Sunday, November 2, 2008

Jumping Lesson

During the fall and winter, Anne has group jumping lessons for her students on Sundays. This Sunday was the first one that I was able to attend. It was a big group- eight riders of varying skill level. Jack and I have come a long way from last winter, and it is always fun to cheer everyone else on as we do the courses Anne sets up.

The day started out pouring rain, so I wasn't sure how fun it would be to jump outside. Fortunately the sun came out right before we started, but the clouds rolled in at the end of the lesson and we got SOAKED!

Here's most of the group basking in the sun. I just love everyone at Stoneybrook!


My sister, Megan, took some videos of me and Jack. It is so nice to have an audience ;-) I will have to post one of our best rounds later. Blogger is being uncooperative right now. Jack did not pull once on me like he used to. I have gotten much better about relaxing my arms and not giving him as much resistance to lean on. We had a couple jumps that were so smooth. During the lesson I said, "When everything comes together, it's like magic!" Dave took this picture of me and Jack.



Unfortunately on top of being soaked at the end of the lesson, Jack dumped me in a mud puddle on the way back up to the barn! I think it was a combination of a huge puddle in front of the gate and the really loud drumming of rain on the barn roof that spooked him. He flew off to the right, and I flew off to the left! It's funny that I didn't fall off while jumping, but fell off on the way back to the barn! Oh well, I got a good reminder for why you can't ever get lazy when you're on a horse!

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