Bonnie's Blog post # 3

Today I had a jump school with Missy, final prep before Fair Hill this weekend. Loki warmed up well and felt really loose, if a bit sluggish (dressage boot camp yesterday taking its toll!).  He woke right up for the jumping though. I swear, it’s never not fun to jump that horse. He’s so cute about it, too.  As soon as we’re done he takes this big sigh, and, honest-to-goodness, gets this very pleased-with-himself look on his face (he knows he’s The Bomb).  

As per usual with our jump lessons, it was all about me.  I have an upper body position that my high school trainer in Louisiana affectionately called “The Turtle”. These days I call it the “Bonnie Needs To Do More Ab Work At The Gym” position, and it’s a never-ending struggle to Sit Up Taller and engage my core. Today was good because Missy had me try focusing more on keeping my weight deep in my heels and my hips under my shoulders, to anchor my lower leg and allow me to sit taller and softer on landing, instead of getting a bit popped out of the tack (did I mention Loki is enthusiastic when he jumps?).  

It’s a great balance riding with Missy and Jeff, because Jeff tends to focus more on what my horse is doing (go more forward through your turns, make him wait, keep his poll up, don’t let him drift left… I think this stems from how well he knows this horse in particular), and Missy focuses more on me and my position. The tricky bit is remembering to keep the horse doing what he’s supposed to be doing while still thinking about improving my position.  Fortunately my saint of a horse will still jump even if I get him too deep (I am the queen of seeing past a distance, which I frequently do when I’m trying to think about where my hips are, if my heels are down enough, if the dog is about to run into the road chasing the neighbor’s dog, if I left the lights in the barn on… oh crap! Next fence!).  

Of course though, the brumby jumped everything perfectly and I did feel much better about my position by the end of the lesson.  It’s challenging because I try not to jump too often; at 15 and with three seasons of Advanced under his belt, Loki knows how to jump and it’s no sense to jump him more than once a week/every ten days, his legs just don’t need the pounding.  Unfortunately this means that opportunity to work on my position is limited.  I’m thinking of asking if I can take some jump lessons on another horse at Missy's, so I can work on me a little more (because, trust me, in the jumping, I get to blame nothing on the horse- he is a rockstar and I just want to be good enough not to embarrass him!).

Getting excited for Fair Hill this weekend! Brigitte, one of Missy’s working students, is also showing on Saturday (it’s a one day and the levels are split, so Training and Intermediate all go on Saturday, Prelim and Novice on Sunday), so we are trailering over together the day of, and plan to go over to walk the course together tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned!