Superstar!

 I'm so proud of Lyric. And me a little too :) 
We had a jump lesson today with Jacel and rode with Laura and Smarty too. I haven't jumped Lyric since RRP, and we've only had about 3 or 4 flat rides. And I was a little afraid that I was going to ride backwards again. But I think taking the time off and having some good jump rides on Dan has helped a lot! 

 

We worked on footwork and shape today. Lyric needs to learn how to place herself and pay attention to the fences and how to use her body. And she was soooo good at it today! And brave! We warmed up and she was pretty decent. Then we started over a vertical with placing poles. They were both good and we worked on me keeping my shoulders back. I did need a reminder to sit and send vs just... waiting with my shoulders. Because as Jacel pointed out, there's not a lot of horse in front of the saddle with her. So when I let my shoulders tip, even just a little bit, it also makes her shoulders tip. Especially if my center of gravity is a bit more forward. But if I sit down and think about pushing (gently, not driving) then it centers my core and lets me stay a bit more upright in my shoulders. Lyric tends to want to tip a little on her own and when I'm weak in my core, she easily pulls me forward. It's such a small amount but it's enough that she can then collapse too. If I stay down in my seat and upright in my body, my core is stronger and that helps her stay strong in her body. Yay! 

 

So then we added a vertical with V poles. Jacel said that this would be good for Lyric because it would make her pay attention to what she was jumping instead of just flinging over it. I sort of expected her to stop at it because... it was a v pole and looky. But then I also thought she might not care as she doesn't seem to care about flower boxes or gates or anything. And she looked at it but she went. It took two more tries before she would jump it out of stride but she was going. Jacel said it was awesome because she wasn't backing off it because she was trying to stop.. she was backing off it because she was processing and trying to figure it out. And she did! I'm so proud. And it helped her figure out her body too! We did a figure 8 over those two fences. 

 

Then we added a high cross rail after those two. I was reminded that I needed to ride the turns better. Leg yield her into the turn, but then keep riding with the outside leg to keep her going forward. If I send her forward through the turns, then I don't have to gun her at the fence when I realize I've lost energy through the turn. And yep, it works! We did that a few times and then did it the other direction. And she was soooo good!! I'm quite pleased with how brave and "normal" she was... hee hee. I mean, seriously though. She felt like a mature educated horse vs a green bean who had no clue what was happening. She's really figuring it out! I know that I pushed her and stressed her out but I feel like she also really stepped up to the plate and figured stuff out. So the plan is still to take it easy a little bit but when she's game... go for it. :) Smart girl! Today was fun and I think she enjoyed herself too. And I'm proud of myself because I was riding with a nice pace and not riding backwards. Most of the time, I kept my shoulders up and back! I don't think I ever jumped ahead of her but there was one or two fences that I tipped a little and one fence that I made a move and she went. But she could have easily added one had I not made the move. I got lucky that she went when I did. I also felt like my legs were pretty good. I worked on dropping my weight into my stirrups (stepping into them) every stride, which I think has helped too!

 

Then Laura and I went on a short loop around the lake before we both headed in. We came up on the heron, who... did not care about us and decided he wasn't going to leave the lake. They were both brave ponies and just kept going.  :)