Tempting fate and paying the price!

Today I was thinking about how I haven't fallen off in ages, and I'm probably due for one soon. I arrived early and reluctantly handed over the cash for next months lessons. I am so skint. Why do I always do this every payday? I'll get paid, get all excited and spend it all, then spend the rest of the month boohooing over my lack of funds. At least I have the sense to put my savings away at the start of the month, and refuse to touch them. 
Anyway, I was given Bally and was excited as there were only four of us in the group today, meaning a potential of lots of jumping. Unfortunately after a few laps around the school we all decided Bally was lame and quickly had to transfer to another horse. I got Rupert and was ok with this, even though I'd never jumped him before. Simon said we were going to do courses for the first time today, which was pretty exciting! 
We had a usual warm up of trotting on both reins and having a couple of canters, then got straight into the jumping. We started with one jump then built it up to five, gradually increasing the height as we did so. I've drawn a picture which is at the bottom of this post so you can see our course! 
Kate was riding Elliot, who was on a mission! She jumped our first jump in a canter, and Elliot got so excited he started bucking after it, and the poor girl went flying into the wall! She said she hurt her back and arm but she was very brave and got back on, and carried on with the course. 
Rupert was going...ok. He kept swapping from lazy trotting to a raring canter, so it was quite hard to keep up with. He ran out of three jumps with me, completely my fault as my reins were a bit slack. Then we got to our last go at the course. First jump we got over in a nice, active trot. We cantered to the second jump, trotted for the change of rein and cantered over jumps 3 and 4. We then turned the corner far too sharp for jump number 5, but I figured we were pretty straight a few strides away so kicked Rupert on. We came to the jump, my body was ready and started to fold, and Rupert slammed the brakes on! I went straight over his head and landed on the jump! Luckily I was wearing my body protector (I knew I made that New Year's Resolution for a good reason!), so it took the hit and my back was fine. Simon came over, checked I was ok and tried to give me a leg up to get back on. But the adrenaline was still coursing through my body like a hundred Mexican Jumping Beans, and my brain and body completely disconnected! It was so funny, every time Simon said "1, 2, 3!" my legs said "NOOOO!" I did eventually get back on to do the course a couple more times. As I was coming up to one jump Simon said "Try not to fold so early, move when you're in the air", but I got ridiculously left behind over the jump! I went back to my normal style and just prayed Rupert wouldn't refuse again... 
Luckily he played nice and we managed to do the course very well the last 2 tries! 

I also had a lesson on Sunday with a friend of mine, Jasmine. We rode at Oaklands Riding School in Exeter and it was awesome! I rode a beautiful horse called Cassie and she rode a cob called Mr Chips. We started off in a little indoor school but once the instructor realised we had ridden before and didn't lie about our abilities (it was the first time we'd ridden there) we got to go outside for some jumping. We started off with a small cross pole that she gradually put up over the lesson. I think by the end of it the centre of the cross was roughly 2 foot! We had loads of fun despite the freezing cold weather! 

xx

Jumping 2 foot for the first time in ages!

Ah, naughty me, not posting my blog last week again... 
I thought I'd just sneak it into this weeks, as nothing terribly exciting happened. We had a flatwork lesson, and I was given Charlie. For a bit of a change we learnt a formation ride. It was actually really good fun! My routine as lead file was (in trot):

• C to A, track left
• Change rein F to H
• Pass other riders on inside track
• A to C next to rider "pair"
• Track right
• Change rein M to K
• Pass other riders on outside track
• C to A as lead file, halt at A 

I wish someone filmed it, it looked awesome once we'd practiced it a few times!

Today I arrived ridiculously early because Britain has decided it wasn't ready for Spring and dumped 5 inches of snow on us. I thought the roads would be packed with queuing traffic but they turned out to be uncharacteristically empty!

Come on Winter, I know you're jealous of Spring because we show it more love than you, but snowing in mid March makes us hate you more! 

I had Flan today. I'd never ridden Flan before. I'd heard he can be lazy, and that he has a reputation for biting. When I say biting, I'm talking carnivore style! I made sure I was very careful when retrieving him from his stable, I really didn't fancy any chunks taken out my skin today! 

We started off our lesson with some flatwork. We trotted lots of circles and changes of rein, with and without stirrups. Flan was pretty good, he needed a lot of encouragement as a lead but went at a nice pace when he had a tail to follow. 

Flan has a particularly interesting habit of sticking his tongue out when he's being ridden. It's so funny to watch, especially when you catch sight of it in the mirror flapping around!

For the second half of our lesson we focused on jumping. First a grid of two tiny 1 foot cross poles, which soon got changed to 1 foot verticals. Flan, even though he is massive (I'm not sure how big exactly, but we're talking 16HH+), actually made an effort over the jumps, rather than treating them like trot poles. It was pretty funny! He had a really comfortable jump. Simon called myself, Lauren and Audrey into the middle to rest whilst the others did some more smaller jumps. After a few times round we were sent back out. Simon popped one side of the vertical to 2 foot, so it was an awkward crooked jump. I wasn't sure whether to canter the line or not so I stayed in trot. I figured Flan could manage it considering his size! 

Then Simon put the first jump up to a 2 foot vertical! Ahh! I think I'd only done a 2 foot vertical once before, back when I had lessons with my friend Jasmine about a year or so ago. Probably even longer than that! 

Flan popped over it really nicely though, and the last time we went round I decided to canter in the corner and canter the double. Awesome fun! 

It looks like my goal of jumping 3 foot this year is getting closer! 

xx

Gorgeous Georgeous! (and ugly faces)

I didn't post my blog last week as I had another less than fun lesson. I had Charlie, and although I did learn some things and got to practice on my position, we just did mainly trot flatwork and a canter on each rein. I'm always surprised at how much I get worn out from a long canter! I asked Simon if I could go into the 6.15pm group the next week and do some jumping. I think I knew that this more advanced group will never jump, and I don't want to be that rider in the group making everyone do something they don't want to. 
I got given George for this week's lesson, and I seriously had so much fun that I've decided to move back in to the group before it fills up. 
Simon put the poles out straight away, I saw we were going to be doing a grid of four jumps, exciting! I made sure George was off my leg and listening to me from the start as I really really wanted a good jump. After a 20 minute warm up of trotting around (including standing in our stirrups, which I still majorly suck at!), he put up a small cross pole, only a foot. 
We went over this a few times and gradually he put up the other three jumps. George really didn't seem that interested though, possibly because they were small, and also because we were working on the left rein, which he is weaker on.
Simon started putting up the first and second jump to two foot cross poles and put us on the right rein. George loved it! He started cantering most of the line, but still didn't have enough umph in him and kept slipping back to trot for the smaller jumps. Simon called myself and Audrey into the middle and sent everyone else out on the grid a few times. After 5 minutes of jumping he sent us back out and put them all up to 2 foot cross poles. And finally, George started cantering them all, really whizzing down the line! I was so happy that he didn't really need my help with striding or egging along, and I really got to practice my position. I made sure I kept looking ahead, and it felt really secure and timed well. I wish I got it on video! At one point I was concentrating on my position so much over the jumps that I accidentally let go of the reins! Oops! It made me really want to have a go at jumping with my hands out like an aeroplane though!
On our last couple of times on the grid I managed to canter the grid (almost missed it because George "motobiked" the corner to the first fence), then cantered around the school, and back over the grid! I was so happy! I've never cantered a grid of four jumps, let alone canter the arena afterwards and back over some more jumps! Hopefully we'll be able to do some small courses in the next couple of months. And my goal of 2013 to jump 3 foot is looking more likely!
I love it when a lesson gives you a buzz! 
xx

P.S, here's some pictures from when my sister came up to the stables a couple of weeks ago!