Plugging Away

I feel like I'm forgetting important ride notes without writing as much, but honestly every ride has either been bare minimum work or it's just plugging away at the same old thing: changes, of course!

We've done two Friday jump schools with BM. The first one was waaay too cold, and it was precipitated by the puppy getting her first literal run-in with horse hooves which was very traumatic for the puppy, me, and BM. Fortunately she was totally fine, but between that and the cold, none of us had any real energy left and after jumping a few 2'3" jumps a couple times apiece we called it quits.

This past Friday's jump school I came in with a lot more motivation, put things up to 2'6-2'9, and then promptly failed to see a distance to a single fucking fence. Poor Opie only ran-out once when he should have just stopped jumping all together because I was nothing more than a flopping idiot up there. Probably if I jumped a little more, things might have been smoother, but....

CHANGES. THEY ARE ALL CONSUMING.

my brain on jumping.
opie's brain on changes.

We worked on them last Monday in the jump saddle again, and that thing has definitely taught me to sit straighter and plug my butt into the seat--and keep it there. I switched to my dressage saddle for the first time Saturday and those things both came much more naturally. 

Improvement is definitely gaining in momentum. Almost no bolting and a lot less tension. Neither of those things are completely eradicated as yesterday's ride had several e-brakes pulled as he tried to yank me right out of the saddle, but in general they're just much less of A Thing. He seems to do better when I pick a specific point and ask Bigly for the change there instead of "between the centerline and the rail" like 3-1 calls for. Whatever, it's all about both of clicking on the ask at this point. He knows what I want, I know what I want, we're so close to meeting in the middle come onnnnnn.

only his third new blanket of the season thanks
to his childish bay friend behind him. 

We also finally got a ton of consistent snow this month which has made for some good snow walks. We did two last week--one with Hubby aboard while I rode Mo, and then the next day we went out with two other boarders. Walking through that deep, heavy stuff is exhausting and Opie needed a couple breaks after breaking trail the second day. 

the black bear needed a couple breaks, too.

unlike 18yo mo who could go forever

So, same old same old. May 1st is the first show of the season providing COVID doesn't shut things down again which means by April I need to know what tests to enter. 

THE PRESSURE IS OFFICIALLY ON.