Poor Woman Showing: Sunday's Ride

Monday, April 29, 2013

Sunday's Ride

Ratio of time spent on housework this weekend to time spent watching Rolex: 0:100. And then Hubby had the nerve to call me outside when the last five riders were stadium jumping to hold the ladder for him so he could get off the roof. Really, Hubby? You sit up there and be quiet until this show is over. Ain't nobody got time for that!

I did go out and see my horse Sunday morning, dragging a half-awake Hubby with me. (I swear he's not abused as he seems, although I did make him go up to the xcountry field with me last weekend when he had a migraine. Poor Hubby. He's well fed if nothing else.)

Bobby and I were alone in the ring when we started off and he was appropriately lazy. Not a plodding sort of lazy, but a "Do work. The end." sort of lazy. Did some w/t/c warm up and then did a few changes across the arena for which he was really lazy.

When we were done warming up BO, BM, and three other people came up to use the round pen to do some ground work with the most gorgeous QH mare ever who was there to work on trailer loading. Bobby was in awe. He could not tear his big, dumb head away from her. We went from boring canter work to fire breathing canter work.

"i am a STALLION, mami! you know you want this!"

going by the round pen. clearly.

I would just like to point out that he was gelded at 2yo. I was there to watch his manliness get tossed onto the roof. But sometimes Bobby Magee channels a little Mighty Magee and his papa was one crazy fuck. After he got some silliness out at the canter and no one gave him so much of a glance, he settled down into work.

For jumping I had set up a 2'9" vertical, 2'6" vertical two strides to a 2'3" that later went up to 2'9" oxer, the gate at 2'9", and the coop which is 2'7". We did the stand alone vertical a few times without incident.

his head is ALWAYS crooked right, even when on a loose rein galloping.
compensating for his neck, maybe?

Then we did the coop and I almost fell off. I was like, "Turn left! Land on your left lead! Here, I'll turn my whole fucking body to the left to show you instead of just my shoulders!" and Bobby was like, "Roger. Turning right." and we almost parted ways mid-air.

directional disagreement.

We got it sorted out after that. And by "we" I mean I pulled my head out of my ass and just rode straight. Works every time. We went through the line next without any problems.

The oxer got bumped up and I celebrated by leaving Bobby hanging and he celebrated by getting a little crooked after the vertical. That was easily resolved again through keeping us straight by keeping my right leg a little stronger against his side.

opening left rein: "stay in the middle, stay in the middle, stay in the middle."

We had a little walk break so I could look at the pictures and do a position review. Urgh. I know my heel creeps up; I mentioned that in a previous post. By my leg is still sneaking back more than I think it is. It's not as bad as it can be for sure, but I want it to stay glued to the girth. It's still too swingy! More squats, more no stirrup work, and more practice will fix it, but I want it fixed now. I have no patience for you, loose leg! I don't even know what the fuck to do about my heels. They collapse to the ground at all other times, but get them over a fence and they're all, "See ya!" Then I saw pictures of Andrew Nicholson stadium jumping and I was like, "Well, fuck. I'm not that bad!" And then I thought to myself, "Self, if you ever get to a 4*, I won't say a thing about where your leg is. But until then, get your shit together."

Moving on.

We finished with the gate which rides at a weird angle off the rail and it takes Robert by surprise. Anything that takes Robert by surprise is clearly very offensive:

I should have asked Hubby to take more videos, but can you guys see how he's not bombing the jump anymore?? There's actually some semblance of rhythm instead of "JUMP!! RUSH THE JUMP!! CHARGE THE JUMP!! HOW FAST CAN WE GET OVER THE JUMP?!"

dangling knees need some grid work soon.

Heels up and leg slipping back, but it's all calm in Bobby Land. Small win.

As we were finishing up jumping, BM's pony came up for a quick lesson and Bobby briefly tried to impress her before deciding she wasn't really his taste.

How we started our ride: