Much to talk about! In the past couple weeks I have jumped my first real jump, taken both horses to the beach for my birthday, and long-lined Andy myself.

Jumping is hard! The first lesson with an actual jump was just a cross rail, and I felt so floppity and all over the place. The second had an actual vertical and I felt just as goofy and off. Finally at this last lesson I felt how to do it right. It's funny, I've always pictured jumping as a very active thing for the rider- you have to rise up over the jump with the horse. But I've come to learn that you really just need to get out of the horse's way. Get in to 2-point, tighten your core, sink into your heels, and let the horse close your hip angles. I realized that I had been tightening my hands and letting my body flop around, so I focuses on engaging my core and relaxing my hands, and I had two jumps where everything clicked and I landed smoothly. My trainer told me that Callie and I are really trusting each other. She told me that her other student that rides her is a very strong and forceful with her, which is good for when Callie is lazy and behind your leg, but the way I ride Callie really seems to trust me and let my mistakes over jumps slide. Yay! For once my too kind style of riding is to my benefit.

Andy did not know what to think about the beach. He would NOT let the waves touch him (he would seriously deep hop away from them). He spooked at seashells and he didn't really like the sand. When I first tried to canter him on the packed sand he took about one stride then stopped dead on the forehand, like he couldn't figure out how to canter on the sand. Ow. Pommel, meet crotch. I had to take him to some softer sand to get him to actually go, but he did canter. There is nothing better than cantering your horse on the beach. Love Bug and mom just farted around by the shore. I expected Andy to play crazy race horse like he did on the trails, but he was Mr. Cool. And then when we were cantering I half-halted to bring him to the trot and he completely stopped, and flung his head down. I somersaulted over his ears and landed on my back, looking up at him, reins in hand. Owww, back injury fail! But I'm okay now- I think my back in finally back to normal.

Here's my view of the beach:


Here is mom and LB:
There are no pictures of me and Andy because my mom is too uncoordinated to take a picture and ride. Lucky me- my cell phone was in my back pocket when I fell. I thought I might have crushed it, but I just got in thoroughly sandy. I was a bit disappointed in Love Bug. She was a pain to load in the trailer. It took me about 10 minutes to load her this time, without Katie's help. Andy of course, was a dream. He tried to load himself, when my dad was holding him and I was locking the divider behind Love Bug. He did through his hay net through the window when he was out of hay though. Naught pony. I had to run out on the shoulder of 101 to fix that dumb hay net.

This Wednesday my trainer had me long-line Andy all by myself. It was easier than the time before, but still complicated! She said I'm ready to do it on my own this week, so I'll probably try it tomorrow. He was doing really well- dropping down onto the bit, then staying in a relaxed frame. After 30 minutes of long lining she had me hop on and working on softening him. He did NOT like that. In fact, he was pretty sneaky and would lower his head to trick me, then grab the reins away from me. Sara called him devious, and told me that he was knowingly trying to trick me. Finally she had me get off and did it herself. Once again, Megan is too nice to her horses, allowing them to misbehave. I really need to work on being nastier when it's warranted. Kandice always tells me to GET MAD at Callie. Mostly I just feel tired. But this week I have to work with Andy on softening, cause he just didn't get it. Which leaves me with this list of misperceptions that I've had about (my) riding:

• Strong contact with a horses mouth is bad. I think this comes from polo, where you neck rein with some pretty strong bits. Lara explained this to me well: the reins are like a telephone line to your horse, and when there are loops (looseness) in the line, the call isn't getting through.
• Strong aids are mean and wrong! Sometimes a big kick is needed. Sara booted Andy hard in the ribs, which made me realize that I've been, well, a pussy a lot of time. Of course, I'll kick LB that hard when she goes into her nutty back-up-in-circles fit. Sometimes you have to get mad and mean, especially when your horse is being purposely defiant.
  
• Jumping is a lot of work by the ride. Nope, the horse is the one jumping so mostly it's staying out of the horse's way.
  

My favorite quote this week: "If it's crap, don't make it faster crap!" This comes from Kandice, refering to how if I am falling apart at the trot, then I should fix it, and the cue for canter, not just try to sloppy canter from a crap trot.

Andy is not pleased

Poor sweet Andy. Today, during my lesson with my dressage trainer she wanted to work on long lining with Andy, which I have never done before. He was not at all pleased! I generally don't use a lot of lunging, ground driving, or long lining working with him, not that I have issues with it. Of course, I think some people over lunge, and I'd much rather have a horse I can hope on and ride and not have to lunge for 30 minutes before because they're so bat shit nutty. But I know that these things can have a purpose, and I could definitely see how long lining helped get Andy into frame. By the time he understood what was being asked his trot looked so good, and his canter looked great. To me, anyways. Of course, I know him so well that I could tell he didn't like it. He just had this ticked look on his face, and made very excuse to stop. And then he even bucked twice on the line! The second time he threw enough of a hissy fit to rip both lines out of my trainer's hands, and then run around like a darned fool because they were chasing him. But then he did the cutest thing ever. As he was galloping around the arena, all spooked, he ran in my direction. I got in his line of sight and said "Come here you big goofball." He stopped right in front of me, shaking with fear and gave me the most pitiful look. Aww, he loves me. So I fixed the lines, handed him back to Sara and he gave this look like "WTF? I thought I got out of this!" Silly pony.

I jumped my first cross rail on Tuesday! Great success for me and cranky-pants mare, Callie. I now feel ready to conquer the world, or maybe jump a few more cross rails, or hell, even a standard.

Back in the Saddle

I have officially ridden, post injury! Today was my first day back in the saddle. It was kind of against what my mom said I should do, and even my own good senses, but dammit, I had to. My back in generally felt really good throughout the lesson. It felt great to actually use my muscles again, like I was sweating out all the impurities and pain from the past 11 days.

I had a 30 minute lesson with the Sara, the dressage trainer that comes to my barn, and I really like her. She's much more intense that my jumping trainer (or really any other trainer I've worked with), in that she really pushes her students to ride well, and I love that. I need a trainer to push my hard. Of course, I felt all kinds of flobbity and out of sorts during the ride, seeing as how it's been 11 days since I rode last, and my back is still wonky. But she was able to see Andy in full force, see me react to him and ride him, and point me in the right direction for practice.

I told Sara in the beginning that Andy would be slow, relaxed, and difficult to get in front of my leg until I cantered. Then, after cantering his mind would switch gears, and he would start his hollowed out, head high in sky running trot, or his running walk that is one step away from a trot. She told me she saw him rushing forward, hollowing out, and evading the bit. She agreed with me that he has one frame of mind at any time: either slow and lazy, or FUCKING GO! And he'll switch between them instantaneously. My other trainer told me a great saying: When you are riding a Thoroughbred, sometimes you are riding a horse, and sometimes you are riding a Thoroughbred, and they are completely different.

She first of all made the point to me that I am allowing him to rush forward. The longer I allow him to rush the walk, break into trot, rush the trot, the worse it becomes and the harder it is to stop. I need to prevent this before he ever gets to act on it. The question becomes, how do I stop him? My method in the past has been pretty much sitting deep, and using the reins, sometimes alternating rein pressure, usually a quick check and release. I generally just timidly fight with him, as I don't want to be heavy-handed. Sara had me half-halting immediately when he began to speed up, and when he refused to listen, halting and backing him up. I totally see how the more I let it go, the more tense and hyped-up he gets, and the harder it is to bring it down.

I think what I got the most out of today was the lesson on how to ride a half-halt effectively. Half-halts always kind of confound me. I know that they are a combination of driving legs, sitting deep, and checking with the reins. They're a way to re-balance the horse and make him think. But how do you ride one effectively? I had one awesome one on Callie (Evil mareface who bucked me off) as I transitioned from a canter to a trot, and I could feel that it was awesome, but I couldn't quite put together in my mind what I did to make it work. With Andy, Sara could easily telling me what I wasn't doing right. As I checked him, I was falling forward, giving him a cue with my seat to go faster. So she had me really sit back and deepen my seat, as I added the restraining aid of my hand.

Another thing that I was doing wrong was fighting Andy by holding my half-halts waaaaay too long. I know that a half-halt is a very quick action, but when I try and get Andy to slow and relax I try gentle steady restraint. Not effective. He just fights it and gets frustrated. I need to think less about slowing him, and instead make him respond to half-halts. She had me give incredibly brief half-halts, then instant release, to allow him to respond. If he didn't, then it was on to another half-halt until he did. I had this one perfect one, when he cocked one ear back to pay attention to me, then instantly slowed and dropped his head. Ah, bliss! We then saw Andy switch from FUCKING GO to lazy instantaneously, as I half-halted to transition from the canter to the trot, and he dropped down to a plodding walk. Seriously, I have Jekyll and Hide Pony.

My perpetual riding pitfall is leaning forward. My tendency to lean forward comes from riding certain polo horses, where when going from basically a halt to a canter you need to lean forward. My jumping trainer, Kandice, has drilled into me that I need to sit back when asking for and riding the canter, and I've improved a lot. Sara had me lean back even further, and incorporated leaning back and lifting my collarbone into the trot as well, as well as sitting back in my half-halts. On the right lead I also curl my left shoulder in...I guess we all have weird little quirks in our riding.

So I am pretty stiff and sore tonight, although I was stiff and sore before I rode because of preschool and the chiropractor. I am dying to ride again soon though, and practice what I worked on. I guess I'm more excited to ride when I feel like my back problems aren't preventing from riding to my true potential.