Falling as motivation?

So I headed down Saturday afternoon for a lesson.

Wait, let me back up.

Friday, I overindulged.  No reason, other than life, but I started drinking before the man got home and didn't stop once I had a partner in crime.  And I'm a lightweight.  Anyway, Saturday morning, I was feeling pretty crappy.

So Saturday afternoon I headed down for what I thought was going to be another group jump lesson.  When I got there, everyone was getting out their vests.  Good thing I had mine stashed in the truck.  Apparently it was a last minute decision, since it was the last weekend before the cross country field officially opens, and was nice and quiet.

Ginny was not planning on staying, so she headed out with Marcea on her own, coming back after what was reported to be a great ride on Pearl.

I got ready with another barn mate and was just getting ready to get on when Marcy and Ginny came back.  They were there long enough for me to admit to Ginny that I was hung over and not feeling overly well.  Then I tipped the 2-step over on it's side and prepared to mount my steed.

And promptly fell off the mounting block and under my horse, who stood there looking around like "Can someone please pick her up so we can get going?"  My horse is a saint.

So Marcy helped me up, laughing and trying to get the dirt off my vest, while I looked sadly at my heretofore brand new breeches, and said something like "at least you had your protective gear on!"

Several comments about picking dirt out of riders butt cracks, adjusted stirrups and a helping hand later and I was mounted up and ready to go.

And we kicked ASS!

We got to the field and Marcy said "ok, you just need to go to the fenceline and trot all the way around the field.  Let go of this week and remember why you like this."

And trot we did.  From the first step, Violet was like "Let's go!  Which one?"  We (mostly) trotted the whole field and got back to Marcy who sent us over our first fence, which was a rolltop, going alternately up and down the hill to it.

No new pics, but this one is pretty.

We worked on getting the forward stride and all of a sudden, I could see the distance!  I don't know that I have ever seen the distance on the cross country field, and rarely in the ring.  But when moving forward to the fence, it's just there.

I don't even know what all we did, but I know we ended at the water complex with a white bench (amazing how that white sets the pony back a bit) trotting through the water and up and over a mushroom on the other side.

I had to really ride this.  Violet actually said "hmm, I don't know" about the mushroom and dropped back a couple of strides out and I had to actually tell her, nope, you're really jumping this one.  I think it was because we couldn't get the same kind of pace after trotting the water, since it was only like 7 or 8 strides away.  But I was praised for giving her a good ride through it, so we ended on that.

It was mentioned that when I get tired, I should pay attention to my hands.  They tend to get too high.

I can (and did) say that it was a lot of fun!

Then Sunday we came back out and played in the sandbox.  Same as usual, although I was really tired and struggling a bit by the time we got to canter.  We worked on getting forward at the canter.

Week after next we will ride a combined test at the schooling show just to make sure it's all working together and get some practice.

And I started a new food plan, because I have got to lose some weight and gain some fitness.  I am very concerned I will not make it all the way through a BN cross country course at this point, so it's time to take control and do something about it, rather than whining all the time.