Jumping lesson

Friday afternoon, Coolie and I had our first jumping lesson of 2018. I was expecting some shenanigans, since he had only jumped once since October and he was a little full of himself.

We warmed up and checked we had adjustability, then started cantering over poles. In the past this has been really hard for us. Our rhythm is not very rhythmical at times. This time though, we nailed it on both reins. Good start.

Following that, my coach set a cross pole with placing poles on either side. We cantered in, Coolie popped it showing a good shape and cantered calmly away. We did it a few times on each rein, each time meeting the fence well with no drama!

A second fence was set up 4 strides from the first, and I started an exercise jumping an upright on its own, turning right then coming down the line of 2 fences. We reversed the direction and turned left too. Again we jumped through well, especially when I asked for a bigger canter. We then added an oxer and a Swedish over into the course. First run through we nailed it!

To finish I jumped a narrow upright, turning right to the Swedish oxer. Right is hard for us, neither of us are good at it. This task had me really thinking about turning right over the fence. The first time I didn't open my right hand out enough and while we landed on the correct lead, we had to circle before the oxer. Second time around I open my right hand, kept a forward stride and met the oxer perfectly!

Turning right!

All in all a great lesson, and Coolie felt amazing!