Successful

Yesterday was successful for several reasons: 1) I didn't fall off! 2) Jetta tried really hard and we actually improved in several areas and 3) We actually managed to garner some compliments! So successful all around. Sadly, I did not get anyone to be my paparazzi so no pictures :(

Now successful doesn't mean that everything went well, but I was happy with what we did do. Here's a recap of the day:

Our show jumping lesson was at 11:15 am so we arrived and watched a bit of the lesson before us. Jetta was pretty wired at first, really being heavy in my hands - pretty sure she was solely feeding off my nervousness though. I had entered Novice and got grouped with two Training level riders. Ah! I'm not ready to jump that high! Was what I was thinking. I was super nervous that we'd be pushed too far out of our comfort zone and have another accident like last weekend.

Luckily though, even though the trainer, KH, did push us farther than I would have thought possible for our level, Jetta stepped up to the challenge nicely! While Novice is 2'11" max height, I haven't really jumped that high... mostly at all. We've been doing a lot of 2'9" jumps. Anyways, ended up doing a huge long 3' course. Way to go pony! I was so proud of her, these were some pretty big verticals and oxers, all around 2'11" to 3'0" tall. Of course it wasn't perfect, there was a triple combination that was quite hairy. I told KH that we had trouble with combinations so this was great practice. Jetta repeatedly ran out or refused at fence 2, a little (large) picket fence. But by landing super straight and "staying close to the horse" I was able to get Jetta through the line, a little rough, but we ended up doing it twice. Success! At one point when I was going through the combination KH yelled Sit up! SIT UP! And I did! It's nice to have someone to yell at you :)

And to top it off, we rode our first fence at an angle! She did so good, not even trying to refuse, although you could tell she was a little confused - do I jump it or not? And then riding a bending line to another fence on a diagonal. Such a pro. And we jumped a swedish oxer (love!) and although she took a good hard look at it, she went over. I was so happy with her by the end. It was rough and unpolished, but she tried really hard.

Homework: Sit up! Use the outside rein to turn the shoulder. Land straighter.

Ready to do some xc!

Then we had three hours until cross country. So I took a nap :) Jetta is very well behaved with being tied to the trailer as long as she had hay. What I love about her is that every time I offered her water throughout the day, she'd drink it. Jazz would never drink at a show unless she spent the night, so it makes me feel better when they actually drink!

Cross country came, this time with another trainer, DR. She was the more experienced trainer and obviously very knowledgeable, so I learned a lot. Another proud moment - Jetta jumped down a bank! And we cantered into and through the water! And we jumped down into the water! The only thing that we didn't get to do that I wanted was working on ditches, so that will have to be next time. Otherwise, this first part was awesome! It took quite a bit of convincing to get her to go down the banks, she did not want to. But another rider with an awesome flea-bitten gray pony let us tail her super close so Jetta just followed her off the edge. Once she did it once, she was like Oh! This is actually kind of fun! I can do this!! She was super proud of herself afterwards.

The jumps however, were still not very good. She's still afraid of them :( I wish we had never gone schooling last weekend, because up until that one jump that I fell at, she was doing amazingly. So we schooled the same set of jumps over and over and over again until the roll top wasn't quite as scary.

Homework: Again, sit up! Work on riding softly and forward to the jumps. Collect six strides out, then ride forward the last three strides with giving hands.

Overall, I was very pleased with Jetta. She worked hard and I'm so excited about doing the banks and also about how awesome our show jumping was. Can't wait to enter a jumper show :)

Free Jumping Beast

Jetta was so good for our ride last night! I started out by free lunging her. First she jumped 3'3" a couple times, then I added some jump blocks until it was about 3'9". She was so good! It was pretty cute - after jumping it she'd trot around a bit with her tail in the air and snorting and prancing like she was all that and she knew it. Then she'd trot over to me and stop, heaving a big sigh - "Did I do good mom??" Adorable.

After that we just had a quick ride. I did lots of two point (getting better!) and I set the jumps down small, roughly 2'3" or somewhere around there and jumped them only a couple times in each direction. Jetta was very good, and although she was a bit too excited to jump, she still listened well and payed attention to all my half halts. I mostly got to work on my position, because at that height Jetta doesn't need hardly any direction from me. Of course once I finally got the "sit up!" part through my head, my heels would then come up. Annoying. I think I finally nailed it on our last jump - sitting up, shoulders back, nice release, leg on, heels down. Too much at once!

I'm excited to have someone to yell at me about what I need to fix over fences this weekend and am trying to find someone to video/photograph... My mom won't come because she doesn't like watching me jump and ML doesn't really want to do it, so we'll see. It's great when you have someone to tell you what you need to work on, but it helps it sink in even more when you can see what you're doing wrong yourself on film.

 I got some of our free-jumps on my cell phone, beware that it's really, really dark but it's proof!

Lawn Darts

What's one way to cheer yourself up after your horse decides to turn xc schooling into a game of lawn darts? Watch other people who have also proved their lawn dart-worthiness :)

Thanks to Horse Nation I can do just that with their Oh $h!t: Your most humiliating moments, captured on film weekly post.

I imagine I looked just like this, insert a jump behind the horse's front legs and voila! That's me.

Or maybe I looked more like this... I guess I'm just glad I didn't fall off in the water!

And the grand finale....




Haha, there's just something great about watching other people eat dirt after you just had the same experience...

I finally rode Jetta today. She was pretty good, though I think still a little bit sore from our cross country experience over the weekend. We just rode in dressage tack and she was just a little bit stiff, especially in her back, she wasn't as willing to swing and engage over her back thus our trot was a little bit quick and choppy, so we worked on our transitions, did lots of long and low work and some 3-loop serpentines across the arena to help stretch and get a little more supple.

We got our schedule for the eventing clinic this Saturday. I entered as a Novice pair, but I'm slightly worried about that. I guess it's just a lesson, but my lesson group is made up of half Novice riders and half Training level riders. I really hope that they don't want us to attempt some of the training stuff - show jumping yes, but not cross country!

I was thinking about some of the training jumps that were on the cross country course that we did over the weekend, and of course the ones that scare me most - the trakehner and the corner. For some reason, I just really, really don't like corners. They just seem like way too easy to have a run out on and whenever I watch upper level eventing, it always seems like I see a fall at a corner. The trakhener - I'm not really afraid of them like a lot of people I know, I just don't think Jetta's ready to attempt one, especially since my fall. I'd be happy for the trainers to get on and jump her over a trakhener, but I certainly don't plan on doing one anytime soon! I remember looking at the trakehner when we were jumping and thinking - "Oh, that's not very big, I bet we could do that" but once we got closer my thinking was more "Holy cow that thing's scary! Nope, not for us today!".

Hopefully we're not asked to do anything that far out of our comfort zone this weekend and I get some good pointers!

Tomorrow I'm planning on riding and again on Friday. I plan on doing some small jumps tomorrow and then an easy ride on Friday - probably some dressage or maybe a trail ride. Hopefully I get to give her a quick bath as well so my mud-loving pony doesn't look quite so gross - the rain has unfortunately made a reappearance much to Jetta's joy and my chagrin. I just want it to be summer. At least this weekend is 3 days long!

I think Jetta should be a bridle model :) Such a pretty face!

Spa Day

No ride today, though luckily it's not because I'm still sore, lol. I feel almost completely back to normal after the crazy weekend.

Instead, I just lunged Jetta, cleaned some tack and she got her toes trimmed and mane pulled. Horses must think we are the weirdest creatures ever to call something like that a "spa" day when "torture" might be a better description. Poor Jetta's mane just did not want me to pull it today, even trying to get the smallest clumps of hair out was difficult and Jetta was not pleased with me. It looks much better now, although it keeps trying to switch sides and since I won't let it, it has contented itself with sticking straight up.

Jetta's punk mane. I think she likes it, her baby name was Punky after all ;)

Jetta got two small scrapes on the back of both of her knees from climbing off the jump on Saturday. The scrape on her right leg is a little swollen and tender so I put some more wound salve on it. She didn't seem off at all on the lunge line, but my trimmer AC thought she was off at the walk. At first she thought she was still off from the abscess since she wasn't weighting her heel as much on that RF, but when I showed her the scrape she thought that it explained it. Silly horse, that's what you get for pulling stupid stunts like that!

It has started raining again :( I thought for sure that summer had arrived a bit early, but it's chilly, windy and very, very damp out. I don't think Jetta minds at least - she was just happy hanging out with her giant manger full of hay!

What do you want?

Noms - Jetta at her happiest

Horse Show Hangover

I think most horse people that show know the feeling. I feel like I've been run over by a truck this past weekend.

Saturday was a tough day. Though at the time when I fell off, it didn't hurt, now every part of my body aches. Thinking back though - I haven't fallen off a horse for over a year and a half since Jetta slipped and fell on top of me in my worst horse-related injury ever when she was just started under saddle. I guess I was kind of "due" for a fall, though I hope it doesn't happen again for at least another year and a half or more!

Sunday actually went really, really well. I was the show manager for a dressage league show that our university dressage team was putting on. It was causing me so much stress over the past month so I'm just ecstatic that it's over and done with! I had the most awful nightmare the night before that the judge didn't show up... But everything ran very well. We had quite a few scratches the day of due to bad horsey behavior, lamenesses and rider illnesses, but still had a great turnout. The weather wasn't as nice as it was supposed to be, it drizzled a bit in the morning, but we're used to wet weather around here and it soon went away, though still didn't get very warm.

We ran on schedule all day and actually finished a bit ahead of time. All of the riders were super nice, no one fell off or got hurt (though there were some close calls!) and we packed up in record time! We only had one little blip when I left to get lunch and another member was helping score tests and she accidentally calculated the scoring wrong, but we got it fixed and I don't think it harmed anything.

One of the things I love about running the show (once the show day actually arrives, mind you) is getting to socialize with all these horse people, hang out with my teammates and getting to see all the different horses and riding styles. My favorite for the day was actually a Perchron/Paint/Warmblood cross - seriously looked like a Sempatico baby. She was a young bay pinto and she just had the calmest demeanor and lovely movement. I offered the owner to let her horse go home with me, but she declined :) Her horse ended up getting high overall percentage with a 74%!

Overall, this weekend was... interesting, but mostly in a good way. Now I'm just ready to get some sleep, rehydrate and stop stressing so much!

Completely Drained, Slightly Discouraged, but still Very Determined

We went cross country schooling today. I think the title sums it up very well...


I'm exhausted. Like so exhausted I had trouble driving over 40 mph on the way home and am having difficulties typing this, lol.

Our ride was good and bad. In true Jetta fashion she was a jerk for the majority of the time, but I shouldn't be surprised. So I'll start from the beginning.

At noon we tacked up and headed over to the cross country course. It's not too far away and since I don't have a truck or trailer this weekend, I just walked there on Jetta. Let's discuss the most terrifying things ever: 1) Three horses (full-sized mind you) turned out in a big pasture. SO TERRIFYING! 2) Barking dogs that are in an enclosed yard. Ok, I'll admit it was slightly scary since they were snarling and being very aggressive, but come on, they're separated by a fence! 3) Mini ponies. We all know these things are very scary little mutants that suck big horses' blood right? So it was an interesting ride over, though not too bad. The trucks weren't troubling at all (go figure) even when a big old diesel flew past us, not even bothering to slow down a bit.

Once there we had to just hang out and wait for the rest of the gang to show up since they were trailering in. Lots of lessons were going on so I stayed out of the arenas and just tried to hang out on the grass. Ha. Jetta and the phrase "stand still" do not go together. So we waited, and we waited, and we waited. Finally, 40 minutes later the group was ready to go. I don't understand how horse people take so long to get ready?! Geez. Jetta was thoroughly upset at this point so we did some trotting, cantering and galloping around the field - she was a pro! She came back to me very nicely when I asked and was very adjustable. Once she was finally a bit tired out, we headed onto the course. It hasn't completely been mowed yet so we just wandered around a little until we came to the giant field full of jumps. Let the fun begin!

First off we popped over the BN and N quarter rounds at the top of the hill. Perfect. We trotted down the hill and with some convincing popped over the ditch both ways, then cantered up the hill and took the BN quarter round at the canter. Trotted back down the hill and went over the little BN barn coop and a roll top that was either a small N jump or large BN. From there we joined everyone in the water. It took a little convincing, but Jetta eventually got in the water "Oh. This isn't that bad." We walked in and out a few times, trotted around in the water and got up enough momentum to jump the tiny ledge out of the water. We went over the BN and N raised log fences, jumped up the banks, cantered across the field, popped over a few more BN logs. She was being soooo good.

Then I set my sights on a N coop, that instead of being the inviting round shape Jetta's used to, it had squared corners. We had a nice trot full of impulsion up to the base of the jump and Jetta started to jump it... then stopped. Yep, my horse decided to halfway jump the jump and then stop. Her front feet were on the other side and she put the brakes on. I of course went flying over her shoulder (what? We were supposed to be jumping!) and summer-saulted onto the ground. Luckily I had my helmet on and vest - my chest landed on the jump, head in the grass. I got a wonderful mouthful of vegetation. I quickly rolled to the side since I was convinced Jetta was going to finish the jump and land on top of me. Jetta backed off the jump, wandered off a few strides, stepped on her reins and waited for me to come help her.

Stupid, stupid horse. That is literally the stupidest thing a horse has ever done with me - who decides to jump and then stops halfway? Of course it wasn't completely her fault. There's usually always something the rider does "wrong" that helps along the situation - I wasn't exactly jumping ahead since we were in fact mid-jump, but I could have had a stronger leg on her and I'm sure my eyes weren't up. I got immediately back on and tried to go over it, but Jetta was convinced that to jump that fence would mean death, so after another "half jump" I gave up. I probably could have gotten her to go over it, but my confidence was a little shaken so I thought we'd quit while we were ahead (aka still alive).

After that, Jetta was convinced that all jumps were death. So when she refused a small log multiple times, I made her jump it from a standstill since it was all of maybe 12" tall. Really Jetta? After that she got a little more confident but we stuck to the BN stuff. I think part of the reason she didn't want to go over that one jump was because she couldn't see very well over it.

The walk home.

We finished on a good note - put in one more gallop, worked on trotting into the water and jumped some more small stuff then made our way back to the trailers before I keeled over from dehydration.

It was an interesting day - good because we did work on some important stuff (water, jumping up banks, galloping, etc) and it showed us some important places we needed to work on stuff. Like jumping down banks and that one terrifying coup. It made me realize that while Jetta has no problem with the Novice jumps and they aren't really that big, we need to stick with Beginner Novice until we have the confidence we need. After all, this is going to be her first horse trials and today was only our 3rd time schooling cross country. We are going to school cross country at least two times before the big horse trials and then school at least once at another course, so I think we will probably have time to work on everything we want. Next time, I'm planning on bringing a halter, lunge line and carrot stick and Jetta is going to jump that jump! Without me on her though :)

So I am completely drained after today, cross country really takes it out of you! I'm slightly discouraged - I've never fallen over a jump before today and I'm disappointed that I couldn't get Jetta to go over a measly N coop. But I'm determined that our first HT is going to be a positive experience. I don't care if we come in dead last, as long as we have fun and Jetta tries hard, I'll be good.