I might later write about the last few lessons I’ve had. To summarize, I feel that since riding Future with no stirrups about two weeks ago (in which I had to rediscover my balance) and Sprite last week (our aging mare who will actually bend herself around your leg) that the flatwork in the lessons has gradually been improving. I’ve tried to get Future to curve around in corners with my leg and a bit of rein. I’ve also been working on keeping my hands soft and my legs in the right position. And I’ve been trying to read him and respond with my body accordingly.
My jumping, however, seems to have fallen apart. I can’t read when he’s going to jump, I can’t bend into a proper jump form, I can’t release over the jumps, and I can barely steer when during and after the jump. I was reading about jumping, thinking about it, trying to squeeze harder and nothing seemed to be working. So with that in mind, I decided to resort back to a beautiful style I saw over the summer.
One of the top riders at the barn was jumping an uncooperative pony over a course and over every jump her upper body stayed in perfect two-point position. I know (now) that this is not proper equestrian form for jumping but she was in control and balanced over everything. And I decided to screw my bending over and crest release and everything else that I was over-thinking and under-achieving and go back to something that once upon a time worked for me.
I can’t say how good it felt to just ride him over a simple line in control, feeling him jump up, holding a bit of mane as he hit the ground, balancing in time for the next fence and cantering off in the corner. Thank goodness there was a light in this dark tunnel of jumping. My coach turned to me at the end of the lesson and told me that what had been happening to me over the last two months was actually a normal progression for riders. I was slowly moving from a passenger who just sits on their horse to someone who’s actually trying to ride and a complementary side-effect was the over-thinking that I had been falling prey to.
I’m not sure what the cure is for the passenger-turning-rider but I like the sound of the end product. Maybe this is my horseback riding adolescence, where things get worse before maturing. It’s unfortunate that for two months coming up soon, I’m going to be out of the country and unable to ride. I’m not sure what effect that hiatus will have on my riding, and my chances of being able to show a higher jumping level this summer. I suppose it’s one of those things I’ll have to wait to find out.
