Coming together!!!

The past week I had another jump lesson and have been working hard at riding inside leg to out side shoulder and pushing Deuce into the bridle with my seat and legs and its been going great! I am starting to feel him move more consistently and easily off my leg. Yay progress!

At our Jump lesson, last Wednesday, it was more practice on the diagonal jumps, turns and straightness  It went rather well. Again practicing the counter bending and now keeping my knuckles together as I approach so I can feel if he is drifting and correct it quicker.. I also came to the realization it is time to put my stirrups up at least one hole. I could go up maybe 2, but I  am going to go gradual. I also decided it is really time to commit to lots of two point to strengthen those lower legs. So in warm up trotting and cantering in 2 point and cooling out walk in two point. I can feel a difference already!

Conterbend for jumping straigntness

It was another Fox Hills/ Vineyard Hunt mounted meeting day. (I LOVE Pony Club!) My ride was not scheduled until later in the day so I hung around at the barn all morning to wathc the other rides and then sit in on the unmounted lesson in safety and turn out inspections (we have lots of ne w members and this was a needed lesson for every one to be on the same page).  

Deuce and I had a lesson with Lea and Special and the subject was again, jumping. Yay! We are getting ready for the upcoming season so instead of simple grid work, we are starting to think more about riding courses. However today  it was just two oxers set on the diagonals so we jumped in a figure 8 around the arena. It was a great opportunity to ride between fences, jump and turn  and find the line to the next fence. 

Deuce and I had to really work on our straightness  (that drifting left tendency has appeared again) and when I don't keep him straight  the distance gets crewed up and he gets a bad take off. He never pulled a rail but we did get an awkward ride a time or two.  Since he really wants to pop his shoulder left; Erin said couterbend him though the corner and keep almost that counter bend to the fence. Hey guess what!? That really worked great, he was actually straight to the fence and we had a great ride afterwards too. He didn't even dive and fall around the corner at the other end. We were able to bend!  

Fooooorrre!

It was a bright sunny day so I decided to take Deuce out for a little trail ride down the road, up the hill and to the big field.So off we went. Deuce was pretty happy to be out, too. As soon as we left the Christmas Tree farm and headed up the hill, he was on high alert. When we got to the road crossing to the hay field, he locked on the activity at the golf course.  He found the clinking and flying and plunking of the occasional golf ball to be disconcerting.
I insisted on him keeping his feet moving, but not racing forward so we ended up doing some low grade nearly passage movements. I am sure if the golfers noticed, they'd wonder what this one horse parade was doing prancing up and down the road.

When we go back to the Christmas tree farm, Deuce finally managed to get back into a normal walk and we went back up to the arena for some quite flat work. Good ride we had. Our bending and roundness in the bridle is improving.

Hey what about ME!??

I was tacking up Deuce and left Flash's stall door open as he was seeming to not cause any problems... but then he started insisting on some attention. Pretty funny series of pictures: 

Flash:  "Hi, Deuce! Wacha doing? What's this do??? I wanna eat it. What happens if I pull on it?? Wee this is fun, huh, Deuce!?

Deuce: "I am ignoring you and Lisa... why are you staring at me?"

Flash: " HEY! DEUCE!!!! I am here!! Look at me!!!! HEY DEUCE! DEUCE, DEUCE, DEUCE DEUCE, look at me I am making funny faces! Look at me, Look at me! DEUCE DEUCE DEUCE DEUCE!!!"

Deuce: "I am trying to ignore you"

Flash: DEUCE DEUCE DEUCE DEUCE DEUCE DEUCE!!!! Look at MEEEEE!!!!!

Deuce: " ARGH!!! WHAT do you want!?!!!!"
Flash "Oh....! Deuce....!! HI!!! This is fun, isn't it pal!?

The golden rule; Inside leg to outside rein.

Had another lesson with Erin tonight. Deuce gets stiff on his left side. I don't do him any favors with my locked elbows and stiff hands. When our left circles start to fall apart and he locks his jaw; he leans on me, I do something super counter productive with my hands and reins, and he typically things its some weird half halt attempt and then slows or stops and I get after him to go forward and he flattens out, nose shoots into the air and he and scoots forward and argh. Then I panic and try to muscle him back into a frame again. Its a vicious cycle   
So we had a good focus and practice session on riding my inside leg to outside rein. I know this... have heard it over and over in my riding career  read it over and over, and have even accomplished it on some horses that are well schooled..... but darn it all if I can't get my legs and hands to work right on Deuce. Ergh. So we practiced and practiced (Erin reminded me lots and lots with the broken record technique) and finally I started to remember to bend his frame with my inside leg and support with my outside rein. and Whalla. Deuce came up and got super supple bendy and round. That's what we are talkn about! So after  a few more practices and feeling the right technique  we did a bit of canter work with the same principles and went on to a little bit of jumping on a circle and practicing the bending and roundness before and after the jump. Again it took some work and I have to be honest, I was getting a bit tired. But we are making head way. And I have got to hand it up do Deuce. He has such a great attitude about all of our lessons. I know he loves to jump the best but he seems he is a really good sport about working through our challenges of the on the flat work too.

Jumping straight!

Today was the first mounted pony Club meeting of the year and being a Horsemaster (adult pony club member)  I am able to ride with the regular mounted meetings/lessons.

So today Erin was focused on jumping courses and practicing straightness before and after the jumps.  The warm up included a warm up with 10 meter circles in the corners to get our horses bending and moving off our legs. The on to jumping. We started with one cross rail with and cones placed about 4-5 feet apart about 2 to 3 stride before and after the fence. It gave us a visual of where center is located and a way to line up and get there. So we worked on a straight line then did a fence on a diagonal and then off the rail and diagonal but not on the center diagonal (which was pretty tough, because the natural tendency is to find the center straight across diagonal and ride the line, but if you did that, you would come off the rail too soon and not be straight to the jump. After getting that down we put a course together and jumped a series of 6 jumps about 2'3" all with cones to keep us thinking straight on the corved or off center approaches.  Deuce and I had not done a course in a quite awhile, and wowsas, we had a good time! While he did get a little wuick, he was very responsive too and  I was able to get my half halts throguh the jumps and make the corners and straight lines too. Yay!! Jump for Joy show is coming up towards the end of March so we need to start getting more of our jump on!