Charlie with the long sought after cooler

Charlie with the long sought after cooler
Spring NWEC 2013 Novice

Monday, December 16, 2019

Back-to-back dressage and jump (!!!!)

After an incredible drought in the lesson world, I finally had lessons a few days ago, dressage on Friday and jumping (yay!) on Saturday.  We haven't jumped since EI, although John has jumped Duke since then, so I was a little nervous.
Duke was pretty good for both.  For dressage, we went back to working on the same issues as a couple months ago (so we haven't regressed too badly), on a circle, working on outside bend, inside bend, and shifting legs to keep him forward and "straight".
For jumping, we started with some flat work, and then jumped a cross rail (with a bunch of ground poles) to a vertical, to a closer vertical, to an oxer.  The big goal here was not to let him drop his head and root on the far side so if I couldn't make him soft before the turn, I had to stop him before the wall.  The wall acted like a natural barrier.  He dove down a couple of times, but was actually really great for how long it's been since we've jumped.
And John played the Queen song that is the theme of my life:  "Under Pressure."  Thank god it wasn't "Fat Bottomed Girls."

No comments: