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 :)