Ow.

Last night was my first ride in the past week. I had gone to the Bay Area to help out my mom who had gotten hip surgery. During that time, I pretty much did a whole bunch of nothing. Tried to go to a CrossFit gym out there, but then an emergency popped up with my grandfather, so I had to cancel. And then the next time I was considering doing something (like running down by the Bay, there is a lovely trail) ANOTHER emergency popped up with my grandfather. I was able to squeeze in one workout of running up and down the hills my mom lives on, plus some air squats and pushups but that was it. So going into my ride last night I felt ok, but I could definitely tell that I had been out of the saddle.

Arwen started out feeling great. Her last electro accuscope treatment had been on Friday, and then she had a super light weekend (just a trail ride on Saturday, plus some turnout). We flatted for a bit, and then the other woman in my lesson started freaking out about her horse being "frisky". Not exactly sure what was going on, but it basically looked like he just needed to be cantered around a bit. Either way, you could tell she really wanted Trainer to get on the horse to "ride it out". So she did. Arwen and I sat there for about 15 minutes while trainer acted like a human lunge line. When we finally restarted, Arwen was feeling slightly more punky, since after long periods of standing around she sometimes feels like we should be done. But, she wasn't being horrible. Listening pretty well with the exception of a single fence down the longside to a left roll back. But, in all the lines she was coming back to me fairly well. At one point, we decided to tighten the flash she had on a bit because it was extremely loose. Oh man. Arwen was not pleased with that and when we started jumping again, she was snorting like a dragon and extremely focused on the flash. But...still being pretty good.

So trainer decides to add onto the course. It had been single, left roll back, outside bending line, diagonal five. The add on was after the outside bending, to do a 4-1 combo that had been set as a 5-2 last week, but that Arwen did just fine the week before. So we start the course, its going pretty well. Get to the 4-1, have a decent in, so I decide to just sit, keep leg on, and let her roll through the four. Its a tiny bit basey, but Arwen usually doesn't have a problem jumping from the base (her issue is with the super long flyers) and the distance was right. There. It felt like we were going. I saw no reason why we shouldn't be going.

And yet, somehow, we didn't.

Next thing I know, I'm flying over her right shoulder and making arena dirt angels. I see Arwen standing on the other side of the fence, with all the poles on the ground. I know I didn't take them out since I clearly landed on the other side of the jump. Arwen of course, is standing there (she always sticks around after I fall, good girl?) looking like "ohhhhhh crap" because I know she doesn't like it when I fall. You can tell she feels bad. Trainer, of course is pissed because we're all like "WTF just happened?". Distance was good, we weren't flying to it all disorganized, the jump SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. And yet, it didn't. So Trainer gets on and gives her a pretty tough school. Takes her through the combo multiple times, which of course by now Arwen is jumping like her life depends on it. Does this for probably 20 minutes, I get back on, and we proceed to go through the combo again. And again. And again. I give her pretty much the same ride I did the first time, and its fine. She did peter out once, and throw in her usual half hearted turn out, but it was NOTHING like before. I mean her turnouts now are really lame and pretty easy to stick. The one she did before, its like I didn't even have a chance!

So we're thinking its possible she just didn't even see the jump. I'm not sure she came out last night with her game face on, so to speak. After having some time off and being ridden pretty lightly, I don't think her head was really in it to work. And then with the circumstances of standing around, plus the tightened flash she just wouldn't get over, she might have been so distracted that jump just crept up on her. Because it really did feel like she was going, and then all of a sudden crashed through the fence. I dunno. Either way, my butt cheek and my neck are pretty sore today from all that excitement.