When I decided to head down to San Diego, I told L that I wanted to do three things: eat lots of tacos, see lots of ponies, and take a jumping lesson from her trainer (if that was possible, and it was)!
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| It was so fun!! |
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| Definitely jumping ahead but that's... going to take me a while I think lol |
I had kind of been slacking on my jumping lately AND I realized that I’d only been jumping Flounder since my return to jumping. I love the fish but he’s obviously just one horse who has one type of jump and I was worried it’d take me a bit to figure out this new horse. I also worried that riding at a nice hunter barn in purple full seat breeches would be real awkward.
Trainer DY is the NICEST person in the world and also so so good at what she does. She put me on the horse who actually attacked L, he can be a little snarky on the ground (not a surprise) but the moment I was on him, he was such a good boy. Not spooky, not lazy or hot, high enough tone to be super rideable but not so high tone that he felt tense. I immediately felt comfortable on him even though my stirrups were very short the correct length for jumping small fences.
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| Dante's ears are so cute! |
DY had us warm up with some forward and back, alternating between doing some work in sitting trot/full seat in canter and posting trot/jumping position in canter. I got my bearings but remembered that my short little jump stirrups took away the effectiveness of my leg aids and Mirlo slowly realized that I was not very effective even if my butt felt educated. I always wonder what the horses think when I get on them in jump tack. Like oh shoot this butt knows what it's doing... LOL the legs don't though *slows down*
We built up slowly through the lesson, first riding over a cross rail from the trot, then the canter, then stringing two cross rails together, eventually ending up with a little course! My little jumper horse (who has showed extensively in the meter jumpers and some hunters and equitation I think) definitely had a very different jump from Flounder’s and I tried to explain what I was feeling so DY could understand what to tell me. She said that this horse was more of an upright jumper, so he padded off the ground more aggressively than a horse with a flatter jump. Flounder doesn’t feel super flat, but he definitely doesn’t have this drop in front of the jump, he’s a bit softer off the ground I guess? I don't have the words to describe it at this point.
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| I much preferred the longer spots even though they made me want to jump ahead |
Much of what DY had to tell me was what Kate tells me in our lessons, so it was great to hear the same things in different words. Mostly I needed to not jump ahead, keep my eyes up, and keep him upright through the turns and to the fences (he wanted to lean left). I worked really hard to make sure that my lines were well ridden given that I was at a really nice hunter barn and I caught myself leaning through the corners sometimes, woops. DY emphasized the flatwork between the jumps and that kind of woke me up a bit. I'm a dressage rider, I can ride flatwork. So I redoubled my efforts and things got better.
By the end I felt like I kind of got the hang of his jump. It was so fun to jump a different horse (although I still adore Flounder and am probably too attached to him at this point lol) and especially fun to be in a group lesson with one of my very best friends!! I told L that I hoped that the next time I visit, she and Dante will be jumping so big that it wouldn't make sense to have a lesson together, but maybe DY can still make it work. I definitely want to take more lessons from her!
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| Such a good packer horse for me! |
Jumping remains so fun for me, it's such a breath of fresh air with how I've been feeling about dressage. Although my post tomorrow about my lesson with my local trainer should read a little more positive. Still, it's fun to have jumping to fall back on as my fun horse activity these days (and Sunny's western dressage training, which is still going, I just haven't had time to post about him!). Major thanks to L and DY for making my weekend in San Diego even more fun by letting me jump, yay!
