In which I ride my horse

I have definitely been neglecting this blog lately - life has been pretty crazy, as has work, and I haven't had much time.  Fortunately, this does not correlate with pony time - I finally was feeling up to riding this past week!

best view <3

On Sunday of last week, I went out to the barn to flat Spring/test out my arm.  I was a bit nervous as I hadn't ridden anything in about 3 weeks at that point (and had only been riding for about 2 weeks before my accident), but Spring was exceptionally well-behaved.  We had a lovely ride - I spent it getting my "sea legs" back, so to speak.  My friend M has done a fantastic job keeping her in shape - I definitely noticed how much stronger she felt, and how much easier it was for her to do things like pick up the correct lead without running into it.  By the end of our ride, my arm was a hair sore, but I couldn't wait to get back in the saddle.  I texted Trainer as soon as I was done to see if the 5:15 Monday lesson (one of my usual lessons before health issues disrupted my life) had enough space for me and Spring.  And, as those of you who follow me on Instagram may already know, it did!

best mare. 

Monday's lesson involved coursework, which doesn't happen very often at CEC - Trainer typically prefers to do an assortment of exercises that focus on various things rather than having us school courses.  So when it does happen, it's pretty exciting and fun - and as far as we know, it was Spring's first time going through a course.  

my equitation is not quite where it was 3 months ago...

Spring warmed up nicely - we had a few baby horse moments of head flinging and drifting sideways, but she stayed pretty quiet for the flatwork part of the lesson.  I managed to survive 90% of the no-stirrups work, and held myself in two-point for longer than I thought I would be able to.  ((At this point, I have ridden roughly 10 times (only 4 of them over fences) since having abdominal surgery at the end of June)).  

Spring was pretty excited about the whole jumping part of the lesson, but she felt significantly straighter and much more powerful than she did the last time that I rode her.  I focused on staying out of her way over the fences; she's still pretty green to jumping, so her takeoff spots were a little unpredictable, and did my best to stay out of her face when she got fast, while still trying to keep her balanced between jumps.

jomps

Some of the jumps were a bit higher than what Spring has been used to - in the 2'6 to 2'9 range - and it did intimidate her a little bit at first.  We jumped a single vertical over flower boxes, and she stared at it but (awkwardly) cleared it.  We then approached the green gate pictured above, and she drifted sideways like she was considering ducking out; I added leg and she slammed on the brakes.  Unconcerned, I tried to steer her away from the jump, planning to circle back to it - it was probably the highest jump of the course, and somewhat intimidating in that it was a gate rather than a pole.  Spring, however, was having none of that - instead of listening to me and going around the jump, she leaped over the damn thing from a standstill.

first time over the coop!

After jumping the gate several more times to make sure she realized that she could, in fact, jump it without mishap beforehand, we took a break from the bigger stuff/tighter turns of the course that everyone else was doing, and worked on our own more hunter-style course, which calmed the baby's brain back down.  We ended the lesson by jumping the ~terrifying~ orange coop - which took a few attempts, but was conquered in the end!

we also conquered the blue tarp this week!

Despite a few mishaps and several refusals, I felt that this was a really excellent first lesson back.  It was my second time jumping Spring outside of the time that I tried her, and it went pretty smoothly considering how out of shape I am and how new jumping still is to her.  I had a blast, and ended the lesson looking forward to the next time that I would get to ride her.

I'm beyond thrilled to be back in the saddle, and hopefully will be riding as much as possible to get myself back into shape!  Spring is a ridiculously neat little mare, and I am so excited about what the future has in store for us!