I'm impressed with myself...

Three days in a row now. I wonder how long I can keep this up. I've been multi-tasking, eating lunch, writing an entry. So, if I can keep doing this, then I'll do 5 a week. I normally eat lunch at my desk anyway because break rooms remind me of when I worked in retail. But now, I have an excuse to not work during my lunch break.

I've decided I will touch more on the feeling your horse move subject another time. Mostly because I feel like I have to ride in order to explain it better, and truth be told, I haven't ridden since April. Shame on me. I am waiting for the cooler weather because it's not fair to ask a fat and very unfit horse to work in 90* heat. And, well, it's not fair to ask me to do it either!

Ok. Focus.

Our lunging improved steadily. She was (is) incredibly willing to learn. And, willing to do just about anything for me. Once I had upward and downward transitions pretty solid, I began to work on changing pace a little. Going from working trot to extended trot; working canter to extended canter, etc. I also worked a lot on getting her to continue to walk, not just walk three steps and halt, when I asked her to walk. (I still have to remind her about this!) Oh, I forgot to mention I don't say "walk" because I think, and I'm sure most horses would agree, it sounds enough like "trot" to get confusing. So, I saying "walking." I also say a solid "trot" for upward and a "trrrot" longer pronunciation, so I can slow it down, and use the tone and speed of my voice to indicate a downward transition. Canter is, well, "Canter." :)

After a few weeks under saddle, we began to introduce single ground poles. This graduated to 3 or 4 cavaletti. The purpose was the encourage her to lift her back, use her hind end, slowly, allowing her to build the strength to do it - and also give her something to think about, and an introduction to the world of jumping. Promise got bored with this pretty quickly. She learned to scuffle her feet and hit the poles instead of stepping over them - even if I clucked for each step, or tapped her with a crop, or squeezed a bit harder. She'd try the first couple of times, not wanting to be bad, and then would shuffle over them again. So, we elevated them one notch on their x's for raised cavalettis. The process pretty much continued as it had before. She'd try, but eventually get bored, and stop trying. 

When the cavaletti was raised to its highest point, she hopped over it, a little too ambitiously, and cleared it by about a foot. Wow. It was still low enough to step over. My trainer told me to let her jump it if that was how she wanted to handle it. I did. On the third or fourth try, she knocked it over. Everyone laughed, my trainer reset it. She knocked it over again. My trainer then put another one up about 2 strides away - between 12-14 feet, since her stride is longer than most. The goal was to hop, or step over the first, take the 2 or 3 strides, and hop or step over the second. Apparently, I forgot to mention that to Promise as we trotted toward them.

Her ears pricked, her trot got a little more animated. We got closer, I gave a small release as I rose into two point. I should have grabbed mane. 

She jumped both, at the same time, like a 25 ft oxer. She almost dumped me in the dirt in the process. She cantered off the other side, and looked pleased with herself. I regained my seat and tried figure out what had just happened. I look over to the edge of the arena. Yes, everyone was laughing...again.

I brought her back to the trot, circled, and approached the cavaletti again. I gave her a small, light half-halt every other stride. I stayed seated, no 2-point. I talked to her. "Whoa, whoa" (which is our cue for easy, or slow down a little -- it's more of a ho-ho - like Santa). This time, she took one at a time. I praised her like crazy, and kept on trotting. The third time, I was less naggy about slowing her down. I had too much confidence in her, too soon. She jumped the "oxer" again. Laughter from the side. Great. We did it a few more times, the way it was supposed to be done - one at a time. And then called it a day.

We decided then and there, that this mare was going to learn to jump sooner, rather than later. We'd just take it slow and not rush her, as she was still growing. Whenever she had a growth spurt, she'd do flat. When she leveled out, we'd do mostly flat and then hop her over a couple cross rails, maybe a low vertical at the end of our lesson. Nothing major, no courses, just single jumps, a few times in each direction. She picked it up quick. She loved it, too.