wed lesson

On Wednesday, I had a jumping lesson. It was so much fun! I’m always nervous before I jump (“Oh, gee wiz, that’s a scary thing to do!”) but once I jump once, I’m fine.

My course was the red jump (2’ 9” courses all the time now, by the way – see previous entries), rollback to the coop, to the outside yellow, sharp right turn, up to the green, to the diagonal line, coop to the other yellow.

Tonka was so naughty! It was fun, though, because I was very in control even when he wasn’t listening – I could turn him in a tight circle to make him stop, which I never think to do, I sawed slowly back and forth on the left and right reins – the only thing that’s effective – instead of jerking them really fast, which just annoys him and wiggles his mouth (he doesn’t feel any real tug) or just yanking back all at once, which makes him speed up and makes him mad.

The rollback was fast/bad the first four times, I think, then awesome the rest of the course. Then on the outside he cut in sharply right afterwards, to, like, the center, instead of going around the corner to the green like I asked him to. One time, he even took off barrel-racing around the other yellow’s standard, farted (bad sign with Tonka! *laughs*), did a tiny buck, and then stopped. After a while, I trained him out of it, which was so much fun! I love it when he’s bad like that. It’s… different, somehow. The sharp angles make it more fun? I don’t know.

Eventually, though, I got the whole course done collected and slow, while he paid attention. He jumped really badly, but we didn’t want to work him too much, so even though he jumped sloppily, we let him stop.

It was my favorite jumping lesson I’ve had in a while. Hopefully my next one is like it!

I would elaborate more on the rest of the course and lesson, but my mom’s been telling me to get off – I just wanted to post this first. Going on a field trip in the morning. Happy Valentine’s Day!

written from my laptop, finished 10 23 PM [Thurs, Feb. 12, 2009]