Put your hands together for... jumping!

In my jump lesson this week, I worked on keeping my hands together and my heels down. I started with ground poles and worked my way up to the brown, log and baby brick jumps. I should go measure them, but they are all solid and probably around 18". It was also my first time jumping the log so there was a bit of mental anxiety I had to get over. I know my horse has longed over it with my trainer but it seemed scarier then the other solid jumps.

But Sam was moving nicely, no rushing on the smaller jumps so my confidence was increasing. I decided to just let him jump and I'll just be a passenger today. Ok, that's most of the time. We trot the brown, figure 8 back around to the baby brick, trot again and he chips and tags his back hooves on the top. His neck was immediately in my face, but low and behold, my HANDS were also in my face and pressed right off neck, sitting me immediately up. YAY! I circle around the log, and quickly regain composure as Sam was being good and quiet. Then we trot the log (scary!) and all is well there too. We canter down the long side of the arena and he is listening very well and easily comes back down to trot. More yay!

Jumped the green log jump, brown jump less green rail & baby red brick less red rail.

We do the same sequence in the opposite direction and over one of the jumps, I can't even remember which one now, my HANDS save me again! Again they appear at eye level and I pushed off Sam's neck. And because I was also thinking about my heels down OVER the jump, my legs were already in good position so my recovery was immediate. WOOT! I get kudos from my trainer. If I had ever questioned riding with my hands together (I didn't) then this day was a lesson learned.

Bonus that is was on and off drizzling on us. AND I rode in my regular hunter schooling bridle. No flash, no new bit. :D

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