Improvements

On Tuesday we had a lesson with KO on cross country and a ride-a-test for dressage. It was fun and Jetta was actually really great. I hadn't ridden Jetta in over a week... and didn't realize that until the night before the clinic. Oops. But even with it being her first time back under saddle after a while she was really good. I was anticipating things to go a little more... difficult... but she was great. We ended up with a 37 on dressage, when we re-rode it we got the same score, lol. But that was only because I had an error and circled in the wrong spot (that's what I get for memorizing it two minutes prior to our ride), and our free walk (with the x2 coefficient) wasn't quite as spectacular as the previous one. I was pleased with it though, after all if this is what I get for not riding her in a long time, I'll take it!

I can only imagine how well she'll do if I get her more collected on her hindquarters and steadier in the bridle! The judge told me that I need to have a less forgiving hand (which is a first!) because when she would have a moment of goodness, I would give her a release which then made me have to set her up again, instead I need to move on to the next movement with out having to re-set her up. That plus a little more inside bend and getting her more on the outside rein and she improved a bit.

Cross country was a lot of fun, except for the fact that I felt like I was going to die! KO had us start out practicing galloping, then collecting, then galloping, then halting. Jetta was very excited at first, but soon settled into the swing of things once she figured out that we kept having to do it again and again, lol. We hopped over three fences in a row, Jetta was a little bit leery about the third one but she did it. We did that a couple times, then added three more fences. She was super good.

We practiced some banks and ditches which were no big deal to Jetta (amazing how quickly that turned around!). She thinks that they're fun now. Then KO put together a 16 fence course. I was ready to get off even before I heard that! But we made it. I had to circle in the middle when I forgot my course but figured it out and got back on track. We only had three refusals, which while still means elimination in competition, it's better than 5, our last total refusals on xc. The jumps we had trouble with was a large red barn, a "tiger tooth" jump and a skinny made out of wine barrels. We'll definitely plan on returning to work on those jumps!

Ugh, don't look at my awful lower leg. I got majorly left behind on this one because I thought she wasn't going to jump it. The theme for this lesson was for me to have more confidence in my horse!

Banks = no big deal :)

Gallopin. I have no idea what my face is doing, maybe I just inhaled a bug, lol.