In Which I Remember How To Ride

The 'tude. We got it. 

After one of my record least-successful jump schools and resulting pity-party, I was feeling pretty determined to hash out my issues and get back on track with riding like I actually know what I'm doing.

Back to the jump field I went!

Dino was all, "This crap again? No way, lady. You know how much I hate being within the confines of this fence. It cramps my style, it stifles my wild mustang stallion spirit. What say we trail ride today instead? I think I have to pee. I DEFINITELY have to poop. Can't poop and walk at the same time. Nope. Sorry. Gotta stand here for a minute. Contemplate the universe. Poop. You know. QUIT NAGGING ME!!"

Um, sorry, homeboy. You have a job, which you do for LITERALLY an hour or less every day, so you need to just suck it up and do what I'm asking you to do.

I got on and got down to work right away, beginning with walk/halt/reinback transitions, turns on the forehand, and lots of changes of direction to get Dino into Work Mode. He was responding pretty well, and bounced right into trot when I asked. After a couple minutes I headed down the hill to our 'dressage court' to warm up more thoroughly down there, as Dino seems to prefer that area of the pasture for some reason.

Whatever, I just roll with it.

"I did the jomping, now is snacktime."

He was sticky going into the canter and made some MAJOR cranky faces when I put my leg on to energize said canter, but after some firm-but-fair riding on my part, I had Dino moving forward and obediently. We then galloped up to the jump field to get started.

I decided not to push it with the grid again that day, but instead work over the three single fences we have set up right now: a 2'3ish vertical, a 'skinny' barrel on its side with V poles, and a 2'9ish vertical set on a slope that can be jumped uphill or downhill. I wanted to achieve a forward, confident ride and be able to practice balancing the canter like I had worked on in my lesson the week before.

By some miracle, I was successful! Dino was so much more forward and adjustable than he had been for our previous ride, and was landing softly and moving away from the jumps confidently instead of slopping over them and landing in a heavy heap on his forehand on the other side. I strung together little "courses" of the three fences, focusing on my track and balance instead of staring down a distance. I even but on my Brave Eventer Pants and jumped the 2'9 fence downhill! I didn't even see a distance to it at first, but kept coming with a good canter and it all worked out.

Funny how that works!