Jumping Big

Well we had lessons this week with Danny and they went really, really well. Hobbs and I were jumping 3'9" plus...and it felt great!!! I'm really learning him and we are definitely working better as a team. I can now tell when he's going to leave out a stride and I'm starting to trust him when we get close...I've always been a fan of the long spot, but I can only get away with that for so long. When we do get in tight I need to train myself to support him with my legs...I end up just releasing my hands, legs, etc. so that he can jump and I'm not in his way...but it doesn't provide him with the support he needs to get up and over smoothly...and we end up with a pop up over the jumps. I still revert to leaning at him as well with my upper body, but I was quick to fix that, so hopefully I've trained my brain enough to stop that.

Seth and Legacy had a great lesson as well. Danny tied Seth's stirrups to the girth and it did wonders for his leg position. He naturally has a very nice seat and his hands have gotten so much quieter that now it's on to fixing his leg position. He tends to put his feet forward like a cowboy, so he'll ride with the stirrups tied for awhile and see what that does. He still tends to put too much weight on his right pinky toe instead of evenly distributing his weight in the stirrup. He has to continually try and turn his right foot out to get the right position. He's really starting to get the feel of Legacy's mouth and connection is developing. It's exciting to see them progress. He jumped him 2'9" and it looked so easy...Legacy was really honest...he was trying to take advantage of Seth and duck down, but it got better and better. Seth will have to learn to bump him up when he tries to duck down. Right now he's setting against his mouth and not using his body, seat and legs enough to have Legacy carry himself. Unfortunately, you have to work pretty hard for Legacy to not lean on you, so it will take Seth awhile to get that feel. For now, at Novice it won't make too much of a difference.

We took both of them to Dr. Anderson this week as well. Hobbs showed some signs of hock issues and got some accupuncture. Dr. Anderson thinks we will need to have him injected before I go Prelim. He also had some reaction with the left front, but she thought that was secondary due to his hocks. Not too bad, similar maintenance to what we did with Legacy. Legacy showed no signs of anything...that was the first time ever. So he seems happy and healthy and his new job is agreeing with him.

We've got Waredaca and MD Starter HT this weekend so we'll see how it goes...