Slowly but surely we are getting there...

This past Saturday, I finally felt like a human being again after being sick with whatever I had. I finally felt well enough to strap my riding gear on and go back for a jump lesson with P. The baby horse that tagged along during my last post/dressage lesson also tagged along here...so I was really hoping Tillie could behave and provide the young horse with some structure. 

Hacking up to the lesson ring...Tillie says let me show you how its done

The other horse again had a bit of a trailering phobia so Tillie was patient and luckily made things easier by walking on and off no issues whenever it was asked. She also led the way to the mini trail up to the ring while the young horse did a good job taking it all in, being scared but didnt put one foot wrong. Yay for baby horse progress! I am so happy for this friend and glad her green bean learned so much on this outing making it a positive one for them both.

What was so wonderful about this day is it was almost 70 degrees!! I cant remember the last time I have ever worn a T-shirt riding in December. I could definitely get used to this. Tillie warmed up a bit wound up, but behaved. P had me try my new set up with the Pelham after discussing how she felt and the fact we hadnt jumped in two weeks. 

Going over the warm up jump and mini grid the first few times was interesting...and almost resulted in me running over Emma. I was laughing at this point because she was just so happy to be back jumping and while it was rude, I have really begun to feel stronger and not so worried at her antics. 

P tightened up the curb chain and said, yes you need to give over the fences despite this, BUT if you land and she isnt half halting you are ok to set her down and draw the line. 

So here were a few times doing just that:

Trying to stretch more over fences.

In the lesson I was concentrating on so many things, that I didnt even realize until after the fact that Tillie got the picture fairly quickly and we ended up having a decent lesson.

Look mom I can dressage between jumps!

Here is our first attempt at cantering into a fence/line and you could tell we both just are out of practice and seeing the distances just wasnt happening. So when in doubt, count!

So here is the second attempt to clean it up a bit:

Of course, in true P form we start building and slowly making a course. So she wanted us to do the grid, to the 2 or 3 stride line to this angled fence. We ended up chipping into the angled one as we both just didnt see the distance again. You can also see she just wasnt expecting it and almost broke to trot thinking we were done a few strides out. But the 3 stride line this time rode beautifully!

So P sends us to come back just to that fence to try again:

Tillie thought she was just the best pony in the whole world.

So we finally put the whole thing together and I decided to try to open up a little more and go for the striding in the lines a horse with an easier 12' stride would do...so the 3 stride line I would do in 2 and the last outside line I would do in 4 instead of 5 strides.

Nailed it! 

Tillie questioned the 2 at first but good girl said OK. The 4 stride she ate up no problem. I am grinning from ear to ear upon landing because she landed forward and felt like she has in the past juuusstt before putting her head down and dolphin diving but she didnt and it was just this cool feeling of her energy just being like "YEA I did good!" without it being too over the top.

Every lesson we have jumped this, she has jumped it so well and enthusiastically. 

Maybe Ill have more smiling photos by the end of next year :)

So weirdly enough, the next day she didnt eat all of her grain again. Totally happy to eat hay and bright and all...but she did this last time we went to a P lesson and came back. She always eats everything and dinner fine but not sure whats up with it?

I gave her Gastra-FX before going to help with any stress and shes on ulcer treatment now. Her teeth have been done this last summer...Anyone have any ideas?