Wow, as of yesterday, it has officially been two whole years since DH and I were hitched on the sandy shores of Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica.
I swear it feels like it was only a couple months ago.
I still remember having a *** fit about the humidity affecting my hair. I had had it all planned for months! I grew my hair to an uncontrollable length through show season, got it all streaked and ready for beach waves, all to have it come crashing down when the weather decided to be 35 degrees with 90% humidity.
I have to commend Josh on going through with it after seeing that dramatic flare-up. Ha.
I took the day off work and had a lovely morning ride while the snow fluffed to the ground in heaps and later we took the long drive to the now tradition, Keg restaurant. We had the most succulent filet's, oh man. Seriously, how do they out-do themselves every time! Oh! And we tried bacon wrapped scallops. (Yum- and I don't do seafood until recently).
Ugh. Why did I have to write this right before lunch. I am starving now...
A bit more on my ride....
I decided since I actually had the sun on my side for once, that I would take a little extra time at the barn and come up with a good gymnastic. I wanted one where I could work on my riding and Pal could also work on figuring things out for herself.
I came up with this.... (it is a little hard to see).
It was a pole in the arena center along the wall, four regular or a shortened five stride curved line from pole to each jump. Left side being a small 2'6 vertical and right being a 2'6 wide, square oxer.
Object of the day was to warm-up the exercise trotting large over the pole and over the vertical. Getting in some trot fence work. Reverse. Tracking right, trot over vertical, pole on long side and canter large, over the vertical again, pole, back to trot.
Then same thing but canter large tracking right, canter pole, curve to oxer.
When cantering from pole to jump - I decided to keep a soft three point position and aim for the five strides. A- because we are inside and B- because the line was steeper curve.
Afterwards, I pushed for the four, it wasn't the tidiest jump over the oxer, though vertical seemed just fine since it didn't require much effort.
Finally, I combined the whole exercise. Starting with the oxer, tracking left. It seemed to give her a bit more room and time to stretch over the jump. (We are still working on the compacting/power of her jump, we still rely a bit too much on the canter to keep things together, but it is coming!).
Then over the canter pole and curving over the vertical. I didn't worry about striding this time through. My goal at that point was to shorten my release a bit, sit up a little sooner after fences, remember to keep riding and allow Pal to figure herself out.
We did go through tracking right, but it was a bit tougher. Pal likes to flatten out in the canter, I had to sit up and give a little half-halt a stride out from the oxer to remind Pal to sit up and not get too deep. This worked like a charm.
Looking at the photo now, I wonder if she saw a vertical from far out and was realizing too late that it was an oxer. Maybe we need to use Swedish oxer next time.
Overall, it was a pretty good but tough exercise which I think I will use again. I want to tweak it a bit somehow... the curve was pretty tight but I am limited with space. Maybe a slightly less curved three strides?
This exercise really pointed out how I float the reins on landing and how slow I am to sit back down/up. Bad hunter habits... tisk tisk. But hey, I didn't have time to micro manage!
Tonight, I plan to set poles in places of the jumps and work on striding and bending around my leg and through our corner without me dropping mine and Pal's inside shoulder. Amazing how easily little things are forgotten and how much of a difference they make.
P.S. Please visit fellow blogger's silent auction page to help fundraise for the Weenie Eventers! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1503496206603295/
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