Finally a lesson!

Guess what we did yesterday?? A jumping lesson! It was completely last minute and totally unexpected, but I'm glad we were able to do it.

An eventing stable about an hour away was having Karen O'Neal out for lessons. I was really bummed about not making it to the clinic and derby last weekend so here was my redemption! It was the last lesson before they put away/covered the cross country jumps so it really was a last chance kind of deal. I didn't even really know I was going to go until noon and my lesson was at 5pm. But I'm a last minute kind of person really, so it wasn't anything new.

Of course I just like to make everything crazy so an hour before I needed to leave I went out to the barn and unloaded the trailer of everything I didn't need and loaded it with what I did need. Then 30 minutes prior to leaving... I realized I didn't have my cross country vest. They usually require it when you jump cross country. I thought it was in the trailer or my tack box, but it of course wasn't in either. So I zoomed back to my apartment aaaand it wasn't there either. So it must be back at my parent's house. But that would mean a 45 minute detour and I needed to leave in 30 minutes. So no eventing vest and since I had went to look for it, I now had no time to groom or lunge Jetta. Sigh. But such is my life.

Jetta loaded up and we headed off for our lesson. Mapquest promised that it only took an hour and five minutes (lies!), but we pulled into the barn an hour and 20 minutes later, so everyone else in the lesson was already tacked up and on their horses in the field. Great first impression I'm sure. But except for my vest, I had at least remembered all of my other tack.

As soon as Jetta stepped off the trailer I could tell she was hyper. My nervous energy transfered to her having obnoxious energy so I knew I was in for a fun ride! She was pretty much a brat the whole time, but I was still glad I had a lesson.

We warmed up in a section of the pasture with stadium jumps. Jetta was very forward and wanting to rush so we did some circling and leg yeilds, which helped, but still not enough. We started with an itty-bitty little cross rail set up over a picket fence panel. And what does Jetta do? She stops and refuses the jump. Well, first time it's ok - the jumps are way different from anything we have at the barn. She sniffs the jump and then touches the corn stalks to the side of the jump and leaps away when they move. Silly horse. With that out of the way, we trot towards the jump and she stops again. Naughty pony. Eventually she was going over it nicely and we change direction and then add in a three jump bounce. And Jetta refuses again, trying to run out to the right. One I finally get her over the first fence, she refuses the second jump. What a bad horse! She hasn't refused a jump in weeks! And these are miniscule - maybe 18" to 2' tall. After a bit of a discussion, we jump through all three jumps. Mainly it's an experience thing - we haven't done a whole lot of jumping, but then the other half is me - one stride out from the jump I basically stop riding, I really need to follow through and keep leg on, but still stay off her back and not trying to jump ahead. With Jazz I could trust her to take care of me even if I stopped riding, but not so with Jetta!

We put together a course of the first X plus the bounces and then three more jumps. Jetta refused the jump with the box, but leaped it from a halt so we came back and took it again, then we made it over the mini-oxer and a striped panel with no refusals! There's my girl!

Other things I need to remember:

• Cross country = defensive position, Karen is very specific with this
• I need to sit back, turn from the waist, no leaning! And toes out to the side a bit more - I took this as a compliment since I've been working so hard at correcting my feet for dressage!
• Since Jetta refused so much = leg on!
• When Jetta leans on my hands, bump her in the mouth and with legs too, then release so we don't get in the vicious cycle of she leans, so I pull which makes her lean more, which makes me pull more and so on.

Karen made the observation that with show jumping, we need to work on bravery and with cross country we need to work on control. Very true. Cross country was not very good, but I don't think Karen noticed me careening around out of control for the most part, which was good! Lol. And another success was that we jumped a bank!

Last time she wouldn't do it, so we had to follow Jazzy up the bank and still barely made it. But we did it from a trot this time, so I was happy with that. Overall, a good lesson. I'm so incredible sore today! Jetta got the day off and got a bath and I cleaned tack.

Here's the naughty pony after our ride last night: