Luc and I crash through one of the fences.
The riding gods were smiling down on me this week. Luc’s abscess, and it was definitely an abscess, blew earlier in the week. It came out his heel and left a big ugly hole, but he was much happier and completely sound. His owner, my sister Jen, rode him a few times before my day came around and he was peppy and forward and excited to be back to work.
While I was lucky he was sound, I wasn’t so lucky that he was still feeling like going forward without a ton of leg. Granted, it was hot. Really hot. Even at 8 a.m. when I was riding. Apart from not getting to enjoy a little peppiness, my ride was excellent. It’s amazing how quickly you miss it. After missing just one ride I was desperate to get back in the saddle.
The ride started off well enough. We were out in the grass field and while Luc was a little distracted by the mares and foals in the pasture across the driveway, I assumed he would work through it. That didn’t really happen. But I continued to try anyways.
After a quick flat warmup it was time for Luc and I’s favourite thing – jumping! The barn owner had moved a few more jumps out into the ring, so there was more than just the handful of cross country fences for me to try my hand at. I started out over the tiny log, and I didn’t even bat an eye. Then we moved on to the green coup, the larger log and even the wooden, natural a-frame. No fear. No hesitation. Go me!
Then it was time to move on to the one stride that was setup. It was plain poles with a little filler, so nothing Luc would be concerned about. We came down with a nice forward pace, as Jen had ridden it earlier in the week and told me it was set a little long. A little was a lot of an understatement. I had to push for the one stride, and it was looooong. We came around a second time with even more impulsion and it was still really long. The third time resulted in a very ugly two strides where I threw my body ahead. Good thing I have such a forgiving horse! We tried one more time and managed to put in the long one and called it a day for that obstacle. As it turns out, the line was no longer set correctly and when my sister walked it (after I was done of course, because that’s the smart thing to do) it was one and a half strides. No wonder we had issues!
But we did have some good jumps too.
In addition to the one stride line I also had trouble with the largest jump out in the ring. It was a vertical with green poles and was probably only 2’9” on the generous side. It wasn’t the height that gave me the issue. It was the approach. The first time I came down to it I failed to take into account that there was a dip in the ground right in front of it. I confidently rode down, saw my distance and then that dip – my distance disappeared, and it was too late to correct. Luc and I literally crashed through it. Did I mention what a great horse I have for not dumping me in the dirt on that one?
I approached again and this time nailed it! I approached from the opposite direction and nailed it a second time. I finished off by jumping a vertical with a fake stone wall painted on a banner hanging over it. Luc didn’t even bat an eye. So proud of me and my boy!
Despite a few misses, and a lot of successes, there was one constant with my jumping today. Luc and I had a bad case of the squiggly, wigglys. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t keep him straight on our approach. We would drift left, then right – it was a hot mess. I tried cutting our approaches short. I tried making them really long. I tried more leg, less leg and everything in between. The wiggles continued. I can’t quite figure out if it was me, him or a combination of the both of us. All I know for sure is it’s something I am going to have to put some serious work into in the very near future.
