Dots Defying Gravity

 

Last night I went for a ride in this wonderful 5*c weather, it might as well be summer! Whoo.
It is so gratifying to be able to change for the barn in five minutes and to be able to skip the abomidable snow-woman worthy layers of fleece. I swear I always have to pee right after I zip that final layer. Frig.

Anywho, DH joined me at the barn which is a first in months. He is a warm weather child. It must come from his portuguese blood, however diluted it is at this point.
Not being alone at the barn left no excuse not to have an over fences day so I opted to set a 3' oxer on the centre line and a 3' rollback on an angle.
Rollbacks are not an issue for Pal but they are great to increase her sit and push which she often lacks. She much prefers the hover craft method.
Oxers, well, I have to say we have not done as many as we should so I was bound to fix this in preparation for our clinic in May. In all honesty, I can make excuses all day as to why I haven't worked on many but it all falls back on my laziness. Having to set up and tear down all fences and poles every ride is a pain, so I tend to get frugal with pole and standard dragging.

Our warm up went well, Pal was pretty sticky of the leg so we skipped lateral work for the most part and went straight to transitions within the gait and leg yeilding into corners.

After a good warm up and some good canter work, we started warming up over the 3' vertical set for a roll back, but taking it across a diagonal.  That went really well, despite me looking too far into the corners and causing her to drift inwards. Dang habits, but my fault entirely.

I gave Pal a break after a couple fences and did some long and low since she felt a bit stiff through her back.
Once she was loose and had a good breather we established a good canter and off we went to the oxer.

The first two times, I let her be and figure it out, as per my usual. The spots were not ideal but they were not ugly either.
The third well... again, as per my usual routine, when we have gone through the same fence a couple times, I start micromanaging. *sigh*.
Adding to my OCD, being in a small indoor where striding is 2-3 strides at most through the corner and from corner to centre line this doesn't give much time to feel things out. So I immediately half-halt if I don't see the distance and Pal isn't locking on.
Pal not locking on to the fence is a pretty common thing inside or in a tight striding. I think it is confidence for her.

All in all, my third fence was a disaster. Come see me ride good hubby! Ugh.
We came through the corner, Pal didn't want to bend, she saw the fence, something felt off, I half halted one too many times, asked her to leave deep, she hesitated but lifted her front end, then re-thinking it and putting her front end down in the middle of the oxer, hind legs never leaving the ground. Annnd... we murdered the already injured jump cup.
The entire fence fell, I landed on pony's neck, ground beckoning my name, I looked down and saw a maze of yellow poles, right then and there I decided, no-no, I stay.

Luckily, Pal backed out of the mess calmly, and her momentum tossed me back in the saddle, thank god! I swear I could hear her yelling profanity's at me for making her re-think her 'process'.

I left the mess of poles and picked up a canter again and went over the vertical to check listening skills then gave Pal a pat and a break while I re-set the mess.

Remounted we checked our forwards and back listening and gathered ourselves for the oxer.
I gave a bit more leg to say, we go! and rode a bit more defensively, less hunter-poke. *I know, I know, I am working on it Mitchell*.
Pal clearly did not want a do-over of our last attempt and jumped extremely back cracking, so much so that she nearly jumped me out of the tack. What! Where is my hover-couch? Thunder? Is that you?

Big pats for confidence, we went again to confirm, no problems but HUUGGEE jump.
Immediately I am reminded of the few times we have jumped 3'6 oxers at the end of a gym line. Each time then Pal gave a way larger than normal push with her hind end and snapped up her knees and barrel, (or so it felt). Once more it felt as though there was no barrel around my calf.

If this feeling continues over larger oxers I am going to have to figure out what is going on and learn to ride again. Oy.