Building up the resume

Lucy can add "save my human's rear end" to her resume.

We jumped around today but she was a different horse than she has been lately. There was a fall chill in the air, she had an easy weekend of walk/trot trail rides, and she was feisty. She threw a tantrum two minutes into the ride and I put her right back in her place. Still, a looming fear settled in: was Lucy's Evil Winter Counterpart ("Lucifer") going to return along with the cold weather? I guess we'll have to find out.

Our carefree fun rides may be winding down, but after the first tantrum, she settled down a bit in that she didn't try any more nonsense. She was still VERY hot and tried to drag me around the ring while Kenny was setting out the jumps. He suggested I take her out to the field and gallop around a bit, which was a great idea. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. Then we went back into the ring and schooled briefly on the flat to get her brain back on track. She perked right back up again as soon as we started jumping, like someone had lit a fire under her heinie and she was a lot of horse to ride tonight!

Anyway, we worked over a few smaller jumps first and then Kenny set up the oxer at 3'. We jumped that, then we jumped it at 3'3" a few times. She was doing great, showing loads of confidence to the jump and though she wanted to rush to the first jump in the line (a crossrail), she paced herself perfectly through the two strides to the oxer.

Wahoo!

The second time through, she was not paying attention at the base of the first jump and I thought she was going to ditch it to the left, and I made the mistake of overcorrecting her and getting way ahead of her. She flung herself over the crossrail, scrambled through the two strides, and we found ourselves way to the left very deep at the base of the 3'3" oxer. Both of us stared right at the top rail like "crap, where did that come from?!" and I put my leg on her and did my best not to catch her in the mouth. Bless her heart, she jumped it like a deer...and cleared it. She got lots of praise for that one. Many other horses would have simply stopped since we were halfway there anyway. What a good horse.

"Mom, could you have ridden that line ANY worse?!"

Not the prettiest...

The rest of the ride continued without incident. We didn't jump that oxer many times at all but I cooled Lu out thoroughly and applied Sore No More to all four legs up to her hocks/knees, and I also applied it to her SI area. Then she got a nice mash with carrots and apples mixed in :)

I am really proud of my position over this fence. I joked to someone on facebook that my plan was "jam heels down, don't jab the horse in the mouth, and hang on for dear life." In truth, Lucy makes it easy to ride her well over fences. She jumps very well and she is even and smooth in her stride. She's so tall that she doesn't even really need to try until the jumps are 2'6" or bigger.

She is going to get a day of flat work tomorrow, then Lauren is riding Wednesday and Thursday. I took the day off of work on Wednesday to go up to the racetrack with my friend who is horse shopping to be there for the vet check for her top pick, so cross your fingers that the horse passes! Very exciting. On Friday if the weather cooperates she will be getting a bath and then a tune-up session with the trailer, because on Saturday we have a hunter pace!! So exciting!! Sunday we have a beach ride tentatively planned and then on Monday I will spend the day in my pajamas and drink martinis. I'm not even really joking... and to be honest, I think Lu will probably do the same.