First lesson back

We had our first lesson since returning from Christmas break on Saturday morning.  I was dreading it, because I didn't want to feel like we had regressed. Paige didn't give us any break after two weeks off.  It was exhausting for both Dandy and me, but we didn't seem to have lost any ground in our jumping progress. 

We practiced riding without stirrups quite a bit.  Also, Paige has devised a torturous exercise where I can only use one stirrup.  It's even worse than trying to post without any stirrups, because it's hard to keep your balance in the center of the horse.

Paige had me try out a new stretch in two-point intended to improve my position and strength over jumps.  She made me trot around the arena in two point.  About every 20 steps, I stretched my arms up Dandy's neck toward his ears and close my hip angle so I was almost laying on his neck.  I wasn't allowed to actually rest my upper body on his neck. From that position, I had to raise myself back up into two-point using only my core strength and without rounding my back.  I was really terrible at this! I definitely need to do my pilates video more often.

After these medieval exercises, we were finally allowed to jump.  Paige set up a series of gymnastics, which are jumps that are only the length of a canter stride apart.  This keeps horses on their toes, because once they land from the first jump they have to immediately jump again and again.  Dandy still needs lots of work on his timing while jumping.

When I jump more than one jump in a row, Paige has me widen my hands so the reins form a V down to the bit.  That way I can catch Dandy if he tries to run out on the jump in either direction. 

He was a bit nervous at first, but I sat really upright in the drive up to the gymnastics maintaining his momentum, and then I was light with my seat and hands over the jumps while he hopped through. The middle jump was a crossrail and he always jumps much higher and fuller over those.  It felt like hop-JUMP-hop the first few times, so we worked on evening his pace through the gymnastics to jump-jump-jump. 

Whenever we begin jumping in a lesson, Dandy starts off nervous and tries to run out on jumps, but after a few times, he gets really excited about jumping.  I think he feels intimidated, but when he remembers how easy it is, he starts to have fun.  It feels great to have my horse so eager to work!  It reminds me of pole bending runs with Cat.