Rider, correct thyself!

Yesterday Shannon and I went down to Caber for another lesson with John. Starting at the end, we both jumped this whopper fence - an oxer that I think was at least training level height! Shannon did it on Holly, which was amazing to see a good rider teaching a young horse, and I did it on Charlie, who thought it wasn't a big thing, but it looked enormous to me! The lesson from the flat was to turn from the outside, when Charlie cocks his head instead of bending, lift that hand up (and then drop it when he corrects), and to sit up long and tall. The main two lessons over the fence were to keep my eyes up (look at the last rail of the last fence in the grid until we get there - don't gaze off unfocused into space), and to correct myself and not wait for John to tell me (or Shannon) - I kept drifting left along the grid from the start to the end, and I didn't fix anything until John told me to switch my whip and then use that left leg. After the fence, the lessons were to sit up around the corners, and to keep those damn heels down! After our warm up on the flat (some lengthening and collection with proper bend), we did a small cross rail which very quickly turned into a vertical (changing direction after it like a figure 8), and then the vertical to a much bigger rail with a vertical and the same figure 8. John said that we tend to relax after about 5-10 fences, and that at a show, that'll come up a lot sooner, so to keep riding every fence. Then we did a grid with three fences, and John turned the final vertical into an oxer, and then gradually raised it. It was an excellent confidence-building exercise because the grid worked on us, and the oxer was so gradual, that by the end, looking back at it, I was amazed at how smoothly it rode. It was another GREAT lesson.