Lisa's Blog post # 16

Part 1-

She did it again – she created another major milestone in the riding career of Lisa Blazevich.

I was actually nervous about the jumping lesson I had scheduled with her for today.  I’ve always looked forward to jumping – never nervous – what was going on?!  Was I scared?  No, I can honestly say that I’ve never been afraid on a horse – I don’t think I would ride if I felt that way.  I figured out that my confidence was waning because the last 3 times I jumped him on my own were all a complete mess.  I ended up giving up after about 5 fences each time – he took off at every distance imaginable; there were never 2 jumps the same.  I was getting left behind; I was jumping ahead of him.  Once again, I can’t ride my own horse!  I was seriously concerned that with a score of 15 awkward jumps to zippo good ones, I had created another major setback in our progress.  As soon as Lesley showed up for my lesson we had a heart to heart to figure out what the problems were and how I could best manage them.

My issues:  Cotton gets strong, rushes the last few strides of his fences and is very unpredictable.  I get nervous because I don’t know what he’s going to do and he gets nervous because… I’m not sure, actually.  His love for jumping may be part of it.  His idea that his rider expects him to rush may be part of it.  Anyway, it’s not fun – it’s stressful – and since I’m not getting paid for this it needs to be fun!  I told Lesley that I wanted to learn how to handle Cotton in every situation he could present to me as we cruise around a stadium course – switching leads, bucking, rushing the fences, being strung out, getting balled up….  Just like with his flat work, I know that once I have the tools in my toolbox and know when to use them, I will have the confidence to manage whatever he brings to the party!

Lesley’s solution:  Trot poles and 2-point!  (and some pretty darn good coaching)  It was that easy…

As soon as I described my last few jumping attempts she began to nod her head and describe to me in detail what had gone wrong at each jump – is she omniscient?   I hadn’t even finished my whining when she hopped up and began arranging a baby jump, explaining what the real problem was, what Cotton was thinking – she must be omniscient – and even what I was thinking – definitely omniscient.

I’ve run out of room so I’ll tell you what happened in my next blog but I’ll just end by saying that I believe Lesley Stevenson can, without a doubt, fix any problem that any rider has with any horse.  It has to be a gift – people just can’t teach other people what she knows!!

Now, off to Waxhaw Tack to buy her a bigger helmet…