Friday, April 22, 2011

amazing ride

I am thrilled with Lucy after today's ride. She started out great, but once we got to the canter she got a little bit stupid. I brought her back, tried again, and she persisted with the leaping around nonsense. I got off and lunged her and boy oh boy did she have a lot of pent up energy! I think she felt much better after she had a chance to get that all out of her system. When I got back on, she was a totally different horse: so easygoing, happy, etc. It was wonderful! We even did some crossrails!

Here's a video:



My friend Claire was recording for me while she was holding her horse, Boe. Somewhere in the middle of the ride he got a bit bored and decided to have a roll, fully tacked-up!!!



Here are some stills from the jumps:




I have always struggled with my jumping position and I have got to say that I am really pleased with how well I was able to keep it together today :)

And we also took condition photos today:





5 comments:

  1. You might want to try shortening your stirrups a hole or two for jumping, they look a touch too long to me, and that might make things easier. You look very strong and supportive though, for someone who claims to struggle!

    Lucy is so shiny and pretty!

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  2. Lucy looks fantastic! The video of Boe rolling is hilarious :)

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  3. Lucy says "thank you" for all the compliments :) She thinks she is quite gorgeous too ;) ;)

    If the fences were going to go any higher I would have put my stirrups up (and truthfully I could have put them up for today) but I feel more comfortable with my legs long and under me than having my stirrups cranked up because if anything goes wrong I want to have that solid base of support. So that was my thinking yesterday, but she was so incredibly good that I think both of us had a confidence boost and I will feel comfortable both raising the fences *and* my stirrups in the future :)

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  4. Oh yeah, makes perfect sense. It's funny how people get so used to a certain length of stirrup. I'm the opposite, I've actually been riding my horse in short jumping length stirrups because that is what feels safest to me. I don't like that feeling of reaching for your stirrup which is what long stirrups feels like to me (read: no dressage background).

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