So Tuesday and Wednesday night I had a couple more lessons with the super good, sensitive, light Arwen that has been making an appearance lately. Tuesday we were stuck in the indoor since by the time I was mounted up and ready to go, it was already dark out. Our outdoor does have lights, but they kind of suck. There were only two jumps set up in the indoor, so we practiced tight U-shaped turns going both directions. Pony face was once again, fantastic. She was listening to me extremely well, shortening her stride when I requested or lengthening a bit to get the distance. We missed a couple times trying to do the U-shaped turn, until I remembered I DO have an outside leg and YES it helps to use it on tight turns. A couple of the turns felt so good. I could really feel her hind end under me, and pivoting on the inside leg to make a nice, square, neat turn without losing impulsion. Trainer also raised the fences a little higher than we have been schooling lately, I would say probably around 2'6"-2'7".
Wednesday I was able to get out to the barn a little earlier, so I quickly groomed in hopes of being able to ride outside. Since she had been turned out for the majority of the day, we just did a super quick warmup, and then trainer had me doing a little cavaletti sized jump a couple times before cantering some crossrails and some larger jumps. Again-awesome pony. We pretty much nailed all the distances, she was listening really well, and only kind of ran off with me when we had to do a jump, then two stride to a ground pole. I'm pretty sure this happened because I got kind of nervous about the ground pole, so I forgot to sit up and keep leg on. Because we were losing light though, trainer just had me keep going...and going...and going...yelled out which jump to take as soon as I finished the first one. It was kind of fun actually, and kept ponyface guessing. Since we were outside, we even jumped a little bigger. One of the jumps was set to a soft 2'11", which was exciting!
I'm just really keeping my fingers crossed Arwen stays this way, at least for the majority of the time so we can keep progressing. I bought her to be a 3'-3'3" horse and I would like to get there with her before she can't (since she is going to be 15 this year). But the way things are going now, I feel like I'm pretty much on track with the goals I set. Lateral work is still a uh...work in progress but its getting better. She just doesn't like to move those haunches over, and/or I'm just not pushing the correct button (my guess is more the latter, less of the first). But rideability has improved so much from when I first got her, its nice. I think a lot of it is I have much better body control (due to CrossFit) and I've been reminding myself every. single. ride to SIT UP and back. Keeping my shoulders above my hips really helps.
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