Stadium Jumping Lesson with Sally (aka Watch Out for Deer!)

It was a gorgeous day on Wednesday (needless to say it was NOT on Tuesday hence Fair Hill Cross Country Schooling was cancelled, sob). Sally texted me on Tuesday to see if I wanted to ride at Straight Up on Wed instead and I said sure (And Tanya was nice to share her lesson with me!) So plans changed but I adapted!

I have no real media of the lesson, I took my phone up there but got no photos. OOPS. Sorry.

I rode in the Prestige my barn mate let me borrow to try. I LOVED it, I felt very sticky to the saddle. We are not sure Remus loved it as much but it needs to be even a bit wider for him (WTF horse those shoulders are immense!!) It slipped a bit too but thanks to the Lund breastplate all things stayed relative to where they needed to be.

We definitely had more forward this lesson, my one aim was to move his butt forward. He was cranky and pissy but he responded (I kept saying to him HEY if you move forward no spurs, no move forward, spurs, learn horse learn)! My goal was to ride him forward and get his damn head up. (He was really heavy on forehand grhh).

She started us over with a bang over two jumps with a pretty tight turn around. Moo was on the GO mode again and did pretty fabulous out the start. Remus ehh..he miffed the first one but we did have an adjustment where Sally reiterated me moving him forward AND UP (anyone with a QH knows the craziness of this. QH GOES FASTER, HEAD GOES LOWER). BUT by miffed it he just didnt take it great, often times the jump doesnt even look that bad, but I feel how bad we miff it. SIGH.

But overall Remus did pretty well. Moo jumped most everything but had a couple slimy stops that he really had no reason to do. Tanya was riding him great and forward and he was umm no. The one he went between the standards to get away and seriously they almost knocked the standard over it was that tight. Remus would never make that much effort to avoid a jump and would have just fallen over said jump, neither option is great but they definitely are two totally different horses albeit with same kind of bloodlines (Appy and QH).

Sometimes I think of Moo and Remus jumping and I think we are doing great and then it is like when you dance you think you look cool as shit then this happens:

 

But anyway. By the end of the lesson, Remus was getting tired and I was getting tired holding his damn head up.  (And the deer stopping to watch our lesson did not help at all!! LOL Nottingham deer be bold as snot, y’all!) We started hitting the fences a bit so after the last line (that we had to try 3 times to get right) i called it quits. Sally asked if I  wanted to do the rolltop and I was like we know he will go over it, so no let’s pass. And Tayna then had to go several times over it so I felt bad for five seconds but we were beat. I know when to hold ’em.

I was very pleased with Remus overall even notwithstanding the few bobbles at the end. Sally pointed out the saddle I was trying may not fit him the best and he was lowering his head to adjust (he would need a wider tree for sure) but Remus is pretty stoic on saddles so I have a feeling he was just being his typical lazy self and pissed off I was making him move on. Today my arms feel like I was holding a freight train yesterday. We are going to put him back into the loose ring snaffle for jumping for a while to see if I can get his head up more so we can umm jump the jumps. I was pleased with his reaction to the spurs, etc. but there is still work to be done. ALWAYS.

 

In other news: Update,  I think my dressage saddle is sold! Locally no less so cash this week woohoo! Time to get serious looking for a jump saddle. I liked the Prestige enough I think I can start looking for something like that! in an EXTRA wide tree. I also emailed the fitter to get her ideas on Prestige and Stubben as an option. Blue Goose CT is this weekend and it is supposed to rain (BOO HOO) so we shall see if we venture out or not (Rain is okay, thunder/lightning nope we stay home).