Not as hard as I thought

Sunday arvo, after spending a day recovering from a fairly amazing Saturday Coolie and I had our jumping lesson. Just an aside from the horsey stuff because weddings are fun, turns out 6 hours of hair and make up is not torture, and I can dance all night in high heels. Also 6 hours of hair and make up and clothes that fit well look good on me. I wish I could look this good all the time. My friend was the most radiant bride out, she was super zen too, and you could not wipe the smile off her face. I am so happy for them, she is the kindest person in the world and truly deserves to be that happy every day of her life! It was an incredible day to spend with some of my favourite people in the world and I am lucky to get to spend such a special day with these people!




























Moving right along to fun horse times!

After warming up over an upright and landing on the correct lead every time, Jonna threw us in the deep end over a course set at about a meter with a couple of tricky lines. Jonna wanted me to make sure I was pushing my hands forward enough over the jumps, and not just moving my body. I think a key quote after he told me this was "I like teaching people like you Bree, you make the changes and it keeps things more interesting!".
Warm up
The course started out ok, but Coolie chipped in a stride at a spooky filler. We represented and I kept my leg on to keep him forward and he jumped it from a better spot the second time.

Since that went well, Jonna added in a bending line that I was very skeptical about us achieving the line, it was tight, the jumps were big, and we had to land on the right lead. Well, blow me down we got it. It wasn't pretty but it got the job done.

We had a walk and a chat, and Jonna explained that the loss of turning to the right is a result of a brake failure. We went to do the line again, but this time sharpened up our brakes by doing some canter to walks. Second time through the line we nailed it. Jonna then has us do the line the other way, oxer, land left then turn to the upright. I tuned the brakes and we got it first time through.

We went and added it into a course, which we did a few times, including a tight turn from the oxer to an upright. This was another hard line and the first time I missed it, but the second time we made it and we finished the lesson there.


This lesson really showed me that we can do the hard stuff, and that our training is solid. Coolie will jump, and he will do a good job. We need to test the breaks from a more forward canter, and I need to give with my hands more. I finally figured out the canter I need too! It's the canter I want to do, plus a little bit extra.

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