As you can see, I had a jumping lesson today. Zigs was fantastic. There was no stopping, no refusing, and no rushing! We started the lesson by trotting on both reins, and I made sure to get him on the bit, and nice and light in my hands. At one point, I had him going in a rather nice collected trot. Then, of course, we cantered. I had trouble picking up the right rein, due to my aforementioned problem with my knees coming up. On the left rein, I made a concentrated effort to keep my leg "long" (as long as it can be with my stirrups at jumping length), and had a much easer time of it. The only thing I don't like about jumping is having my stirrups so short. I don't feel like I'm sitting as deep in the saddle as I do with them at Dressage length, but that's the point!
The first fence we did was a simple X with trot poles in front of it. I can't even begin to articulate how nervous I was as I made the turn to come to the jump. two strides away from the trot poles, Ziggy said, "Dude. Got it.", and I relaxed. He trotted in smoothly, sailed right over it as if it was nothing, and landed in the canter, looking for the next fence. We came around and did the fence several more times, and he was steady and consistent. After we'd all made it across a few times, my trainer changed it from an X to a straight across rail. Just like with the X, Zigs jumped the rail fence like a champ, and landed in a canter, looking for the next fence. After we'd all taken that fence several times successfully, our trainer changed the fence from a straight rail, to a bounce with an X. Ziggy took that one like a champ, too. At this point, it was pretty hot, and Zigs was blowing a bit, so I bowed out for a while, and walked him to give him a little more rest. We had also been taking plenty of rest breaks in between fences, but I just wanted to make sure that I gave Zigs as much time as possible to recover between jumping elements.
While I was walking Zigs, everybody sailed over the bounce, so our trainer made an 18" oxer after the bounce, seen at the top of the post. (It was the prettiest picture.) I went over that one with Zigs twice, and again walked him, to take it easy on him. After I'd walked a while, my triner announced the last fence, and proceeded to make a 2' 6" oxer after the bounce. l was expecting her to say, "Ok, that's enough for Ziggy", but no, she sent a few of the more experienced riders over it, and then said, "Ziggy, go.". Being the trusting sort, I picked up a nice, forward trot, and as I made my turn to go on the jump line, one of the more experienced riders asked, "How big is that Oxer?" To which, I replied, "I don't want to know!" as Zigs happily sailed over the bounce and fence. When we landed on the other side he was like, "That was AWESOME!". A picture of the illustrious jump is below:
As you can see, I was left behind, my release is not as high up his crest as it should be, but at least I'm looking somewhere resembling up, my heels are familiar with the concept of "down", and I didn't come off. Since this is only my fourth time jumping, I'm prepared to call this progress.
During the entire jumping lesson, I found Ziggy quite responsive, brave, consistent, and forward, without resorting to summoning psycho pony. I only really ran into two problems with him during the lesson. The first being that once he lands in a canter, he wants to try to canter into the next fence, which I believe is the "correct" thing to do, but not what I'm ready for at my current riding level. The second being that he spooks when another horse drops a rail. It isn't a bad spook, he just crow-hops a bit and tries to run, but all I had to do was half-halt, and he came back to me.
I, on the other hand, wasn't doing a very good job of keeping him straight on the exit to the jump, and as you can see in the pictures above and below, my release leaves much to be desired. But, hey, I didn't come off, and I didn't (as far as I can remember) catch him in the mouth. All in all, it was a great lesson, and I'm looking forward to doing more jumping in the future with him! My hope is that I can do a GAG horse trial with him at some point in the Fall or Winter. But of course, I really need to get a more consistent Canter transition, and going XC schooling would likely be helpful. ;)
I won't be riding Zigs tomorrow, as he is getting a well-deserved day off for being such a good boy! For now, I'm going to bed, as I actually have to work tomorrow.
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