Wow. What a lesson. Tonight I jumped for the first time!! I don't think camp really counts since I jumped maybe twice. So obviously I'm very excited and happy! It was so fun too, especially when I got to canter over some jumps. And I'm really glad I had this lesson tonight because tomorrow's the first day of school and it really cheered me up and got me thinking about something else.
So tonight I rode Annie, and as always she was being really annoying. She kept trying to pull her head away from me and wanted to eat stuff when I stopped. But in the end I guess I was pretty glad I rode her (haha!). We started out the lesson in the small ring since there was a lesson going on in the big ring. I walked around a little and after a while my instructor told me to pick up a trot. Who knew trotting could be this hard! It took me forever just to get her to walk faster, and even longer to get her to trot. And she did the slowest possible trot she could. I had to use my crop a lot to get her to actually move a little, but once she knew she needed to go faster she stayed pretty fast for the rest of the lesson.
After trotting some figure-eights (some were excruciatingly slow), I got trotting Annie fast enough at a steady pace that my instructor told me I could canter. I tried to get her to pick up the right lead (we were tracking right), but as usual she wouldn't do it so I eventually switched directions. I got the left lead canter but I found it really hard to get her to stay in that canter. She kept speeding up and stopping and speeding up and stopping. I got Annie to canter a little longer but at that point the other riders were moving out of the big ring so we moved over there.
Now comes the really exciting part (for me anyway). There were four jumps set up in the ring. The two farthest away were just some poles flat on the ground (one pole in one and three in the other). The two jumps closest had two tiny crossrails set up on them (the lowest the poles could go). So my instructor told me what to do, and I had to just do it. There wasn't much explanation, which I was okay with since I wanted her to just cut to the chase and let me jump (I was very eager!). So I had to trot in two-point over the set of three poles, trot over the crossrail and keep going to head over the other one. Then I just had to keep trotting over the one pole. It was a little crazy the first time but it got easier the more I did it (and I did it a lot). Also, Annie kept wanting to canter before I went over the three poles, so I had to really tighten up to stop her.
After a while of doing those jumps at a trot my instructor told me that if Annie wanted to canter I could let her canter. So after trotting over the three poles I had to trot over the crossrail and then let Annie canter. Then I was to canter over the second crossrail and over the other pole. The first time I did this I didn't hit the second crossrail straight so Annie kind of leaped over it and we swerved to the middle of the ring. The second time was so much better. I headed towards the jump straight and we cantered right over it and over the other pole. It was so much fun!!! Trotting over jumps is fun too, but the exhilarating feeling of cantering over them is even better. And I wasn't even jumping that high!
So all in all, it was a very productive lesson. I'm pretty proud of myself too, I must say. I also learned (and I told this to my instructor) a lot: I learned how important it is to have loose and relaxed ankles, to look ahead over the jumps, and that I can't give up on Annie. Relaxed ankles really help you absorb the bounce as you go over a jump and even poles. Looking ahead helped Annie know where I wanted her to go - looking down at the jump is just inviting her to slow down or stop. And not giving up on Annie means that I have to keep asking and telling her what I need her to do - whether it be going over a jump or just getting her to trot. Needless to say, I can't wait for next week's lesson. :) And I will try and blog after volunteering, so you can look for that - it will probably be up on Thursday rather than Wednesday. Wish me luck in school tomorrow!!
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