A Jump Lesson

        Today, at 6:00 p.m. Nancy showed up at my barn for a jump lesson. I quickly brushed and saddled Rosie as Nancy set up a small set of jumps.
        Nancy and I started with a flatwork warm-up. Because I have had minimum actual jump training, I have developed some habits of my own, some good and some mostly bad. So, instead of having my hands down at the pommel of  the saddle, they are kept up on Rosie's crest. Instead of having locked elbows I have "buttery" elbows that maintain a soft but contacted line from Rosie's bit to my elbows.
        An excellent step in Rosie's training occurred today as well. Rosie managed to learn and execute an amazing walk-to-canter transition. We started by first backing Rosie up a couple of steps, then walking forward for a few steps and then immediately asking for a canter transition. It works like this, when a horse backs up, they have to roll back onto their haunches and it requires an inordinate amount of hind leg action in order for them to execute it. So we back Rosie up to get her on her haunches then walk her forward a couple of steps so she has some balance on her front feet but most of her weight is behind. Then as I ask for the canter, she has all the energy she needs from behind to pick up the canter flawlessly! (Well, mostly flawlessly!)  She got it the first time and the entire hour lesson, she could pick it up without having to back up first!! I love my horse!!
         We jumped for half the lesson, and lets just say that was the more frustrating portion of the lesson. She was SOOO grumpy today! I owe it partly because I pulled her away from her dinner, but maybe she's having a bit of PMSing going on! She is a mare after all! We had a cross rail, a 2' vertical and a row of barrels set up. We managed to jump the cross rail sort of pretty. Then we had an enormous amount of trouble with the 2' vertical! She ran out on it two times in a row, so with some frustrating correction, we finally managed to jump it. It wasn't pretty, just the opposite actually, but hey! she went over it! With a few minutes left, we threw together a small course, went through it, managed to jump it clean..ugly..but clean. I do have to give credit to Rosie though. Since we started training with Nancy (I also give a HUGE thanks to Nancy!), Rosie has cleaned up her jump and can jump more than two jumps in a row and never hit a pole! YAY ROSIE!!
        Anyway, Rosie and I have our ups and downs and as frustratingly annoying as they are, they come with the horse world territory. Everything can't and WON'T be perfect. But what would a horse be if they were perfect? Heck, what would a person be if they were perfect? The bond between horse and rider is a journey. At least, that's what I believe. If you didn't have something to work on, or frustrate you, how BORING would going out to the barn be if you knew what to expect?!