Two great rides - a jump lesson with John and schooling at NWEC

On Tuesday, Shannon and I had a jump lesson with John. He had a little course built - a somewhat serpentine (left bend, right bend) line of three fences, with a right hand turn to a panel with an easy left bend to an oxer. The eerie thing about the lesson was that John pretty much told me exactly what Shannon told me on Sunday - to ride in a bigger canter, but in a dressage frame, because the slow, strung-out canter leads to pukey fences! Charlie gets used to the fences after about twice through, and he wants to take over and just do the job, so I have to be faster and more clear in sitting up between the fences to half halt and rebalance him - without so much hand that I slow him down. On the bending three fence line, the next fence came up so fast it was hard to do. The other big tip that really sunk in during the lesson was to look up and at the next fence, and get out of Charlie's way and let him do his job. I had an opportunity to put that one into practice at NWEC. It was nice because while they didn't have all the fences out, there was a small assortment, and it had been mowed (and we lucked out on the weather!) so we walked the whole thing to check it out, did a warm up, and then rode the little circle of fences near the parking. I was having trouble figuring out how to ride Charlie in a big canter forward when he was excited about being there, but not strung out - I tend to overdo it, and make him too slow. Shannon reminded me of what John was saying (two days ago!) that Charlie is experienced enough to know what he's doing, so while I want to keep the rhythm even (1-2-3-4) I also want to stay out of his way if I don't see the spot and trust that he's going to launch or put one in, but just to keep my eyes up and ride it. Charlie was great over the warm up fences, so then we went and did the water, with my first ramp in, then a ramp one stride to a log, and then a ramp in with a bank out. Charlie was ho-hum it was so simple for him. Then we went over and rode the little ditch and big ditch and again, Charlie was Mr. Ho-Hum; No Big Deal. It was really fun and I'm really glad we went ahead of time, just so those first jittery butterflies in my stomach and Charlie's excitement about being there were things I could feel and address without the extra stress of the competition. I am really looking forward to this season. Oh! And we jumped one training level fence. Just an inviting log, but woo-hoo!