Jumping, jumping, jumping

I forgot to mention yesterday that we worked on halting.  First I had to close my eyes and determine which leg she was still poking out after the halt.  It's the left hind.  So that meant I had to close a little more on the left rein and use more left leg to get her to stop with that leg more up under herself.  Apparently I was able to get it better, but she still doesn't quite halt square.  Of course, even not square, she still gets 8s on her halt. Imagine if we could get both legs under at the same time!

So Sunday morning I went out early to feed and tack up, since I was the first lesson of the day at 8am. Violet was waiting at the gate, along with her friend Pearl.  We brought the ladies in, then the geldings. Violet ate her handful of feed in no time and I pulled her out to get her tacked up.  It was nice and cool.  I love weather when I can wear a vest.  I only get about 4 days a year, but I love it when I can.

We headed up to the jump field to get warmed up, then headed into the ring.  Marcy was nice enough to assist with getting my stirrups put up, because I forgot to do it before I got on, and pulling the leathers around on the CWD saddle is difficult.  We started out applying some of the same things we worked on Saturday to the jump warmup, but went a bit faster.  Once I figured out which pony I had, we worked on some transitions and changes of direction, them went pretty quickly into the canter, working on being sing-songy in the canter, moving the bit just a tad so she stays with me, but doesn't get strong.  Marcy says she does a sing-songy "la-la-la" to herself.  I do better when I count strides.  Either way, while my outside does not necessarily get frantic, but inside does, and I have to work on getting myself to stay calm, because Violet picks up on it.  At one point, I trotted around an oxer and thought "hey, that's big" and then I thought to myself, "no, not that big, and you aren't jumping it anyway.  If you are asked to jump it, it will be because you are ready for it."  I have to learn to quit worrying about things I'm not even doing.

This is my rendition of the course.

Anyway, after the warmup, we started on trot poles.  Violet loves to jump, and can get quite frantic about it if I am.  But the more that I stay even and calm, the better she does.  Then, even when she gets spicy, I can control it better.  So we did the trot poles toward the red vertical (at the time, a crossrail), halt, turn on the haunch, walk, then trot back over the poles.  First time was good, second time was better and after the second direction, we walked to the left, picked up the canter and cantered over the green raised pole.  The first time we did that, she tripped over it and knocked it over, but it was calm, and it was her fault, not mine.  I brought her to a halt and we did the whole thing over again, and that time she got the stride right.

It's pretty funny, we spent a lot of time going down to the walk and trying to pick up the sitting trot to the canter.  When Violet gets into the jump ring, however, she says "fuck the sitting trot" (excuse my language, but she really does) and jumps into the canter.  She doesn't get nasty about it, just doesn't see the point of all that trotting stuff.  Her canter is really quite ratable, but we did work a bit on "No, I said trot" before we picked up the canter.

After this, we did the trot poles to the red vertical, which was a crossrail at the time.  After she did that calmly, we switched to cantering the crossrail on the right lead, to the red vertical with a halt after.  All this was working on remaining sing songy and not letting her get quick and rushed.  From there, we switched it up a bit.  We came at the cross rail from between all the fences on the right lead, heading toward the ring fence.  Then halted and walked, did a change of direction, picked up the right lead canter again going the other way over the crossrail to the red vertical, left lead rollback to the red and yellow vertical on a bending line to the grey oxer that was close to the fence, and at an odd angle.  The first time we did this small course, we had to do a lead change to the left before the red and yellow, and again for the right lead before the grey oxer.  The first one went ok, but I did not commit to making the lead change happen early enough before the grey, which put me really close to the fence before I picked up the canter.

Violet saw the long one over the grey fence, which I was not prepared for and got left behind a bit.  Marcy said that since Violet has gained strength and is learning to use her body and her stride, she is way more willing to take the longer spot, while I was waiting for her (prior) usual chip to the fence.  It is nice to hear that she is figuring out how to use her body, but I have to get used to seeing that longer distance.  I'm doing a way better job waiting for her to take me over the fence rather than jumping it for her, but I still don't see the long one as well.  Anyway, we did the grey oxer again by itself.  Then we tried the whole thing again.

Now, our entire time, we have been working on getting the line right and riding the outside shoulder on the track I want.  For that grey fence, I have to ride to the fence and then ride the outside shoulder to the center of the fence, which gives us the perfect distance.  Unfortunately, part of the reason I got the long one during the course was because, not only did I get the canter late, I blew past my line and put the outside shoulder too far past center to get the right stride.  I was able to do it fine when riding it alone.

So after we saw that I COULD do it, we tried the course again.  I did better with getting the leads.   She picked up the left lead after the red fence, and then I brought her down quickly to get the right before the grey fence.  Unfortunately, I still went past my line.  The fence was better, but still not right.  So I rode it again as a single with no problem.  Because the problem was mine, and we know I can do it, and Violet was doing so well, we stopped at that.  It left me with a lot to think about.  We went for a walk around the cross country course and I put her in her BOT sheet.  Now that we have had our two days of winter, she gets the sheet for one day, and is back out in the sand naked by Monday, lol.  Which, of course, is her preferred state.

She loves her dirt naps, especially after a good jump school.