Off Property, On point

Tuesday, I had a relatively lack luster ride.  She wasn’t bad, but she did have a tiny cold back tense moment, which passed quickly.  It was exceptionally windy, and the ring was a little soggy, the aftermath of the downpour we had the night before.  Libby was heavy, and dead to the leg.

Side note:  Will now be riding in my slightly bigger spurs, with the round silver balls on the ends. 

Worked on the usual stuff, working her hind and keeping her connected, which is becoming so much easier, but also becoming harder to get some energy to her gaits.  With her new state of connection, shes much more dead to the leg, and much harder to move off the leg.  We planned to bring her off property the next day to Longwood and I was pretty excited.

Look at us gooooo!

 Wednesday, got her all ready, and we brought her out to Longwood.  I didn’t know how today was going to go, especially since we were bringing her alone, with no buddy.  Got her out…

(Side note: I love that my horse is super easy to load and unload, which will come in handy when I finally get a rig of my own 🙂 )

… and proceeded to tack her up and walk her up to the ring.  They were hosting a small schooling show the next day at the property, so it was quite a bit busier then the previous time we took her, but Libby seemed to take it in stride.  Instead of lunging her like we did last time, my trainer got right on.  She rode her around, and I could tell instantly that Libby was being really good.  As my trainer K would ride by me, she’d give me compliments on how good she felt, how much more ride-able she is now.  Love hearing that our hard work is doing its job!

She proceeded to jump everything in the arena, even eventually pointing her at a HUGE, at least it looked big to me, jump.  I think Libby was pretty caught by surprise, but she managed to get over it cleanly.  My trainer worked on the line with the big oxer again, making Libby leave from the more uncomfortable deep spot, the spot that really brings out her power.  They had one disagreement, but eventually Libby did what was asked and FIRED off the ground.  On the landing side, K looked back at me with a huge smile on her face and screamed, “She doesn’t realize how scopey she really is!”  She said the reluctance to leave from that spot is very normal for a green horse, especially one that doesn’t like using her back end, and one that doesn’t utilize her scope well.  After that I got on. 

And she really did feel awesome.  We gave her a little break, and then I went right on to jumping.  We did a relatively long course, getting us used to a true jumper course, and I worked on truly holding and riding to the base.  So much power in that jump then letting her leave long and weak.  I was on it too, the distances were just coming to me, and she was moving up when I asked, and coming back when I sat back.  It felt AWESOME.  Unfortunately, K didn’t take a video of our full course, but she did take one of our last line.  I had no idea but with my back turned, K pulled a super sneaky move and raised the oxer height, knowing me and the effect my nerves have on me and knowing Libby was fully capable of doing it.  Of course I didn’t know it, and in not knowing, went over it without a second thought.  This is the result 🙂

I feel very confident now, and very ready to show.  Will be working my tail off to be able to afford it 🙂 such is the life of a horse girl!