feels in comparison to the one Kate wants me to have, yet I still default to it like crazy! 

A lot of the time when the biomechanics work makes riders feel really secure, they have an easier time making that change in the long run. Kate's Mary inspired jumping position makes me feel like I'm NEVER coming off a horse, even if the horse were to stop in the dirtiest of manners, and yet I abandon it when I see a jump coming. 

Putting my weight into my thigh in jumping stirrups has been a mind trip, but wow I have so much influence over the horse over the fence. And Flounder is perfect for this. As the jumps went up (we topped out at 2'9 I think), I had complete control over how he jumped the fences. 

If I got my slingshot on, I could put him onto his haunches without touching his face and therefore it'd give him a bit more of a bascule and I could see my distances every time. If I kept my elbow loose and relaxed, he'd jump up through my hand better and have a neater front end (you can see this in those two pictures). If I kept my core engaged, I'd have a huge amount of influence on the back side and didn't feel like I needed to make crazy moves to get him to go straight afterward. All of this depended on me getting out of my stirrups because that raised my center of gravity, causing me to lock my elbow and drop my core. 

Don't worry, TC will always be my best friend and
dressage partner!

Jumping has been so fun! I'm excited to continue and am starting to make plans for what I want in the future because that's just who I am. I love Flounder, but he's one who can get around 3' without so much room to spare that you can ride like a monkey to the jumps (rude lol). He's perfect for now because he makes it so obvious when I make a mistake and I feel like by the time I can jump him around a 3' course without any mistakes, I'll be pretty much set for a variety of horses. But for my next horse, I want something that can take a lot of jokes at the meter level. 

Kate and I discussed that and she agreed that Flounder is perfect (in general) for this year and then next year we'll look for something a bit more talented (no offense to the most perfect Flounder!). Could I handle that horse now? Yes, I'd like the horse to be one that my niece can ride (or that would be an easy lease to a pony clubber) and that my mom can ride a bit on the trails with me. But Flounder is perfect for now and he's letting me get my sea legs back while I save all my dollars for the new horse and get myself situated (seeing as I need both horses at the same place and closer to me, so we'll have to go barn hunting sooner or later). 

Yay for jumping Flounder though!