When he's good, he's so good

And when he's that good he makes dealing with his very Not Good moments much easier.

"me? i'm never not good."

Yesterday BM and I met up for some more jumping. I'd originally planned on doing a dressage school, but who am I to say no to that invite? She wanted to do a little grid work so I set up a bounce to a 18' one stride. We also put up a super wide oxer on the diagonal.

I didn't have my spurs on but I was carrying a whip. Dopie was pretty blah warming up. He went when I asked, but he wasn't as sharp as he can be. I made him do a couple of laps of hand gallop to try to light him up, but he pretty much was doing just enough to get the job done. Whatevs, good enough.

We started with the grid. The bounce was set at 2' and I'd dropped the oxer down on one side to start. We trotted in the first time which wasn't the brightest idea since he was already on the lazy side and I had to chase him into the canter the moment he landed into the bounce. He made it out fine and cracked his back even over the half jump. We cantered in the second time, easy peasy, and waited for BM to go through a couple times before I put the out jump up to a 2'6 oxer.

We ended up only going through it once because it was picture perfect. Picked up the canter on a soft rein, gave a half halt to get him up and lifting, nailed the bounces, stepped through the one stride distance no problem, and launched over the oxer like it was 3'6 for fun. Ugh, when he uses himself it is the best feeling.

We did the wide oxer twice: The first time I smacked him on the shoulder to ask him to take the long spot instead of trying for an extra stride and stuffing us under the jump. He did that, got a big pat, and then came around a little more collected and nailed it. We finished on that and put the jumps up a couple holes for BM to finish on.

such a tank

Today we got our dressage school in. Warming up w/t was a dream. He wanted to get a little crooked tracking right, but he was so steady and easy in the bridle and going forward. After Bobby and Red, easy is basically my dream ride. Does it have a brain? Does it make my job a breeze? Hello, hi, I love you so much.

The canter, though, was not as good.

A large part of it was my riding. Once I started out-loud telling myself to SIT IN THE SADDLE (Why do I find this concept so very, very hard??), the simple changes started coming much easier. The horse is so in-tune to my seat. Use my seat and he listens. Herp Derp.

But he also got a couple of reminders that we do not ever step into the canter with our head in the air, and if you try to lock your underneck and brace against my hand to go Llama, you're going to get sat on your ass.

When we finally met in the middle, we did a couple of the stupid counter canter serpentines with the simple change of lead on the center line from 2-2. We finished on a big circle working on collecting the canter way up and then sending it way out. To the right it took more work. Again, mostly because I kept leaning forward and taking my seat out of the saddle. To the left I got my shit together and it was a piece of cake.