I mean, why yes, he is hella adorable. We took him to his first jumping show a few weeks ago and he was a blast. I get to take him cross country schooling next Saturday so I'm super excited! Unfortunately, he's for sale. :( But until then he's adorable and I loves him.
But he hasn't quite figured out yet about landing on the correct lead off of a jump, and Wednesday we were working on that. He naturally likes to pick up the left lead, so we were schooling a cross rail in a circle to the right, trying to keep him bent correctly up to and over and after the jump.
Well, that's a whole lot harder than it sounds. Especially because, probably due to my equestrian/hunter background, I have a tendency to either a) just perch and look pretty or b) worry so much about my position being technically correct that I become too tense and then I actually get knocked out of position because my body doesn't "flow" with the horse. [My old instructor use to tell me it was like a door hinge; if you were too tight, you couldn't move properly, and if you were too loose, you couldn't move properly. You needed the right amount of strength and giving. Of course, easier said than done.]
Point being; sometimes my desire to just look so damn perfectly pretty and correct on a horse gets in my way. Okay, no, actually, it always gets in my way. I'm a perfectionist, but sometimes I'm so worried about LOOKING good I forget to actually RIDE. So after about the third time of jumping this damn jump and not getting the right lead (but hey, I look so pretty over the jump, right??.... which of course means nothing if you're not EFFECTIVE!) I finally gritted my teeth, sat up a little taller, actually put my inside leg on and kept it there (I have a horrible habit of letting my leg pressure loosen up right before a jump) and was giving with my reins but firm, and lo and behold, we actually kept a bend, jumped the jump, and got a right lead three times in the row. Now did I look like a little hunter princess over the jump? No. But the horse said "oh yeah okay THIS I get it!" because I had to over exaggerate just a bit to show him what I really wanted. As he gets it more, of course, the goal is to lessen and lessen the exaggeration until the cues are invisible.
Well, its a start. :)
Oh, and did I mention, he's adorable?!?!
"yay you came to feed me!"
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