Rodeo XC

Oh boy!! Today Lyric was the classic stereotype of the chestnut off the track thoroughbred mare! She was feral! We had a cross country lesson with Aubrey today. There were 3 other people riding with us. Journey and Audrey (maybe that's not her name...) , who is the other chestnut OTTB that we lessoned with last time. Then a teen on her half thoroughbred green bean and then another girl with a cute mustang pony. Aubrey had us start off trotting together and that went well. We all managed to stay mostly together and had a nice trot. 

Then we did a canter loop individually. Journey went first. Then it was my turn. We were all by the water complex, so I headed towards the ditches and it was like riding a ping pong ball. She wiggled, she waggled. Good grief. She was all over the place, and it threw me all over the place. Then I went to turn right and she spooked at the green cabin and I lost my stirrup. And while I wasn't close to falling off, I wasn't as far away from falling off as I should have been. Plus I'm being a weenie about my toe. So I got my stirrup back and maybe I asked for canter, but I'm not sure I did. But that was the next step anyways, so we went to canter. And then she exploded. She threw her head down and ripped the reins through my hands and went to bucking! Like impressive bucks, not just porpoising. At least they felt pretty impressive. For a few seconds I thought I was coming off. I managed to shove my legs out in front of me, sit back and up, and luckily I still had the reins. (At the buckle, but I had them). I was trying to pull her head up and knew I had to kick her forward, but egads... hard to do. So then I hear Aubrey yelling "Pull her head up.. pull her head up". I yelled back "I'm trying... I'm TRYING!!!!". Maybe a bit more panicked sounding than I'd like to admit. Luckily she stayed mostly straight and after what felt like about 8 seconds worth of rodeo, I did manage to get her head up and kick her on. She galloped up the hill but at least she wasn't bucking. I did manage to get her settled back into a more polite canter (polite for a feral redheaded ex racehorse, granted a slow ex racehorse). and then we even managed to come down to a trot and then a walk going down the hill back to the group. sigh. 

So then we tried again and this time Aubrey had explained to me that I was basically riding reactively vs proactively. Instead of trying to correct her wiggles, prevent them by squeezing both legs and sending her forward. And it helped a lot! She went much straighter. I had a tighter grip than I should have on her face, but we did manage another canter that wasn't explosive. 

So then we went to jumping. I asked to go first so I didn't have to have other horses leaving us. Yes, I admit it. I chickened out. We jumped a log or two and she was rowdy and wiggly and throwing her shoulders around and threatening, so it was not my finest riding. I did manage to get her through it and then we halted on a straight line which helped. Then we moved on and went to a different spot and jumped a few more things. She was pretty awful. Well.. maybe not awful. She was wiggly and I couldn' stay centered or balanced. Then she would stop and look. And not jump. Sigh... Even stuff we have already jumped. So then Aubrey had me keep her moving. She doesn't get to stop working. So I would circle, jump another jump, then come back. We eventually got to where she would jump all the things on the second attempt if not the first and wasn't trying to explode. So there's that. Sigh.. 

She also jumped right up the bank without hesitating. So there's that. We did finish with a fairly respectable few jumps in a row. But it was rough. Aubrey suggested that I get spurs and possibly a bigger bit. She said that I needed spurs to be better able to send her forward and counteract her wiggles, but in order to be brave enough to send her forward, I may need a bigger bit so I didn't worry about bolting. So.. next time we shall use my small spurs and my jump bridle with the rubber mullen mouth 3 ring. And we shall see. 

Only one photo because I was not brave enough to take both hands off the reins until the very end. And sadly, no one else was taking photos or videos either so none of the rodeo.