A little rest

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of events in my life. I only got to ride once last week. My horse was long-lined on Saturday while I was out of town and then I just tinkered around bareback (with my new Parelli pad) last night after a long flight home.

So when I got to the barn this morning for my jump lesson, I lunged Sam around the round pen for good measure. It was only for about 10 mins and he was mostly well-behaved. The best part was that I accidentally dropped the line while he was trotting and because I happened to bend over in the direction of his haunches, he stopped and faced me like he's been taught to do when I lean and look to his rear. :D  Good boy!

I tacked up and did some leg-yields at the walk. We moved up to trot 2 sets of ground poles, one with 4 and one with 3 spaced a little further apart. His trot was very bouncy but calm. After a few times through, he was being very thoughtful about his feet. So then we added a circle after the rails and a single small jump. Again, good boy. After we did that both directions, we added a jump at the end of the ground poles. Just past half way through, he noticed the jump and cleared it nicely with a controlled canter afterwards. :)

More of the same with a few more jumps and in the last round, he was even being a bit lazy over the original little jump, banging the pvc poles. Hmmm...summer-time Sam. :D

I worked on sinking deep in my heels and when he chipped one time, I just focused on sinking, sinking. My hands would touch his neck from time to time, but nothing that saved my skin thanks to my balanced upper body.

Sometimes a little time off makes the most progress.