Charlie pants!

I had one of my favourite horses today, Charlie! (How cute is he?) He's a bit funny on the ground but a dream to ride! He loves to pop a little jump and really puts effort into it. 
I went to put my stirrups onto the saddle at the start of the lesson, and one snapped! Damn me buying cheap imported leather... Luckily it snapped nowhere near my holes so I could ride in them, but I will be taking them back to Stockley Trading tomorrow and buying some decent ones instead! 

We did a bit of walking around, then a lot of trotting. We did a circle at one end then went large. I felt like I was doing quite well, because Simon wasn't commenting on my circles, but advising adjusting my position slightly, e.g. turn my belly button a little more, put my inside shoulder back slightly. Nearly everyone else was working on the shape of their circle. It felt nice to feel a little more advanced at the exercise! 
We then had our stirrups taken away, and Charlie is either pretty comfy or my sitting trot has really improved! We did the same circling exercise, and I felt like I was doing pretty well! 
We got our stirrups back after about ten minutes, then Simon got the jump blocks out. No cantering again! I really want to canter into the jumps, but I guess I just have to do what he says!
We did a double of two small cross poles, then after a few goes round he raised them. On one go round, Charlie jumped the first cross pole really nicely, and we cantered to the second one! We got over it really nicely, and I let out a "WOOHOO!", I was a little excited! Half way through our little jumping spree, the lights in the indoor school suddenly went out! Luckily nobody's horse spooked, we all dismounted, and waited 5 or so minutes for someone to fix the power. Poor Amie was only a couple of strides away from the jump! When the lights came back on (it looked really odd and bright), we got to do the double loads of times. I was having so much fun, so when Simon started asking people to turn in to the centre to give their horses a fuss and jump off, I was gutted! I really wanted one more go. One of the ladies I ride with, Audrey, said that I look really neat going over the jumps! (Getting big headed!). 
After I hopped off and was trying to get my stirrups off Charlie's saddle, he turned around and bit me! I have a nice little bruise now, the bastard. 
xx