By this time I swear I could have passed out, one because of lack of sleep and two because this horse. takes so. much . leg.

As it became time to jump, we warmed over a gymnastic. It was a bounce to a four-stride I believe. All low jumps/cavalleti to allow ourselves to find proper pace/rhythm and at the same time giving us the ability to rein in on rider errors, position and movement. All of this is great except for the fact that grid lines are one of my biggest fears.

Seriously.

I never really have said “no I can’t do it I’m scared” but I would say I have never ever ridden a horse that would take me down a grid line effectively for the purpose of what a grid line is for other than Lenny , and maybe one or two horses in my whole entire riding career. I spent many a lessons galloping through grids because every time through the grid Skip and I would get more tense, and more excited to get through it. Then on less consistent horses I found myself losing confidence in myself because I couldn’t make it through them alive.



The jumping that took place throughout the Friday lesson was all down the grid, after figuring out one part of it we would add to it, or work on fixing another part of our positions.



My coach commented on how I had a great base to my position. (this could be attributed to sticking to skippy and stewies deer jumps over the last couple years, no doubt!) . Surprisingly after 2 and a half months off of riding completely my leg found itself back where it belonged for the most part. Our biggest “fix-it” with my riding is my release. It is probably the most awful thing ever. Seriously.