For the Love of Ground Poles

My barn has a strict no jumping outside of lessons policy. This is largely due to the fact that several years ago, someone was jumping on her own, fell badly, and broke her arm. Since then, there had been a moratorium on jumping -- even the trainers almost never jump outside of lessons, and if they do they make sure that other people are around.  The rule has been in place since before I started riding at CEC, so I'm pretty used to it, but this week it was a little frustrating because I really wanted to work on rebuilding my confidence over fences after my fall last Friday.

Ready to rock

In my lesson on Monday, it quickly became clear that my confidence has been completely shattered. We were working on another 2'6-2'9 course, filled with tight rollbacks and bending lines. Thankfully, the barrels didn't make the cut this time, but there was a coop that Leo had never seen before. Anyways. I was pretty much paralyzed with fear at the start. Like, in tears, shaking, telling Assistant Trainer L (who was riding in the lesson - Trainer K was teaching) that I couldn't do it, that Leo would refuse everything, that I was afraid to fall again (THANK GOD it was almost dark at this point so no one else really witnessed this). Ugh. She gave me a pep talk, and then Trainer K gave me a pep talk, and then I attempted to make my horse jump the jumps. (I would like to note that this is not normal for me after a fall - usually I recover the same lesson, and laugh it off .. this was the worst fall I've had in years)

It didn't go well. I was low key twitching the reins last second, not exactly telling him to dive out, but absolutely doing nothing to encourage him to go over. I went in with the mindset of "I can't do this," and that is exactly what I got on 3-4 of the fences. Then we'd circle back around and do it again, breaking things down to single jumps, and it was fine. Everything was eventually jumped. Then there was waiting, while everyone else did their jumps, and then it was my turn again. This time, Trainer K gave me a sort of pep talk / sort of you need to stop stewing in your head and jump the jumps, lady talk, and we started again. This time, I was able to ride more proactively, and aside from the coop (it was really dark at this point and the coop issue was at least not entirely my ineptitude) we got over everything on the first try. Then Trainer K had us ride a circle over the coop 87 million (3-4) times until it was a non-issue. And then we were done. 

Over it.

So. How does one work on repairing confidence over fences when one cannot afford daily lessons and cannot jump outside of them? Ground poles.

It kind of looks like a mini desert out there right now.

I spent two rides this week knocking the course from Monday down to ground poles and then riding it - isolated parts and as a whole - until we could canter the whole thing and nail the turns and striding every time. Leo tends to treat ground poles like actual jumps, so the pacing and air time were actually still there for most of both rides, which was both hilarious and helpful. Oh, and by the end of yesterday's ride we were able to stay pretty collected and consistent throughout the whole thing, which is kind of a big deal.

Crazy hair.

I was planning to ride Leo in my lesson tonight, but since I last minute signed up to share a second horse in the show next weekend, Trainer K has pointed out that I should probably lesson on her at least twice before then, so today will probably be a ground work day for Leo. (He is still going to the show, I just wanted to ride in an upper division and since he isn't ready, I'm riding a mare named Gracie, who is only going in one division). This is also probably going to be good for my confidence, as Gracie is a pretty solid mare and I trust her completely. 

Last time I ride Gracie

So, my next time jumping Leo will be on Monday. Hopefully the ground pole practice, the lesson on Gracie, and a day or two off this weekend will have helped by then to restore most of what I lost in the fall last week. 

Yesterday ended with revisiting the scene