Cob Jockey

First of all, great news!  The other girl's new CWD shipped from France yesterday, which means I should have mine by next Sunday.  Can't come soon enough, I am READY!

Second of all, more great news, we had a killer jump lesson tonight.  We did a 2ft bounce!  (in a saddle, I don't have that much of a death wish)

She had me borrow the male teammate's saddle again, which is not a Vega as I thought, but actually an Amerigo Pinerolo Monoflap Event saddle.  Like this, but in black:

That saddle, I tell you what, my leg has never been more stable over a jump.  And it paid off handsomely in today's lesson, which consisted of a line like this:

Line went in either direction, with an oxer on the other side.  Bold lines are fences, skinny lines are placing poles.

Over the line, it felt like I just stayed up with leg on and let him jump underneath me, and he did a damn good job of it.  My trainer said it looks like he's able to go on autopilot now, meaning I don't have to micromanage him over things like that.  It's a good thing, because he's taking responsibility for himself.

Over the oxer, though, he proved that he still needed some help from me.  I had what she called a 'masterful ride' over it, where I saw that the distance would be long and moved him up with leg.  She said she was pleased with the way he responded to me, but eventually she'd like him to make that call on his own.  One thing at a time.

At the end, she raised the second element of the bounce to 2ft, and it rode spectacularly well.  For a 14hh pony whose biggest issues jumping have been 1) not being comfortable taking off close to a fence (and by close I mean 'not long') and 2) not being able to rotate his scapula back fast enough to get his shoulders out of the way, it's a huge deal for that to ride that smoothly.

Finally, she had us do this, and finish up riding the middle jump diagonally through a very small gap:


The gap between the pile of stuff and the jump standard was only about 4 or 5 feet.  She said she wanted him to trust the line I put him on, even if it looked scary.  The first time through, he did a little bit of side to side wavering, so slight I was almost the only one that noticed.  The second time through this exercise he was foot perfect - leads, confidence and all.  My trainer was glowing.

It's good to know that we have only improved in jumping, even without a saddle.  She says it's all the adjustability-in-the-canter work we've been doing, and the fact that he's so strong now, even the deep and shifty indoor footing isn't as much of a problem for him as it has been in previous winters.

Jumping is fun.