Falling in Love With Gem All Over Again: Jumping

Gem earned a walk break after all the canter work. I let her meander around a bit as Trainer set up an exercise for us.

First up was the above: 4 ground poles through jump standards with no jump. She was nice and picked ones with a center stripe to help me be centered.

The first pass through we just walked and um…well I didn’t steer at all and we weaved through them like a drunk sailor and it was embarrassing. I’m not even sure what happened. Gem didn’t hesitate. I wasn’t nervous. I just didn’t ride. Ooops.

Second time through I actually rode and did my best to keep her between my legs. I really am not particularly good with the whole straight thing. I think I’m going straight, but then I see my tracks in the footing and it is really bad.

Anyway…once we went over it in each direction at the walk we picked up a nice, even trot and got busy trotting over them. Steering was much better and Gem can handle trot poles like a pro. Trainer liked what she saw enough to add a small cross rail (no clue the size but I think it was set to 18″ or maybe 2′) at the end.

This kinda blew Gem’s mind. She was so focused on the ground poles, that the jump just snuck up on her and she freaked. She went over and Trainer was really pleased that she responded with a yes answer, but she wasn’t liking it and it was too much. Trainer then removed the ground poles and left a placing pole and we did it again.

This time Gem focused on the jump and we went over it without much issue. But then the wheels fell off because….da da da…I stopped riding …again.

It was like I was so focused on keeping Gem straight to the jump, sinking my heel down and keeping my leg on to get her over the jump that I just didn’t really know what to do with myself after and we just kinda skidded around and did whatever on the other side.

Gem really isn’t much into jumping and she counts any hesitation on my part as a good excuse to just not do it. She is the queen of dirty stops and run outs. I’ve learned to really sink my heels down, look up and away from the jump and push her on. All that takes all my concentration and then I apparently like to celebrate the fact that I didn’t die and actually went over the jump with my horse instead of on my own.

This made Trainer not so happy, so we worked hard on me continuing to ride after the jump and keeping Gem straight afterward.

We came at it again, but this time I had to go straight after the jump and finish riding it. It went much better and Gem was a really good girl through out. While the mare HATES leg during flat work, it takes a crap ton of it to get her over a jump and I had to remind myself to use more leg, more leg, more leg.

Trainer dropped the first cross rail and added a second one to the middle jump standards allowing Gem time to get used to a new placement. She kept the original placing pole and dropped the two rails from the cross rail on the ground between that standard, so we had to go over one pole, two poles next to each other and then the jump. Gem was not happy with this. The first placing pole was no issue, but she really did not like how wide the two together were and was staring at that so hard that she never saw the jump. Once we were over the poles she was smack up against the jump and had to go from nearly a stand still. More leg, more leg!!

Once we didn’t completely mess that up, she raised the first cross rail back again and we were told that once we did that right we were done. I went into the exercise with as much leg as I could, sank my heels down and told Gem she was a really good girl. By this time she had gotten used to the first cross rail and went over no problem, but the did hesitate at the second. She went over though and cantered away. Somehow we managed it the first time and that was it.

Lesson of the century, over.

I was so happy with Gem. As soon as we went a few canter strides straight way from the jump I leaned forward and gave her a massive hug. I’m sure the little pony clubber having her 3’3″ lesson after me thought I was crazy for acting like I just won the Olympics having completed two cross rails, but it felt huge to me.

Trainer laughed saying that Gem gave the horse equivalent of an eye roll and looked like a teenager just embarrassed by her mom. I don’t care. I know she secretly loves it.

I was a little anxious untacking her to see what the saddle had done. I wasn’t 100% sure of the fit and with all the canter and jump work, if it was going to slide around it would have. I was happy to see that it was exactly where I had placed it to girth up. All previous jump saddles have ended up on her neck after that much canter work. When it was all off, she had perfectly smooth hair all around and no sore spots. After an hour of hard work, something would have been tender had it not fit well. I think it is a keeper!

What Went Well:

• We jumped a jump, I stayed on and nobody died.
• I wasn’t nervous. First time ever jumping without a knot in my stomach
• Trainer complemented Gem on her brain here. She said one time she thought Gem was going to add an extra stride in to make the jump , but instead she just lengthened her stride to make it happen. Really smart horse. If she didn’t hate jumping so much, she might actually be really, really good at it.
• I kept my position, didn’t get jumped out of the tack even when she superman launched or chipped in really bad and didn’t catch her in the mouth (if it hasn’t been apparent this is one of my biggest jumping fears – nailing my poor horse  hard in the mouth)

What We Need to Work On:

• Riding. Like…really riding. I already know with Gem that she will not go over anything without a superhuman amount of leg, so I don’t stop riding before a jump, but I tend to completely quit right after. No more of that.
• Ride straight away from the jump. We aren’t advanced and working on angled jumps or big courses, so I need to ride straight away from it.
• My approach kinda sucked. I either turned her way too early or too late. I eventually got it right, but it needn’t have taken me so long.
• More leg. Always more leg.