I don't know what was going on with me this weekend, but I could not remember a course to save my life. I haven't been feeling good at all, which could be part of it, but jeez! The simplest things -- start here going this way, turn right, jump, turn right, jump, turn right, jump, etc -- were just giving me fits. Even more than that, just riding my dang horse was giving me fits! Reveille does not trust frosted-up mirrors. So a few spooks and a lot of tension later, I ended up asking MT to hop on her and school her a little bit. Granted, on a normal day, I could have gotten us through it. But for some reason -- actually, I think I know why -- I just couldn't make it over that hump yesterday.
The good part is that in the last 15-20 minutes of each lesson, my brain finally screwed in all the way and I was able to not only get the course right but also actually ride like I'm competent. Sheesh! Note to self: when at show on Saturday, keep Reveille moving forwardForwardFORWARD. To quote MT: kick 'er!! :) Both days, when we started jumping, we both forgot about the horse-eating frost in the mirrors. Change of focus on my part results in change of focus on her part, and she likes jumping way better than flatwork in jumping tack.
If I didn't know better, I'd suspect Rev was punishing me for the argument we had Friday evening: I wanted left bend in a corner instead of falling over her shoulder, she didn't want to bend left or I wasn't asking correctly, so we did very small circles, which pissed her off royally. Enough that she objected by lifting her front feet off the ground a ways. Hmph! I decided I need to change my approach, so we went around with me thinking only about keeping her neck and shoulders straight in front of me and keeping elastic contact. THAT worked WAY better.
Anyway, I know horses don't think that way. If they did, we could apologize!
So tonight is a rest night for Rev after getting ridden five days in a row; hope she chills and relaxes some. And I hope I do too.
It doesn't really matter how pissed off she is--front feet up is always a really, really bad option. Ha. Ask me how I know. Glad you found your rhythm and I think I'm looking forward to Saturday. Eek!
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